efy (part 1)

I've tried writing this post 1.2 million times.

That's definitely an exaggeration, but I have attempted over and over again to put the right words together to convey just how incredible my experience at EFY has been.

I've talked a lot about EFY on my blog ... I've been kind of obsessed with this program for the past 7 years. As I have gotten to have the EFY experience as a counselor this summer, my obsession has expanded and matured. EFY has always marked important life change decisions in my life, and the time that I spent as a counselor has been even more life changing.

A couple of the big life changes are as follows:

1. I am in the process of applying to be a teacher at the MTC.
2. I am transferring to school in Utah.
3. I am dating the most incredible human being.
4. I have felt my heart expand 150 sizes.

EFY has been quite the ride.

I'll expound later. I feel like I am at a loss for words - mostly because there is no way that I can adequately describe how I feel about EFY without the appropriate changes in voice inflection, arm waving, etc. But a wave of information and memories is coming. I promise.

you do you, girl

"You do you, girl."

After being in a foreign country for a while, coming home to the idiomatic phrases of English was a little jarring. I heard words like salty in contexts that I had never heard before. My siblings rattled these phrases off like nothing significant had changed in their language, but to me, it felt more foreign than Spanish.

I heard the phrase, "You do you, girl," so much. It was rather self-explanatory, so I didn't search it up on Urban Dictionary ... but I did wonder about how it applied to me in my life.

I should do me. I should be true to myself. But what on earth did that mean? I really didn't know the answer until recently.

College has been a huge eye opener to the possibilities and horizons that lay endlessly before me. With every day of learning and becoming more involved, I feel like this feeling of opportunity focuses in and intensifies itself. One of the amazing things that college has given me is curiosity and a passion for life-long learning.

For the longest time, I have felt this passion with little to direct it towards. I sporadically have jumped from interest to interest. All the while, I have felt like I was stuck between an ADHD of being overwhelmed by the many options of life and at the same time waiting for something meaningful to stick for longer than a couple of weeks.

However, as my studies have deepened, I have felt a deepening of my interests and direction. I find that all truth (spiritual and temporal) is connected, and I love to look for it. I now feel motivated by the things that are callings to me. I feel called by my church calling, but I also feel called by Spanish and learning everything I can about it. I feel called by being a mentor for the Disciple Leadership Conference, and I feel that same sense of calling from my job as EFY counselor. These callings have honed in on my sense of purpose and have thrown me onto an enjoyable and fulfilling path.

BYUI has been promoting something called P2B for the entire semester ... basically, from the posters that lined the halls I gathered that P2B was a hip conference for young professionals looking to learn networking. From the raffle prizes, bowling and Mario Kart tournaments, and rounds of putt-putt golf, I gathered that BYUI was really invested in the program and worried that this thing was going to flop. I passed by these things and refused to make eye contact with the people running the stands because I wanted nothing to do with it. If BYUI had to make such a fuss about this program, they were obviously trying to hide something fundamentally flawed about P2B.

The buzz continued, however. My friends were signing up by the dozens, either to get extra credit or because they were sucked in by the hype-tables. In solidarity and as a sense of duty to the school, I joined with them and bought a ticket. I kept my expectations pretty low, but I found that I was catching on to the hype. I wanted to participate in the Mario Kart competitions. I wanted to win the prizes. I was hooked.

The conference was AMAZING. Filled to the brim of life changing awesomeness. It was worth every cent of the 10 dollars I paid to go. I felt the Spirit SOOOO strongly as I was there. It whispered, "You're in the right place. Right now you are in the right place." As the speakers talked about finding passion and pairing it with success, I was stunned to realize that I have the remarkable blessing of KNOWING what my passion is, knowing the path that I'm on is acceptable to the Lord, and knowing what lights me up with the ability to move forward.

I am driven when challenges arise, when I have a chance to be an influence for good, when I feel needed, when I am given the chance to overcome my own weaknesses. I have learned and continue learning about who I am. And then I try to be true to those things that I discover. That is my passion.

