Learning "and stuff"

Well. Here we are. It's practically the first day of school. Again. Funny how it always seems to happen every year isn't it? Honestly I don't like school very much. I love learning and being with my friends, but I hate the rest of it. The crowds, the grades, the homework etc. However, for some reason, my parents still "expect me to go to school" and "do my best" and "have a successful future." It's whatever. Since I'm being forced to go, along with the rest of you, I figured I might as well share my sage words of wisdom that I've acquired in my 12 years of schooling.

1. Go to class. This may seem obvious, but it takes a lot of self-motivation to get myself there. (Staying in class once you get there however is a different story. I can spend 20 minutes going to the bathroom if needed.)
2. BE SO FRICKIN PROUD OF YOUR SCHOOL THAT YOU GET EMOTIONAL THINKING ABOUT LEAVING IT EVEN THOUGH YOU'RE ONLY A SOPHOMORE. Seriously. Go to football games, basketball games, musicals, spirit bowls, anything your school provides you gotta show your face at. And learn the words to the fight song. I mean honestly. It's like singing the star-spangled banner for the President.
3. It's ok to leave for lunch. Treat yo self to that sandwich you've been craving, or even just a frosty. Yes I understand that our options are limited. But at least you're not sitting in the lunchroom every day.
4. Learn to spell the grade you're in. Yes I know how hard sophomore is to spell. If it were up to me it would be 'softmore' but some guy thought it would be hilarious to mess with your brain a little.
5. Remember peoples names and USE THEM. (s/o to Rachael.) Not only does it make people feel important, but it also makes you seem nicer when you ask for a piece of gum.
6. Speaking of gum: GIVE IT FREELY MY FRIENDS. After doing some math, I have come to this conclusion. If a pack of gum is around $1.69 at the gas station, and there are 12 pieces in each pack, that makes one piece of gum 14 cents. So you can be the biggest jerk in school and charge people 14 cents for a piece of gum or you can just suck it up and give it out. Throw it off the balcony. Bless peoples lives.
7. Talk to people. Sometimes the person you least expect can be one of your best friends if you give them a chance. For example. In seminary this year I was put right in the middle of a class full of strangers. I literally had never even seen any of them this year. But I figured that the Gospel is the same no matter who you learn it with and I decided to talk to them. Even though the first boy I sat by offered me a drink from his water bottle (which I politely declined) I soon found out that he was actually way cool. He was a dancer, could play the harmonica and had a really catchy laugh. I discovered that everyone in that class was just a friend waiting to be found. I also met the great love of my life in that class although he's homeschooled so I most likely will never see him again.
8. Don't give a frick frack about boys. (Or girls.) Ladies, you absolutely definitely DO NOT need a boy to make your high school experience complete. They're fun for a minute but after that it's all drama and stress and frankly none of it is worth it. At least not now. If you already have a boy consider yourself lucky. If not don't waste a single thought over it. Besides, being single is fun. Really. It is. Right?
9. Join clubs. Unfortunately I have a job that doesn't leave me any time to join anything. But last year I dragged Rachael along with me to math club and tried valiantly to get others to come with. Now I know you're probably thinking, "But Grace, math club? Could you have chosen anything less exciting?" in response I say, "No. It was pretty bad. But it also wasn't. I mean yes it was math that I was choosing to do voluntarily, but the kids were pretty nice and I got a lot of free food out of it. The point is to just join something. Colleges dig that. Or so I've heard."
10. If you wake up one morning and you can just feel that it's going to be a bad day, it's ok. It's perfectly fine to let yourself wallow in self pity for a while. If worst comes to worst, just text your mom and get the heck outta there. Not doing this has led to me crying in the hallway after school feeling like death and probably looking like it too. It's fine though. That's why you surround yourself with cool friends who don't mind witnessing small breakdowns every once in a while. Related: If you feel like wearing sweat pants to school, just do it. Everyone will just be wishing they had done it too.
11. Pack a lunch from home. This way you don't waste precious time standing in the lunch line getting the same old boring food each day. But if you do get school lunch be so so nice to the lunch ladies. They have the power to do anything they want to your food if you cross them.
12. APPRECIATE THE DAYS YOU WATCH MOVIES IN CLASS. This is a perfect time to nap, do homework, or draw pictures.
13. Bring a notebook dedicated solely to drawing pictures and writing poems. This way you don't fill up your math notebook with doodles and tic tac toe games. It saves everyone the trouble of buying a new book 2 months into school. (Sorry mom.) Besides then you have all these awesome pictures and stuff to look at later.
14. Remember peoples birthdays gosh dangit. I firmly believe that birthdays are the happiest day of the whole year whether they're mine or not. They're a perfect opportunity to embarrass your friends with funny hats and the happy birthday song 4 times at lunch. And you also get to write a rockin card and buy candy for someone else. So. It's a win-win I guess. But really I have a list of every person I know and their birthday+what they like to eat or do or whatever so I'm guaranteed to get a good present for them. ALSO this puts them in debt to you so you get a present on your birthday as well. (If you would like me to be the first person on YOUR birthday list, my birthday is December 21 and I like pink laffy taffy's and life savers. You're welcome.)
15. Go to the dances yo. You can't find a better room full of sweaty teenagers dancing to overplayed music anywhere else. Plus they're just fun. And the corsages are so so pretty and I would wear them all the time if it wasn't frowned upon. Oh- add that to my birthday list please.
16. Sometimes your best friends will go on vacation for several weeks at a time several times in the year and leave you alone. DO NOT PANIC. Just try not to let your other friends see how close you are to a breakdown. Then beg your traitorous friend to bring you a postcard. Anything. You deserve it.
17. Don't sweat it if your school turns ghetto in a major way. Bomb threats and bathroom fires are no big deal. It just means less time in school and that's what everyone wants anyway.
18. Make time to do nothing. Whether this means watching Netflix (I suggest the following: How I Met Your Mother, Glee, Psych, Chuck, Parks and Rec, even Teen Beach Movie if the day has really sucked.) or just laying on your bed, or taking a 30 minute shower. It's ok to put off your homework for one day. It's not the end of the world.

