Simple Beauty

There are times in life when something quite simple seems to strike a wonderful chord within you like the perfect piece of music; a delicious dessert; a soul-moving sermon. I recently came upon one of these times. After completing an evening of studying at the campus library, I began the walk back to my dorm. It was 10 o'clock and the campus was nearly empty, with little noise to disturb the scene. Not to go off-subject, I have decided I absolutely love the weather of the Utah valley. This evening was the perfect combination of 70 degrees, low humidity, and a faint, soundless breeze. As I strolled across the main plaza of campus, listening to beautifully soothing piano music, I gazed up at the silhouetted mountains and the star-filled Utah sky. No rush, no stress, no lingering regrets, no pending assignments or studying. Just the weather, the mountains, the sky, the perfect music--all became a world separate from the rest. It's times like those that help one to see how beautiful life is.

Taking the Steps into Life

When you're headed across the country for college semi-permanently in just a few weeks, you can't help but get sentimental. You find yourself constantly talking with your friends about how quickly time flies, or how flipping old you are, or how crazy it seems just to be at the point that you're at. But it's interesting. You start to gain a perspective on life that you realize you never had before. You start to understand that the "rest of your life" isn't just a nebulous phrase to refer to the time that will surely never come. It's no longer something only adults and really old people understand. It becomes something much more concrete, more meaningful, more within reach than you ever thought it would be. As a youngin', one never really thinks much about time in the way adults do. Next year seems like an eternity, and last month feels like a past life. But when you reach each of those year milestones in your childhood, you don't always realize, "Wow, I'm actually here now and that was a whole year ago." It's funny how time really does creep up on you.

Moving into young-adulthood, (I'm still going to be a kid forever though!) life lays before you like anticipating a sunrise. You know it will come but it lays out of sight, just beneath the horizon. You can't wait for it to finally show itself, but at the same time you wish you could just swim in the excitement and anticipation for a long while. We all end up there at some point. But time goes on and we either board the train and take it onward, or we fail to act and it departs and leaves us at the station. As a very wise, very old man once said, "It does not do to dwell on dreams, Harry, and forget to live." (Gotta love Dumbledore quotes!) So as the train of life prepares for departure, I hope I can take that step and turn my dreams into action by getting on board, and I hope the same for each of us.

The Next Year of My Life...

In less than five weeks time I will be packing up the contents of my existence, getting on a plane to fly 2,170 miles to an obscure town in an obscure state, and spending the next eight months of my life at one of the most awesome places in the world. Brigham Young University. Best known by association with the name Jimmer Freddete and the Mormon Church. Also known as the #1 Stone-cold Sober school for 12 years running and won't be changing anytime soon. I don't quite know how, but I've known since I was 5 years old that this was the one and only college I wanted to go to. I can't really explain it. Neither of my parents went there and they never spoke of it. In fact my dad went to the University of Utah, BYU's arch-rival, so he of course never suggested BYU to me. But somehow I've just known, and I never really questioned it. And I could not be more satisfied with my decision.

My days there will be a constant whirl of everything I can possibly pack into every 24 hours. Classes, studying, piano, singing, parties, studying, concerts, cooking, studying, piano, dates, laundry...Did I mention studying? Oh, and sleep if I have time to spare. I also have one of the coolest roommates ever, Jimmy Davidson! He's basically a crazy awesome guy, way funny, super spiritual, and an incredibly talented musician!

Needless to say, this is going to be a pretty fantastic year!

It can be difficult for some people to understand why anyone would want to go to a school where you are prohibited from drinking, smoking, having sex, and many other things that constitute the stereotypical "college fun." My heart goes out to those who think that's what fun really is. Pleasure is not how we Mormon's do fun. We do fun that we will still remember the next morning, and won't have to carry any regrets or maladies away from it. Don't know what I mean? Ask your friendly neighborhood Mormon! :)

33 days.
2,170 miles.
34,000 Mormons (a majority of which are female)
One pretty awesome time!

Am I psyched? Umm. YES!!

Of Work and Wizards

This weekend was our church's yearly Youth Conference. It's a big event where, for a couple of days, all the youth (well over a hundred) get together and participate in a number of activities and spiritual lessons. One of the main parts of this year's conference was our service project. There is a small charter school in Raleigh that was in need of some serious cleaning and touch-up work before the school year started again. This school, Torchlight academy, teaches students from mostly poorer families in the community, and money is therefore harder to come by than it is for larger charter schools like Raleigh Charter or Franklin Academy. So it was a wonderful opportunity to help out this school in the many ways that we did. We did straight weeks worth of work-hours in only a five hour period. Washing walls, bathrooms, buses, chairs, desks, painting fences, heavy lifting and weed-cutting were among the many jobs we did there, many of which would have probably gone undone simply because the school wouldn't have been able to afford it. It was a pretty awesome experience! As King Benjamin from the Book of Mormon says, "When ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God."

On the final day of the conference we had several speakers talk to us, followed by an  hour for the opportunity for people to bear their testimonies. In our church, this is where people may share with the audience their personal convictions and faith about subjects like the truthfulness of the gospel and that God and Christ live and any number of other things that each person feels prompted to share. It's a wonderfully spiritual experience, seeing so many youth who are committed to living by His teachings and the experiences that have brought them their strength and conviction. 

Also this Friday morning, I saw the midnight premiere of the final Harry Potter movie, and it was pretty much fantastic! It was also a pretty sad time because the release of the Harry Potter movies have spanned nearly my entire "childhood." The close of such an epic story reminds me how my own adolescence is coming to a close of it's own. I'm sure I'll remain a kid-at-heart forever! But I still have to begin the new life of a young-adult as I go off to college and take personal responsibility for nearly every aspect and choice of my life. But enough of the sentimentality! My new favorite HP character is Neville Longbottom. In the last movie he was quite the champ as he blew the bridge taking out all the Snatchers and took off the head of Voldemort's snake with the sword of Gryffindor! So go see the movie! It was well worth my $7.50!

What Music means to me

Imagine yourself sitting in a concert hall. There are thousands of other people in the audience with you, but not a sound is heard except for the notes sounding from on-stage. The performance is a full orchestra. A choir. A solo pianist. Something of the sort. You listen intently to the wonderful music that fills the chamber. Never have you heard anything like it before. The piece being performed begins to grow and expand, reaching for its peak. Your heart leaps as that beautiful blend of sound speaks to you by way of some inexplicable avenue, and takes your very breath away. Then the song beings to dim as it nears its end. You lean forward in your seat as the final chord rings out. Your heart is at peace as the sound disappears, but the overwhelming mood holds you and everyone else in complete silence for a time before erupting in magnificent applause.

I hope we have all felt this way about some song or piece of music at some point in our lives. It may have been on our iPod or on Youtube, but music can pass that kind of emotion wherever we are. It's moments like these that, for me, seem to define our very existence. I feel so sorry for scientists and the like who believe that humans came into existence by mere happenstance, and there is nothing beyond death. Music has become a witness to me that there is more than just us here and now. It is a God-given gift to us, one that is completely impossible to explain, and can only be expressed by itself. It has brought me so much happiness in my life so far, and I expect it will continue for the rest of my life and beyond. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I have so much music that I could show you that may give you a taste of what I mean. 

Take a moment to listen to this song. It's pretty much amazing!

"Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent." - Victor Hugo

“Music speaks what cannot be expressed, soothes the mind and gives it rest, heals the heart and makes it whole, flows from heaven to the soul.” - Unknown