I am who I am, and the atonement makes it possible for me to become more of the person that Heavenly Father sees me as every day.

So, I do me. And you do you, girl. When paired with Heavenly Father's guidance, it is so rewarding.

EFY interview

My father raised me on outside of the box thinking about businesses. As a result, I have never been much of a traditional job kind of girl. I never have applied for a job in my life. In fact, I have never even thought about applying for a job. It is not because I am lazy or afraid of hard work. Instead, I have chosen a job path that I have crafted for myself (with a lot of help from my parents and from Heavenly Father). I have my own cleaning business and have been working on investing my money in real estate. I donate plasma and scrape together scholarships to get by at school ... it isn't a conventional way to work and make money, but it works and I get by.

A picture from my first EFY ever (2009).

It has been my dream job for as long as I can remember; a goal that predates my goal to be a missionary or to be a college graduate. For the past seven years, I have aspired to be an EFY counselor. I have lived my life, breathed each breath, to be an EFY counselor. So, this past year, for the very first time, I applied for a job. It has been a really interesting process.

First of all, not applying for any jobs meant that I had no resume built up that I could give to EFY. I sat in front of a computer for hours last semester, trying to think of ways to phrase my talents and assets in a way that would make me sound like an eligible candidate for the position. When I got done with my resume and sent it in, I realized that I had put down things like, "Can eat a banana in 10 seconds" and other silly things ... without really giving it a second thought. I prayed that they would magically overlook any mistakes I had made in the resume and thought to myself, "if I get a second chance, I will prove to them that I am not a monkey minded child."

Luckily, I got a second chance. After a couple of weeks of waiting, I got an email in the mail that said I had made it to the next round of the hiring process. It was now time for me to do an interview through an app. Basically, this app allowed me a minute to prepare a 45 second response to a prompt question, recorded my answer, and sent it to EFY. The email granted me three day access to the application. Not feeling too well the day that I received the email, I decided to postpone it for another day.

That was a mistake.

I woke up the morning after, horrified to realize that I had no voice. My sickness had turned into something completely foreign to me, and for the first time in my life, I was speechless. I quickly asked some friends to give me a priesthood blessing to heal me immediately so I wouldn't sound silly on my interview, but instead, they told me I would eventually get better. I had to do my interview with no voice. It was kind of silly to whisper the entire time, but I felt that I did the best that I could. Still, making to want sure, and under the direction of my mother, I sent the EFY Hiring Office an email to see if I could get another chance to do my responses. They told me not to worry, and that I would know the decision on my application shortly thereafter.

I don't know how, but they somehow overlooked my froggy voice and I made it to the next round. The round that I had to do today.

Like I said in my last post, I saw my sister off at the airport yesterday for her 18 month mission. Since my interview was in Provo and I no longer had much of an excuse (or room in my schedule) to travel down to Provo during the school week, I decided to stay a little longer in Utah and get my interview out of the way. I asked one of my favorite mission companions, Hermana Harris (Hilary now), if I could bum at her house and made plans to have my interview today.

After a couple of delays in my flight schedule, I was finally able to make it to Provo last night. It was so nice to be able to catch up with Hermana Harris! She really is one of my greatest examples and a really incredible friend. We chatted all night about everything that had happened to us since we last saw each other. I am so grateful for her! She was able to drive me to my interview this morning and gave me a couple of tips (because she went through the process last year).

While waiting for the interview to start, I felt a little nervous. It was my first, not church or school related (but still church related, oddly enough) interview that I had ever done. This was a legit job interview! One of my friends told me that a job interview is like a date -- to be myself and everything would work out. I'm not very experienced in the work force, but I am experienced in dating, so I thought I might be alright. Right before the interview, I wasn't sure if I was prepared or qualified, but I felt in my heart that whatever happened would be the will of the Lord.

