The End of this BYU Road

One month since graduation, and I am already feeling nostalgic. After all those days on campus, this BYU road is over. At least for now. In memory of our lovely alma mater, here are some of my BYU favorites: 

Campus in the spring. The laid-back, flower-laden version of campus.

BYU mint brownies from Sugar N Spice. Creamery ice cream. The Graham Canyon flavor.  

The Christmas trees that go up in December, making finals studying just a little more bearable.

Whoever designed the layout of the HFAC. Not.  

Cecil O. Samuelson. Need I say more. Whoosh.

The river pathway with waterfalls behind south campus in the fall. Sunday walks.

Random events at Brigham Square. The karaoke? Made my lunch time.

When the statues are covered in saran wrap for game days.

Cosmo. Batman Cosmo. Superman Cosmo. Every kind of Cosmo.

The ducks, who were oblivious to the crowds of students, and made campus their home anyway.

The LIGHTS OUT pre-basketball-game show.

The chiming of the bell tower. This will always be in my memory, from all the times I was late and running to class.

The RB stairs of doom.

Freezing football games.

Glenwood 72. That whole year and everyone in it. Apartment Dance Parties. Apartment “Ghost.” Oh, and meeting Bryan of course.

Hiking the Y. Lighting the Y. Loving the Y lit for homecoming.

Ringing the victory bell after turning in my final thesis.

My roommates. My graduate cohort.

And that is only scratching the surface. I could go on with favorites for days, but it’s time for some GRADUATION NEWS.

Bryan graduated in April with his BA in Political Science. I finished in December with my MS in Communication Disorders. We feel so grateful for all of our family who came to support us at graduation. So maybe Bryan slept through it, but all in all it was a great and memorable experience. Here comes picture city.

Photo credit: My lovely mother, my super sister, and Bryan's fantastic parents.

The D.C. Days. Looking Back

Confession. Most of my time online lately has been spent here and here - and this is me finally getting around to posting about our four months in DC with some more photos. With some updates on the layout of this blog as well. HTML and web design for me is sllloowww going. After all this time mulling around with it, can I just be pro yet? Great.

With only about one month since the DC Days officially ended, it already feels like some kind of dream. Did we really live there? In the capital city? These pictures and snippets from my journal--these have to be some kind of proof. I'll admit I took over a thousand pictures in less than four months in DC. Don't worry, I'm not uploading them all. But here we go.

Bryan interned at the National Consortium for the study of terrorism and responses to terrorism: START.

After a grueling and disappointing job search, I settled in with the SPARKS Group to do therapy with the world's most rambunctious preschooler.

But before we hit the "office" we had almost three weeks to be tourists in our new city and see all we could see. And we did. 

Our favorites: The Library of Congress (Thomas Jefferson's Library). The White House. The National Zoo. The Capitol Building. Valley Forge. Philadelphia. Arlington Cemetery. Mount Vernon (George Washington's estate). M Street at sunset. Gelato from Union Station. Doughnuts from Eastern Market. The DC temple. The Georgetown waterfront. The cherry blossoms. Okay, take me back now please.

Home: Our little apartment in Foggy Bottom. The Barlow Center, sandwiched between GW and Georgetown universities, just a hop down from the richly decked M Street, and a short jaunt from the watergate complex along the Potomac river. Stuck between two noisy and animated bars, it also serves as the LDS public affairs office in DC. Our upper corner studio had a window looking out onto Pennsylvania Avenue, the President's street. We watched the sun stream through those windows, and the snow fall--and when it did, we watched the city shut down. Snow days! We watched the presidential procession of screaming police cars and hummer limos race by on a few occasions, and we joked that maybe the president needed his Dunkin Donuts from Georgetown, and simply could not wait.

 

   I had a secret plan for my last day in Washington, to take Bryan down to the tidal basin and paddle a boat out under the blossoming cherry trees, so we could leisurely savor the long-awaited spring. The boat portion didn't pan out, due to some hardly noticeable wind (I guess they can't be too careful?), but we did have our stroll around the basin in what was absolute spring paradise. I've noticed during this DC chapter that pictures don't really quite capture the moments, but can attempt to unlock those memories in our minds where they are stored. And I reeeally tried to store this one, this cherry blossom festival business. Walking along the water hand in hand with my best friend, stopping to snap photos where water-gracing branches picture-framed monuments, ducking around to avoid little floods of water onto the sidewalk, obliging to take photos for happy couples and tired families. This was living.

I love Washington DC. It found its way into my heart, just in time to fly away to something new. The fifteen minute walk to the White House, the Lincoln Memorial, the Tidal Basin, twenty-five minute walk to the National Mall lined with Smithsonians and terminating in the Capitol building itself--this I called home. This rich spread of busy diversity and bustling patriotism. I am changed because I lived there. I flew back different than when I flew in. 

Of course I feel more American. I feel more responsible and accountable to "take up my post" as an American citizen.

But even more than that, I feel at ONE-ment with this ocean of people, since being swallowed up in it every day on my way to therapy sessions. I know what it feels like to be the one who is different, the black sheep in the expanse of white ewes, and then come to accept that I am not really so different at all, but one of the multifaceted sides of humanity where everyone has a place. I have seen joy and pain, service and indifference while navigating the city on these diverse buses. I have stood intersecting true social issues at their ground zero on the metro and on the street, and I am different for this -- stronger, more determined, more accepting.

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I am so proud of Bryan for pursuing his dream to live and work in Washington. We couldn't have asked for a better experience to conclude our time at Brigham Young University. 

So, now to convince him to do a graduate program at one of the above mentioned universities so we end up there again. Perfect. See you again soon, DC.