The Institute has been a huge part of my life for the last two and a half years of my life. I had every intention of taking Institute classes from day one at USU, but I failed to do so for my first three semesters. I am glad that I finally forced myself to sit down and sign up for classes because Institute really changed my life. I am not even close to the same person I was before Institute. In particular, I'm grateful for the opportunity that I have had to sing with the Institute Choir for the last five semesters and Latter-Day Voices this past year. Many of the opportunities I have had to grow and to serve in these choirs have been just incredible. I have broadened my comfort zone greatly and made many great friends. More importantly, I came much closer to my Savior than I have ever been. I learned to read my scriptures and pray daily, whereas I had spent sometime never reading my scriptures or praying. I have truly enjoyed sharing the strong testimony of this Gospel that I have with others. Another major part of my Institute experience was my Book of Mormon class my first semester of Institute. After getting over the shock of meeting Brother Salmond for the first time, my love of that man grew during this class. He would always come to class saying he hadn't planned on teaching something that day, but he felt as though someone needed it. Every time it was intended for me. I learned so much about the Atonement in that class. Brother Salmond was a big part in saving my life that semester, and I have loved being able to work with him so much every semester that I have been involved at the Institute.
I have also loved almost every minute of time at Utah State. I never in my life expected to attend USU. I grew up an avid BYU football fan (still am, please don't shoot me USU friends), and I had always kind of looked down on the school. However, the Lord knew exactly where I needed to be. The story of my coming to USU is kind of interesting. I had graduated with my associates in drafting from the College of Southern Idaho five or so months ago. I was in Murray, Utah visiting my brother and his family with my parents and younger sister. We had talked about me possibly going back to school to get a more advanced degree. I figured that I would have wanted to do engineering since that seemed like a logical step from drafting which I loved. I sort of played off the idea of going back to school though. I really wanted to get a job which wasn't currently happening (interestingly, I could now explain with pictures and graphs in great detail exactly why I didn't get a job back when I had graduated from CSI). Several days after this conversation, we headed back to Idaho. Suddenly during the drive, I started to think about returning to school, and the more I thought about it, the more excited about it I became. Finally, I decided to start looking as soon as we got home. That night after doing much looking around, I applied at Boise State, and I applied to USU the next morning. Several weeks later I received a letter from USU offering me a full tuition scholarship, and the decision was made. I also realized at the moment that I had started thinking about school around Brigham City, and I made the decision to do it around Tremonton. These are the two places that you get off the freeway to drive to Logan. Even when I was in the pit of despair and felt so far from my Savior's arms, He helped me to see His plan for me. He knew that USU was where I needed to be, and I am extremely grateful that I followed His plan for me. Even when I decided that I just didn't enjoy the engineering enough to spend four years of my life slaying classes, I knew that I wanted to stay at USU. Because of this, I just basically went down the list of majors picking and choosing what I might want to do. I whittled it down to three: finance, management information systems, and music. I ended up choosing finance, and I have loved it so much. Although I would like at some point to get a degree in music because it has become such a big part of my life.
I felt very happy and satisfied with my accomplishment of graduating from USU, yesterday. Today as I sat in church, I couldn't help feeling as though I had more to accomplish. I didn't particularly find this fair; after all, I have been looking to be done, and I felt completely burned out after spring break--moreso as the weeks passed. After spending much time in church contemplating on my feelings, and doing some searching online, I decided that I just wasn't satisfied with my Bachelor's. After some more contemplating and prayer, I think I have a new plan and goal for the next few years. I am ready for a break from school, as I mentioned, I have been burned out forever; however, I will spend the next year and a half preparing for graduate school starting in 2014. I have a test to take--hopefully only once--and a few other things to take care of, but I'm actually kind of looking forward to it. I'm not sure I understand the feeling to want to continue school just over 24 hours after graduating, but I have faith that the Lord wants me to do it. I'm not sure what I will be doing for the next year and a half, other than working, but I don't think my time in Logan is complete yet.
