MCOM #4: Share a Coke.

As a weekend assignment, we were asked to "share a coke." This means that we were asked to pay for someone's coke {or anything, for that matter.} Then we needed to write about it!

But first, let me tell you about Sodalicious. Socalicious is a little drive-thru restaurant dedicated to nothing but soda. They have delicious flavor mix ins, foam cups, and pebble ice. Basically, it's my favorite way to spend money. {however, I usually prefer a different chain called "Swig," but I was at Sodalicious for this experience.}

I don't really know what to write about for this experience. I went through the drive-thru, ordered my 24 oz. AK Special, paid, and then asked if I could also pay for the person behind me. The cashier gave me extra punches in my punch card for being nice, and I drove off. I have no idea for whom I paid, nor do they know me, but if felt nice! I got to drive away hoping that I made their day. Maybe they even decided to pay for the person behind them? If I had more money, I would always do that. As a poor college student, it'll probably be a few years until I can pay for random people on a regular basis... but at least I have a goal to work towards, right? Make enough money to buy people stuff.

So that was my experience. And I loved it!

MCOM #3: "The Power of Introverts"

I love BYU because every week we have a devotional or forum. At one of the last forums Susan Cain spoke. Susan Cain is the woman that wrote the book "Quiet" and is known for her Ted Talk "The Power of Introverts." This Ted Talk has been one of my favorites for quite a while, so I was excited to see her speak in person. Before anything else, watch her Ted Talk:

Ok, now that you've watched it, I can tell you all about my thoughts,

Before my mission, I considered myself an extrovert. I'm not sure if it was because of my mission or because I've changed over time, but I would now consider myself an introvert with some extrovert tendencies {in her forum, she called this being an "ambivert"}. For the most part, I have become fairly quiet and I get energy from being alone. While there are times that I love being in a large group, I primarily prefer being with a small circle of friends. I find myself needing time to unwind and be by myself.

And that's why I found her forum so interesting. Here are some interesting take aways I got from her forum:

An introvert is someone that can withstand or even crave solitude.

Our society is a society of conformity. 

We often mistake being an introvert with being shy. Those two things are completely different. Even though I consider myself somewhat of an introvert, I'm not shy. I've pretty opposite of shy.

"Give yourself permission to be who you are at any given time."

"Get into the habit of figuring out what your convictions are."

Her who forum was so interesting. I love to think about how different every single human being is. We all have different convictions. Some people love being around people. Some don't. I don't know. I'm rambling. It was just awesome.

MCOM #2: "tell me something you're passionate about"

I get this question a lot. And I'm about to tell you a little something about myself.

I'm a feminist.

Here's the problem with the society that I live in: "feminism" is thought of as a 4-letter word. When the word "feminism" is brought up, people instantly start thinking of radicalism and man-hating. I have a hard time with this. Because guess what? Feminism isn't being anti-makeup and anti-stay-at-home-moms and anti-men. Feminism is equality. If you want, you can call it that. But the fact that I've been on countless dates where I've been asked, in a surprised tone, "oh, so you're a feminist?" is actually appalling. OF COURSE I'M A FEMINIST. ARE YOU NOT??? Feminism is gender equality. Simple as that. It shouldn't be a big deal to say that you're a feminist. But for some reason, people make it a big deal. Please please please appreciate this video of Emma Watson:

So what does it mean that I'm a feminist? It means that I believe that people should be able to choose what they want to do with their life without the judgement of other people. That's it. Just because I want to be a stay-at-home mom with my kids when they're little doesn't mean I should judge women that choose to work {whether out of financial obligation or just because they choose to work}. And vice versa. If a woman is a stay-at-home mom, you can't truly call yourself a feminist if you judge her decision. But basically, I'm a firm believer in letting people do what they think is best for their life and not judging them for it. After all, I sincerely hope that people treat me with the same courtesy.

But feminism is so much more than whether or not a woman works. But I've decided that this is not the blog post for me to rant about my problems with society and the expectations of women {why the heck have we decided that women look better with black tar on their eyelashes??? ...that is me being anti-makeup, not feminism being anti-makeup, I promise} Why are there still places in the world that a boy's education is valued more than a girl's? Why the heck does human trafficking exist?? People, the world needs feminism.

The whole world. Not just part of it. The other day I was in a car and one boy looked at me and said "America doesn't need feminism. Sure, parts of the world does, but we're good here" FALSE. Remember that judgement thing I was just talking about? That doesn't just happen outside of America. America needs feminism. BYU needs feminism. Every human being on this planet needs feminism.

This brings us to the Women's March. Because people know that feminism is a big deal to me, I've been asked several times what I think about the Women's March. Let me tell you, if I didn't have intramural tennis last Saturday, I would have been there! And instead of trying to tell you why, I stumbled upon this blog post. While she has a lot of statistics that aren't backed up with citations, I love the general idea of the post.

Ok, here's one last little video I adore:

Ok. I don't have time to keep rambling about feminism, but people, I like feminism.

sometimes I wonder how I ever blogged.