It ended up being a pretty relaxing interview. I was with one other girl and we were being interviewed by two people from the EFY hiring department (I assume). They asked us a couple of questions and then allowed us some time to prepare a 2 minute lesson based on a topic from the For Strength of Youth pamphlet that we selected from an envelope. While one of us prepared our lesson, the people who were doing the interview pulled us out for individual interviews. I felt so inspired by the Holy Ghost as I was doing my interview. There were words that came out of my mouth that I could not explain or identify their source. I never felt flustered or unable to communicate what I was feeling. It was incredible.

I gave my lesson on Agency and Accountability. It was fun to be able to teach and feel the spirit throughout the interview. I made silly analogies about In-n-Out Burger and Cold Stone Creamery. I tried really hard to stay true to myself and to allow the years of preparation and polishing I have been doing in the past 7 years show through. I am not sure how it will turn out, but I feel like Heavenly Father was definitely guiding me.

I will get the decision (if I am hired or not) in a couple of weeks. I have never wanted something more in my life. EFY is my passion ... because it is the thing that helped me to realize that I could live the gospel, be true to myself, and have fun while doing it. I am eternally grateful for this program! Even if I don't make it to the next round of the hiring process, I am glad that I was able to get a little more life experience as well ... finally applying for a job. I am starting to feel more and more like an adult and it's weird ... but it is also opening doors that I never thought possible and helped my dreams to come true.

what went down

I have spent a lot of hours travelling in these past two days. It seems like my life has been a constant shuffling between cars, trains, airports, and buses ... with a lot of waiting sprinkled throughout. However, this exodus back to Rexburg has been full of adventure and life changes.

The beginning of my journey was bittersweet. Every day, I am more and more excited to return to Rexburg and continue my studies. A love of learning and progression is a discovery that I was able to make this past semester and I hope to be able to continue developing that love through my studies. I am excited to be participating in extracurricular activities that I love like Spanish tutoring and to encounter other activities that will help me to stretch and grow.

But at the same time, it is always sad to leave my family. My dad was saying the other day that we are like our own exclusive club. I would totally have to agree. Everyone in my family gets along so well. We joke about everything, talk about everything -- it is one perpetual party, characterized by the too many to count inside jokes we have. I think that is the hardest part about going back home ... is that I know that eventually I have to leave. It breaks my heart every time.

This time, leaving was especially difficult for everyone in my family ... because my sister Savannah left on her 18 month mission. Savannah is going to Bakersfield, CA, and when we said goodbye to her at the airport, I felt as though it could have been on the other side of the planet. I remember being in her exact position vaguely, but I feel as though saying goodbye to her was way harder than leaving myself. Of course, that sadness was balanced out nicely by an immense feeling of gratitude and excitement for her decision to serve. It will be such a blessing in her life!! She will grow and stretch in ways she never could have envisioned. I know all of these blessings await her, which makes the prospect of not being with my best friend for the next year and a half a little more bearable.

After saying goodbye to Savannah, I got on to my own plane headed in the general direction of Salt Lake. Because I chose to buy the cheapest ticket that I could find, I had a couple of layovers in Denver and then in Grand Junction. It was really fun to see the different airports and to talk to the other passengers that were waiting for their flights. It only takes a little bit of travel to be able to open your eyes to all of the possibilities that the world has to offer. It is amazing that adventure can be a plane ticket away or just outside your window.

While I was waiting, I started pounding away homework that I was missing by travelling a couple of days late. I decided that my sister leaving was far more important than any first day lecture that I would have about a syllabus (sorry any teachers that read this!!). I feel like it was the right decision to make. Taking advantage of the fact that I was already skipping some school, I also decided to knock out my EFY interview out of the way. That is a story in and of itself (which I will write later).

I am now in the Salt Lake Airport waiting for a bus that is going to take me back to Rexburg. I really love to call Rexburg home now. Each leg of this crazy journey that I have been on, I have felt a joy in going back. It is a constant confirmation to me that Heavenly Father loves me and puts me where he wants me to be. I am hopeful for what's in store this semester!