car accident

I was in a car accident the night before I flew home.

Mark and I were driving to his parent's place for dinner. We were in the express lane on I-15, going probably around 60mph, when we hit some slush or ice and lost control of the car. We spun out across two lanes of traffic, and came to a stop when another vehicle t-boned us on the passenger's side.

I was entirely calm until impact was about to happen, and then I'm pretty sure I screamed. I just remember looking out the passenger window at the car coming toward us and thinking, "Oh dear lord, that car is going kill me."

And then it didn't. I opened my eyes and I was 100% fine. Mark was fine. The lady in the other car and her two kids were fine. She'd seen the slush from our car and had been able to slow down enough so that she was only going 30-40mph when she hit us.

But we were blocking two lanes of traffic in the middle of I-15 and I was terrified that somebody wasn't going to be able to stop in time and that they would hit us again.

Then a police officer came out of nowhere. He was off-duty, just happened to be on his way home, but was in his cruiser. That police officer and the driver of a large tow truck that had also stopped were able to stop the traffic on the freeway for long enough for us to safely get the cars off the road.

Both cars were driveable, so we went to the nearest gas station where we waited for a couple hours until a police officer could make it. 

The passenger side of Mark's car is pretty bashed in. The airbags went off in the other lady's car so her windshield was destroyed. But everybody was okay.

I couldn't stop shaking for the first ten minutes after the car crash, and all I could think about was how lucky or how blessed we had been. I've done a lot of crazy things, but I've never felt that close to dying before.

The police officer that talked to us later that night said there had been a lot of accidents on the freeway that night, and at least one confirmed death.

I woke up the next morning with whiplash. I was so happy to wake up with whiplash.

I safely made it home the next day. Being with the family again has been bomb. Christmas was wonderful. Goodness, it's good to be back.

some thoughts

I'm done with finals. This fall semester of 2013 is officially over. This fall marked the last time I would walk up that awful hill on my way to class and have to stop because the mountains were ablaze with color. It was the last time I would ever come back from summer vacation, strangely thrilled to be back in Provo, weirdly excited to be learning again. I have only one more semester left, and I will be done. Done done. Done with my undergraduate education. It is the strangest.

This has nothing to do with anything. 

This is just a good song. Ya dig?

It has been the most interesting semester. In some ways it has been so stressful. In others, it has been the most incredible. For the past four years, I've known where I wanted to end up, and I knew what I needed to do to get there. I purposefully packed this stage of my life with as much travel and adventure as possible. I worked hard to get good grades, to land the right jobs, to get valuable experiences. 

I have made some of the best friends possible, friends that I genuinely love, respect, and for whom I would do just about anything. They're all over the U.S. and the world now, doing great things like I always knew they would. They dream big, and I am continually inspired by the things they do and people they aspire to be. I sit here in my apartment in Provo sometimes, and I'm like, You guys. Your lives. Don't ever ever stop.

I look back and I wouldn't change a thing.

This semester has been different. For one thing, a lot of my old friends have jobs, are pursuing grad programs at other schools, or are on missions. In short, many of them are no longer here. Furthermore, this semester marks the beginning of the end.

This past summer I tried to decide what I wanted to do with my life. I went from grad-school-is-all-i-ever-wanted to being 90% sure that I wanted to get a Fulbright to Greece. Then I changed that to Korea. And then all of a sudden, I decided that I didn't want to do a Fulbright. I just wanted to go to grad school, the way I'd always planned.

I thought that my dream was to go to Cornell. Then I looked at their program and I just didn't feel it. So I started looking around. I emailed a bunch of schools. Talked to a bunch of professors on the phone. I didn't feel any of it. So I thought, All I really need is a master's degree. I can do just about anything if it's just for two years. Maybe it doesn't matter that I find lipids to be kind of boring. I mean, U-Mass IS a really good program.

And then people started telling me about how it was so hard to get a masters degree because professors only wanted to take on PhD students. So I started thinking about whether I wanted to get a PhD. I didn't. Not even a little bit. But it did start making me worry about whether I'd get into grad school if all I wanted was a master's degree. To top it off, I took the GRE without ever really studying for it, and the end result was less than exceptional. Turns out I still hate math. And I thought, I'm destined to live in a van down by the river and work at Walmart for the rest of my life. 

Then I started talking to NC State. They ended up flying me out to visit their food science grad program. And I loved it. I loved the feel of Raleigh, the other grad students, the faculty, and NC State itself. And oh my gosh, the research. It is groundbreaking, and it excites me far more than lipids ever would have.

I am working on the official application process right now, but it's looking like I'll be going to NC State (if everything goes according to plan) to get a master's degree in food science next fall. I'm thrilled about it. I can't wait to try living in North Carolina, to see what new adventures happen there. It is a weird thing to realize though that after my internship in Minneapolis this summer that I will be driving east instead of west to go to school.

So yeah, this semester has been different. I kind of feel like the work has been done. I'm at where I need to be. My grades don't matter as much as they once did anymore, and so school doesn't stress me out as much as it once did. I'm also dating someone. I don't ever talk about my dating life on this blog because dating tends to be messy and complicated sometimes, but there you go. And for what it's worth, I'm really happy.

I've always been kind of afraid of graduation because I thought that once "real" life started, I wouldn't be as free to do whatever I wanted, to pursue whatever struck my fancy. I realize that grad school isn't exactly "real" life, but it's different than being an undergrad, and I'm excited for it. I don't really know what's going to happen, but it'll be an adventure.

I think I'm totally ready for this next semester to be my last semester.

In other news, I'm flying home tomorrow! I can't wait. It's going to be THE BEST.

happy second of december!

I have a [not so] secret love affair with good a capella music.

In honor of the fact that it is indeed December (and only 23 days until Christmas Day), here is a Christmas song.

I mean, those harmonies! Seriously. The beatboxer is incredible. And the bass, Avi--mind blown. Plus, he looks so happy in this video. That beard. That face. He's so perfectly goofy.

In other news, I had a lovely Thanksgiving break. Laura, Ty, Dan, and I made tons of delicious food and we all ate at Laura's place. Laura's parents were there, as well as one of Ty's old roommates.It was maybe one of the most delicious Thanksgiving dinners I've ever had. Laura, Ty, Dan, and Bryan are basically my family here at school. We're here for each other. They've always got my back, and I've got theirs. Anyways, Bryan was with family in Idaho, but it was great to spend Thanksgiving with the rest of them.

I spent Friday and Saturday hiking and camping at Arches National Park. It was freaking cold. The wood never really caught on fire, so we basically cooked our hot dogs via lighter fluid. And it was cold. Did I mention that? But the hikes were INCREDIBLE. So beautiful. The trails were perfect, except for this one part where I thought I was going to die (it ended up being the best part of the trail though--once it was over). We almost ran out of gas on the way back. We didn't. It was the best, and it was exactly the kind of adventure I needed to get through these last three weeks of school.

Speaking of which, three more weeks of school! That's it!

Three more weeks, and I'll be headed home.