good friends good food good life

I can't even begin to tell you how much I love it here. I'm all moved in and my dorm room is now permeated with tiny pieces of home. In fact, the entirety of the Y feels like home. I look around, and everywhere seems familiar. I am just so overwhelmed by how fiercely I know that this is exactly where I need to be right now. There is just such a special spirit here at the Y. Everyone is so friendly and you just trust them automatically. Like today, a new friend and I were walking around Provo trying to find a place that sold cereal, and these guys asked us if we wanted free tacos. We looked at each other and were like duh we want free food! So they gave us vouchers and free sunglasses from their tv company and then we ate the best pulled pork bbq tacos I've ever had. And they were from a food truck. It was awesome.

So many of my favorite people are out here in Utah. My dad's family is less than an hour away. One of the most amazing people I know, a wonderful sister missionary who quite frankly saved me during the roughest months of sophomore year, lives near Provo with her husband, and we were able to meet up for dinner at Cafe Rio tonight. I've got several cousins here, so I always have a friend. And of course, my lovely roommate gets here tomorrow and then we can gush not only about Shakespeare and poetry but the Y and how insanely good those mint brownies in the cafeteria are.

There is this crazy thing here where you automatically just trust everyone you meet. Backpacks and purses aren't allowed in the cafeteria and so you leave your things in cubbies. And no one even worries about things getting stolen. I may or may not have displaced my key a few days ago and came back to my dorm room to find it stuck in the lock exactly where I left it. (don't worry mom and dad, that won't happen again;-)) Every one is so friendly and just wants to help. My parents and I were taking a selfie with the Y on the mountain and someone asked if we wanted her to take the picture. She then overheard me asking what on earth SWKT stood for and she turned around and said it was the Spencer W. Kimball Tower. In the Twilight Zone, the convenience store on campus, the cashier told Kaylee that if she signed the receipt then life would be great. There is a blog specifically for those of us who are going to be English majors. After class this morning, a few of us spent over an hour sitting in the Cannon, eating lunch and telling stories about our families and younger siblings and professor that had us laughing so hard we were crying and pink faced. There is such an amazing sense of community here, an incredible sense of belonging. I can't stress that enough. If I knew college was going to be this great, I would have skipped high school and come straight here! (i'm kidding. mostly.)

Sincerely, mad