Basically if you look at high school with a very chill attitude you'll be fine. Better than. Just look ahead to graduation and remember that one day you'll wish you were back in high school. Or so I've heard.

The Happiness Revolution

This world is a big scary place. It's full of confused people making the wrong decisions and good people trying to fix everyone else's mistakes. It can be hard to keep your focus on what's important. But there are happy moments too, happening all around us every day, if we can find them. Because music never hurts, here are some happy songs to listen to while reading. Or just while living really.

Never Fully Dressed

Sound of Sunshine

Hey Mama

The Calculation

The Heart of Life

Goodnight Goodbye

Tell the World

All Will Be Well

Everything's Okay

Turnin 

Here are 45 of my best beautiful and happy moments:

1. Girls Camp every year. This year we got to hear from Sister Elaine Dalton who was amazing.

2. The time that me and Rachael threw Bryson a surprise half birthday party/jello fight and everyone was sticky and smiling by the end.

3. The time that I went to a comedy show and they called me up onstage to sing me a song they made up on the spot. Also the day I got my Waffle Love hat.

4. The time that me and Audrey tried face masks and it ended up looking like we were puked on instead. 

 5. The time it was Marens first Christmas and she was adorable and bald and so smiley.

 6/7. The time I pretended to be a scarecrow after church and it was so bright. Please notice the bottle of nail polish tucked in my skirt that I won in Young Women that day.

Then there was also Halloween where I dressed up as a real scarecrow and I had to smile all day because if I didn't I look possessed and murderous.

8. The time I finally got my Young Women medallion and everyone was so nice to me that night and I got a sparkly necklace as a bonus.

9. The time that me and my mom wanted Culvers at 9:30 pm so we got Rachael and her mom and we went. Because YOLO. 

 10. The time that I went fishing (the ONLY time I've been fishing) and I didn't catch a fish but I did catch a frog and they're close enough. I wish me and Anna still wore matching clothes.

11. The time we were coming back from our road trip and this big bear was in a gas station in Denver begging to be hugged. We obviously couldn't deny a face like that, so I hugged it, trying not to think about the diseases surely riddling it's fur. 

12. The time we went to the Lehi Westlake football game and some stranger put a handprint on my face and I wanted to cry I felt so patriotic to my school. We crushed it thanks to my friend Nate who kicked the winning goal. In the middle of the game however we left and went to Macey's for ice cream which was also pretty good.

 13. The time I got a perm in Kindergarten and it looked pretty good as far as perms go.

14. The time I met this really friendly dog, and immediately became best friends with it after assuring myself it did not have rabies. It knew how to shake hands, and what kind of dog with rabies knows that?

15. The time I got my favorite dessert with one of my favorite people and it was so so good. 

16. The time I had to go to the Dentist and get 8 teeth pulled on one day so I could eventually get braces. That hasn't happened yet btw. My mouth was so numb from the 4 shots I got that I couldn't smile and I spent the whole ride home punching myself in the face. It took 3 tooth necklaces to hold all of them, but I DID get $20 from the tooth fairy. (Side note, I recently got my first cavity and cried all the way home.)