Tonight I'm sitting by Kayla, we're watching our favorite TV show, and I'm trying to blog because I have to blog by midnight. But I can't think of anything to write. And that, my friends, is why I just turned to Kayla and said "how did I ever blog"?? Honestly, how did I ever write about my day-to-day life almost every day?? And that is the question.

So. Blogging is hard. I was going to write a nice long blog post this week about something but I don't have the motivation to write right now and I can't really think of what I would want to say. So this is me admitting that I don't really want to blog but I have to because it's an MCOM assignment. But the good news is that we can write about ANYTHING. Even about how much we don't want to write.

This week has been quite the week, has it not? The inauguration and women's march? That's actually what I was going to write about. So look forward to that! (not that anyone is actually reading this, but oh well.) Until next week!

MCOM #1: & puppies.

Hello! I'm back! How many times have I said that? A lot? Yeah. Well, this time it is completely honest because I am taking a class called MCOM 320 this semester and we're required to keep a blog. YAY! {kind of}. Best part? We can blog about anything we want, in fact, we're encouraged to blog about anything we want. Anything. So, alas, I'll start with a cute picture of Sister Kuhle, the two cutest goldendoodle puppies, and me. And if you just read "sister kuhle" and are wondering "whhaatt??"... yes, Sister Kuhle is married and yes, I still call her by her unmarried last name {she was my first companion and trainer on my mission, so "sister" and "kuhle" are how I knew her}. Habits die hard. Supposedly the rest of the world calls her Laura. I'll stick with Kuhle. Tangent. Anyways. Today we both got close to hitting our twenty hours of work so we decided to go on an adventure. I'm really enjoying not having Friday classes. So we went to the Puppy Barn and then found a wonderful new sushi bar! New favorite places.

So here's the life update: I loved last semester. I spent the majority of it in the library. And I don't think saying "majority" is even an exaggeration, sadly. But it was the best semester yet. This semester will be harder {academically} but even better {socially}. So we'll see what happens.

But I'm not really here to blog about my life. I just used the picture of the dogs because I once read somewhere that you should never publish a blog post without a picture. AANNDD I wanted an excuse to tell the world that my goal in life is to own a mini golden doodle (or a dog that's a mixture of yorkie, poodle, and maltese. It was adorable} Plus, I can't think of a better picture than two adorable goldendoodle puppies.

For our first blog post our teacher asked us to just write. He told us to sit down at our computer and just type. Find something we enjoy talking about and then just keep writing. Don't stop to edit. Don't stop to change things. So good luck understanding this:

A few days ago Kayla and I were spending time with a friend who recently returned from a mission. We had a wonderful conversation and somehow got on the topic of "remembering". He was specifically referring to remembering our conversion or remembering spiritual experiences we have had, but I think that the concept of remembering can and should be applied throughout everyone's lives. I think that looking back on our lives and the experiences we have had can be one of the most effective ways of progressing in life. Maybe I think this way because I love history and the quote about how we can learn from the past. or maybe it's for some other reason, but I like looking back. I like getting on facebook and seeing the posts that tell you what you were doing four years ago. I like thinking "wow, two years ago I entered the MTC" {which, as of tomorrow, is a true statement}. I really just like the past. And I'm not saying you should live in the past. I'm just saying that there's no need to feel like you can't/shouldn't think about or talk about past experiences. One of my pet peeves is when people say "so and so got home from their mission {or study abroad, or freshmen year, or whatever major life event happened in this person's life} and they're STILL talking about it." SO WHAT? There is a 100% chance that I will forever talk about things like my study abroad and my mission because guess what? I've lived life for 21.5 years and thus far, those were my most important/life changing/ influential experiences. I hope that it won't always be that way {because as much as I loved my mission, it shouldn't be the only life-changing experience I'll have}. But until then... I think it is a shame that people feel like they can't talk about the past. The past is what makes us us. So excuse me while I continue to make references to my love of Russia and England and how a little piece of my heart stayed in those places.

oh, hey {round two}.

alright, I'm back. for real this time. for two reasons:

1. I don't journal. I {sadly} even gave up journaling halfway through my mission, so that's not an option. plus pictures make everything better.

2. Laura, Kayla's mom, told me I should start up the blog again and I agreed! {thanks Laura!} Even if only my mom and Kayla's mom read my blog... good enough. Also... in case you all didn't know, Laura once sent me the greatest package on my mission, full of cereal and all. so. you know. not only did I luck out in the parents department, but so did my best friends. Long story short, I like her.

bonus reason {so I guess there's really three reasons} I want to put my pictures somewhere from my hikes and atv rides this summer. So hah, here I am.

