Utah

I could go on and on and on about Utah and it still wouldn't be enough. There are a select few things that will bring me back- my friends/family, crossfit, AP Lit, and the no-more-than-three-absences exam exemption rule. That is all. But mostly the last reason.

My feelings about Utah are strange. Like I love it but not. I've dreamed about coming out there for college my whole life, and now it's actually happening and I couldn't begin to tell you how excited about it I am, but I have no desire to live there beyond college. I'm an East Coast girl through and through, and if life goes my way, I'll be a European girl by the time I die too.

That being said, I have this special place in my heart for the Beehive State. The mountains are gorgeous. I am convinced that I will attempt to capture their beauty through the camera lens for the rest of my life and I will never do it justice. They are so majestic and have this peace about them. If you ever need to put your size in perspective and realize just how tiny you are compared to the rest of the universe, go stand next to a mountain.

Being back out here, knowing for sure that I will be going to BYU in the fall, is soooooo neat. I like to think that the town in Georgia that I'm from is pretty big- my graduating class is around 650 kids- but I come to Utah and realize that we are kind of a small town. You have to drive 15-20 minutes to the nearest shopping and 10 minutes to the nearest restaurant. Come to Utah, though, and you can be anywhere worth being in 5 minutes flat. Driving around, Grandpa and my cousin Kelsey gave me the run down on all the good restaurants and places to shop and hang out. Currently on my must-try-this-restaurant-as-soon-as-i-move-to-utah list are Costa Vida, Noodles, Zupa's, Training Table, and then the usual favs that I already know: Cafe Rio, In-N-Out Burger, and the BYU Creamery, ya know. Also, Iceberg. That milkshake you see up there? That's a mini size. You read right, MINI. I know, right? I am honestly so over the moon to be moving out here in the next couple of months.

Also, family. Gosh I love them. The older I get the closer I get to my family. My grandparent's house already feels like my home away from home, which is exactly what it will be come September. My cousin Kelsey, who is two years older than me, and I get along great. We didn't used to be so similar, but high school changed us both, so now we're a lot alike. We are already making plans to be antisocial together next fall. (she got accepted to the University of Utah, so we'll be rivals! honestly though, neither of us care enough to tease about it, so it'll be more like, hey come to this game with me! or, i don't want to hang out with people, meet me at barnes and nobles? haha i love our relationship.) We like a lot of the same things- we're interested in the same types of books, movies, and free time activities. She loves Shakespeare too. What is it with my non-Georgia family loving the same things I love? I mean, Erin and I have mutual adoration for David Tennant and Benedict Cumberbatch and all things Sherlock and Merlin related. We are also secret story writers... shhh, don't tell anybody. Kelsey and I are both fans of Shakespeare and Europe and New York City. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE my Georgia family. They're fantastic. And it wouldn't be as exciting if everyone loved the same things I love. But it's one thing to show my family the David Tennant and Catherine Tate youtube video and another to sit and quote it line for line with Erin. It's one thing to freak out and perform Hamlet soliloquies in the kitchen for my siblings and another to discuss stage adaptations of it with Kelsey. I love the wide range of different interests in my family, but it is also nice to discover that some of your family shares your loves. I love when people let me ramble on about my passions, but it's a whole different kind of exciting when they ramble with you. So basically I just love my whole entire family for all sorts of reasons. I'm passionate about my family too! My life is one big passion fest, and I couldn't love it more.

Ugh, I can't even begin to tell you how stoked I am to move here. This place is where I'm starting the next chapter of my life, the chapter where I move out of the house and pursue higher education half a continent away. The chapter that I've been dreaming of my whole life but that hasn't begun to terrify my in such an exciting way until about 6 months ago. I can't wait to learn my way around Utah, to try all the restaurants and go explore all of the hangouts and just be your stereotypical BYU college student. Life, I'm a little bit afraid of you but let's put that behind us and go have some fun, sound good?

Sincerely, mad

P.S. Yours truly learned how to use photoshop to make a collage (which is the whole reason I got photoshop in the first place). Can we all just take a minute to appreciate that? Check that one off the to-do list.