17. The time Aubrie gave me a super sick mohawk made of buns and I ate a pinecone because I WAS AND ALWAYS AM SO HUNGRY. Sorry bout it. 

18. The time I "went to the bathroom" during class but really just went in there to take pictures of myself trying to be a dancer. Then I washed my hands three times and used the hand dryer until my hands were actually dry just to waste time. Stay in school kids.

19. The time I went to the Pentatonix concert with Savvy and we sang every word and screamed just to try and lose our voices. That didn't happen but the concert was still cool. Even the old people we were surrounded with knew how to jam.

20. The time that I found this teeny tiny baby kitten all by itself in the park and took care of it for a couple of nights before I had to take it to a pet store. It fit in my hand and could sleep across my chest and I fell in love with it. I did cry when I dropped it off because hello. You try raising a kitten and leaving it forever.

21. The time I went to Lava Hot Springs for Youth Conference and we floated the river over and over again and almost everyone fell in but I didn't. I managed to get 4 ice cream cones in the day and a half we were there and they were delicious and square.

22. The time I thought I was so cute modeling this moss covered rock. I think I put the dirt on my nose there on purpose. I do like the bandaids though, it shows I played outside a lot and that's good stuff. Happy kid stuff. And it was back in the days where for some reason I still rocked the velcro shoes. 

23. The time I was SHOT IN THE ARM. With a firework. But. It knocked my lemonade out of my hand which I was most upset about, but I had a nice welt and a cool gunpowder stain on my shirt which is still there. Along with a scar of a perfect circle which is basically the coolest scar you could possibly get. 

24. The time I danced like a maniac and didn't care at all. That really applies to most of my life, but this is the best picture I had of it. 

25. There was also the time I wasn't dancing like a maniac but I definitely looked like one. I can't even remember what the concept of this dance was, but it must have been spectacular considering they made me wear that weird sheep scarf and sequined leotard. 

26. While I'm thinking about it, there was also the time that I wore hideous amounts of makeup and pink camo which is the worst type. And that's saying something considering it's all awful. The lengths I went to to dance very mediocrely on a stage are astounding. 

 27. The time where it was so windy I couldn't see a thing, but luckily Ashley managed to get a picture of it.

 28. The time(s) I picked weeds and pretended like they were flowers.

 29. The time that I posed in front of a pink window and expected the world to care.

 30. The time me and my cousin singlehandedly (not at all) made this igloo which definitely measures up to eskimo ones.

31. The time me and my sisters tried box water which surprise! Tastes just like regular water!!

32. The time that I saw a red button under a plastic lid and had to push it. LITTLE DID I KNOW THAT IT WOULD START THE END OF THE WORLD. In reality it stopped the escalator and set off this very shrill and very annoying alarm. This is me running from my crime. 

33. The time I was still young enough to ride carousels without people giving me strange looks. I was as happy as that seal with the shell. 

34. The time we heart attacked a very deserving family in our ward and then got caught.

35. The time I taught Seegy how to make an owl face and looked sincerely unimpressed.

36. The time I summed up how I felt about high school in one picture. Once again: sincerely unimpressed.

37. The time I went to church in Idaho and there were big windows in the chapel looking out at these mountains and everything was just so pretty it was hard to pay attention to anything else.

38. The time I picked huckleberries in the middle of the mountains up there ^^ and my hands were stained purple. Also making huckleberry pies with my grandma and putting the rest on ice cream. Holy. So good. 

39. Getting pushed on the tire swing over the creek which is only 6 inches deep but is still makes my heart flutter thinking about flying off into it. 

40. Enjoying huckleberry (are you seeing a theme yet?) ice cream with Maren on the porch of a lodge built in 1906. 

41. The time little birds hatched in a nest in our flowerpot and looked like terrifying balls of fluff with beaks, yet managed to be so precious at the same time.

42. The time I went to Lagoon with Rachael and won a Kindle and went on the swings 5 times in a row just so we could try each color.

43. The time I did fake yoga poses on top of ancient red rocks in southern Utah. 

44. The time I played with a flashlight in the dark and my magician friend made it look like this:

45. The time I went to Carthage Jail and built up my testimony to massive heights and also made me wish I had a bonnet.

Happiness is a choice. It's not always the easiest choice, in fact it rarely is. But if I can take 3 hours to find 45 decent pictures of myself and write the stories that go with them, YOU CAN CHOOSE TO BE HAPPY. There are people who choose find happiness in places we don't, like One Direction or chocolate and that's cool too. You can't help it if people like chocolate (you can pray for them of course) but WHO CARES. LET'S JUST LIVE TOGETHER ON THIS SUPER RAD PLANET AND LOVE IT.