I've officially moved back to BYU, as an update. I live with Kayla and Cady from freshmen year and we've already spent the last 72 hours randomly exclaiming "oh my gosh, we're together again!!". It seems like yesterday that we were standing in the Provo airport saying goodbye to kayla after freshmen year {so, this was in about April of 2014}, bawling our eyes out, and repeatedly telling each other "fall 2016 isn't that far away!". But we made it! And we're here! And it's been a fantastic couple days and school hasn't even started and the best is yet to come.

more updates: I feel like I'm not as weird or awkward as at first, so that's a plus. I still miss my mission a whooolllleeee lot but I've come to terms with the fact that life moves on and let me tell you, I am pumped for it. Also, I've gone on a post mission date. so, you know, progress. I'll be normal eventually. {once again, I still love the word 'normal'}

other updates, I got a job! and I decided on accounting as my major... first I have to get in the program. talk to me in a year about that one. and yeah. there you are, more than you even cared to know about my life!

let's talk about Colorado for a minute, shall we? It comes as no surprise to you, I'm sure, that I love Colorado. so very much. Here's some of my summer adventures:

These pictures are from a couple different ATV rides with my parents, my new favorite hiking place that Lori showed me, and Animas Forks {a way cool ghost town in Silverton}... I love my home.

yes it rained and yes we were soaking wet by the end.

Then on top of that, I got to go to California for a couple days! It was my mission trainer, Laura's, wedding! She and Keaton were sealed {married} in the San Diego temple. Oh my land, people, it was gorgeous. Everything about the wedding. I loved it so very, very much.

picture taken by Kaylee Barlow... the wedding photographer. She did a wonderful job!

this is Kayla Stockwell, she was my companion right after she was Laura's sooo you'll be seeing a lot of her. She's great.

This week some mission friends and I made borsh! Plus one of our friends from Moscow is here in town before he heads up to BYU-I. Oh, borsh is a russian soup. Try it, it's actually good despite what you read on the ingredient list.

And I spent the first couple days in Utah staying with my sister because I couldn't move into my apartment quite yet. We went to a pool party,

And that, my friends, was a very condensed version of my summer. Fear not, BYU posts are up and coming! Woot woot!

oh, hey.

alright, I'm back {sort of}. I actually decided not to blog anymore, but then I was standing in the kitchen with my cousin Barb at our family reunion and she turned to me and said, out of the blue, "you have to keep up your blogging!" and a few weeks later, here I am.

almost every time I run into someone the conversation goes something like this:

them: "welcome home!"
me: "thank you!"
them: "how was it?"
me: "incredible"
them: "how is the adjustment?!"
me: *how the heck do I answer this????* "it's ok!"
them: "what are your future plans"
me: *silent freak out* "I'm going back to college soon!"
them: "what are you studying?!"
me: *more silent freaking out*
...and so on.

here you go, I'll be honest to the world... the adjustment has been pretty weird. at first it didn't even seem like an adjustment. I got home, spent time with my family, started working at the movie theater again, got back into running, and enjoyed a little more freedom in my schedule.

that lasted a couple weeks.

and then I really started missing it. it actually hit me like a brick wall. one night I was driving home with Zach and I just started sobbing {this is me being really honest, haha}. I remember judging RMs so much for wanting to talk about their missions or for saying they missed their missions or for talking to anyone that would understand them in their language mission. I formally apologize to all of you. it makes perfect sense. I loved my mission, I spent 18 months pouring my heart {not to mention every waking moment} into the work and the people, and then all of a sudden I woke up in a bed in America. now I can't just turn to the person next to me and tell them about why I'm happy {in Russian}, and that is actually surprisingly sad. I've spent a night or two just looking through pictures and feeling sad. but I also understand that missions end and life moves on. and it's actually a little exciting! It's also a strange feeling because the mission I left is very different than the one that is there now. here's an article about the new law in Russia. {my MTC companion and mission president are quoted in this!}.  but I think it will have a positive impact, actually. or so my friends there say!

long story short, there have been ups and downs. lots of them. but life is good!

but here I am! I've spent the last couple weeks falling back in love with Colorado, third-wheeling my parents, skyping lots of people, and figuring out what I'm going to do with my life. so, it's been a productive couple weeks, I would say.

we spent Pioneer Days with my mom's family, like usual, and it was just as great as I remember. so we spent a week or so there. and other than that, this summer has been pretty normal {ATTENTION: the word "normal" is my favorite word and english speakers need to start using it more often. WHY DO WE NOT USE THIS WORD??}

and so that's it. that's all I've got for you. I'm impressed I wrote this much & thanks for the inspiration Barb (:

дома {home}.

well, my friends. 18 months later and I'm home. I got back last friday night. If we're being honest here, I actually didn't think I would continue blogging once I got home, but I did a lot of thinking and decided that if I struggled to keep a journal on a mission, I doubt I was going to get better after a mission. So here I am.

My mission was incredible. I think part of my heart is still wandering around Russia without me. The people I met, the experiences I had, the things I learned... priceless. When I was being released my stake president asked me "if you could describe your mission briefly, what would you say?" That's a tough question. A really tough question. But I decided on "life-changing". Because that's what the last 18 months have been. And I'll be sticking to that.

It's been really nice to be home, but of course I miss my Russia. My family is the best and I came home to decorated signs and blown up balloons and 'welcome home' posters and... well, the whole works. It was fun to spend a couple of days with my nieces and nephews and have a couple days to relax. My parents recently moved so it was fun to come home to a new house!

Well, that's all I've got now. Of course this won't be the last post about my mission, but this is just a short and sweet little post saying I'm home and happy! я вас люблю!