I thought freshman year was hard. On the last day of school, I came home and said, "Ugh that was the hardest year of my life, but at least it's over!! It's all downhill from here!!"
HAHAHHAHAHAHHHAHAHAHAHHAH
Little did I know...
Sophomore year was a whole other level of hard, and I clearly had no idea what I was in for.
I started at a new school, so I was already nervous about the year. Then, about a week and a half before my first day, my dad got a job offer in Arizona....and he took it.
I've cried a sickening amount of tears over this move. Las Vegas is where I've grown up, and I've never known any different. I know moving to Arizona is what's right, but that doesn't make it any easier. It's hard to leave everything I know behind and move to a place I know nothing about. I'll talk more on this topic later, haha.
BUT regardless, I made it through! and I've compiled some highlights from this otherwise dreadful year.
1. Chicago
For my 16th birthday, I went to Chicago with my mom, sister, grandma, aunts and cousin. It was a blast! Chicago is way underrated! It's definitely my favorite city! (click here to see the video)
2. Nevada Youth Legislature
I got appointed to the Nevada Youth Legislature where I represent and advocate for 42,000 12-18 year olds. We had a training in Carson City before the school year started, but we had meetings and trainings every month. I've loved being a youth legislator. I've met so many amazing people and learned so much about politics and life in general.
3. Licensed!!
I got my drivers license, which resulted in all my friends piling in my car and me driving them to Sonic alllll the time, haha.
Getting my license was a bit of a hassle. We had moved out the weekend before, so some of the documents I needed were packed up. But, we got them and I passed my drivers test with a 95% (I didn't do so well on the parallel parking portion though, but lets not talk about that, haha).
4. Cedar City Temple Open House
I went with my ward to the Cedar City temple open house in November. Once a temple is dedicated, you have to hold a temple recommend to go through it, but before the dedication it's open to the public. It was so pretty! My favorite room was the brides room! AMAZING!
5. Maycie's Baptism
My cousin Maycie got baptized in January! I remember attending her blessing day when I was 8 years old, haha! Crazy to think that she's 8 now! It was so fun taking her baptism pictures. (you can find her pictures under the "photo gallery" tab, and her video here).
6. General Conference
I went to Salt Lake City for General Conference in April. I'm so glad that I had a chance to go. There were so many changes made at this conference! A new prophet and first presidency, two new apostles, the end of home and visiting teaching, and seven new temples announced!!
Conference was exactly what I needed. Life was really hard with school and the move, but throughout conference, I was constantly reminded that Heavenly Father loves me and is looking out for me.
7. Moving to Arizona
While balancing the everyday challenges of school, relationships, extra-curriculars, etc., I had to deal with a move on top of it all. Heres a brief recap of this move and how quickly(not so quickly??) it all went down.
My dad had an interview early June 2017 about a job offer in Arizona. I knew it could be a possibility, but he had lots of potential job offers in other states, but nothing had really come of it, so I didn't think much of it. The first few weeks in August is when it really hit me that this might actually happen. He had more and more interviews and was writing up a contract with the new company. A week before school started, he officially accepted the job. He started his job in Arizona the first week in September, but we hadn't sold our house in Vegas, nor had we found one in Arizona, so he worked in Arizona on the weekdays and flew to Vegas every weekend to be with us. We sold our house in Vegas in the end of September and lived with my grandparents in Vegas until we closed on our house in Arizona just before Thanksgiving. My siblings finished the third quarter of school in Vegas and moved to Arizona in February. I stayed in Vegas to finish out the school year which ended last Thursday and moved to Arizona two days ago, haha. So yeah, it's definitely been a crazy year.
At first, I was so mad that we had to move. I was finally in a good spot in my life, going to a good school with some really great friends and I was involved in some really awesome extra-curricular activities. I would have had to leave that all behind, and I was not about to do that. I somehow had convinced my parents to let me stay in Vegas for junior year, and then we could reevaluate after that, but as time went on, my parents and I both felt that moving to Arizona was right for me, and that was a hard pill to swallow.
I've had to learn that God's plan is not our plan, and as hard as it may be to align our plans with God's, I take heart in knowing that His plan is better than my own.
So far, I've loved Arizona, and believe it or not, I'm grateful that God gave me this trial, because it's only made me a better person and brought me closer to Him.
"God is aware of you individually. He knows who you are and what you are, and, furthermore, He knows what you are capable of becoming. Be not discouraged, then, if you do not get all the things you want just when you want them. Have the courage to go on and face your life and, if necessary, reverse it to bring it into harmony with His law." -Hugh B. Brown