Where I come from cont....

This thought for whatever reason keeps coming back to my mind....

How did I get to this point I'm at in life? I mean seriously (and yes Tawn I have this ability to just appear, disappear, reappear....sprinkling joy wherever I go....haha).

This might be a really boring post to anybody but myself....just a WARNING.

It just boggles my mind! I have these memories of my dad mowing the lawn into letters when I was five years old, that same summer I peed my pants on my friend's tramp at her birthday party....still remember all the feelings associated with that (sorry if thats too graphic). Lets see, when I was 7 I remember vividly waiting for my grandma to pick me up from school once a week so we could have pretzels together at her house with papa, that same year I met my friends Erika and Maya...i remember the 20 minute bus ride home from school and all the familiar landmarks. I remember wanting so bad to be a safety guard on the bus so I could stand so poised with an orange sash like the 6th grade safety guards. I remember reading my summers away with American girl doll, watching ghostbusters, playing house with Yehuda my Jewish neighbor. I loved playing at my cousins' house in Maryland...we would go down to the creek and set up tents and get our scrap clothes that needed to be washed in the creek and dried on the tree, we would make toy boats and float them down the creek.

I remember the night my mom was sick of my sass and told me I had to sit outside til my dad came home....so I just decided I would show her and I'd run away....I made it a block before I was freezing. Realized I had it pretty good, decided I should probably stay.

I remember when we moved out to Utah. I was scared. This place just didn't feel right, didn't feel like my home. I remember looking at the blueprints of our new house and thinking it was going to be a wonderful life once I had my own room....I even remember thinking "i'm going to probably be punished for something I do in this house." But just the excitement of living in our new home in Providence....I would dream about it all the time. When we finally moved in, I remember hand picking up all the carpet fluff balls that were left over from when they had placed the carpet. I remember being in 7th grade and learning about Wet N' Wild lip gloss and thinking how cool I'd be if I wore it. I remember Mr. Meeker slamming the ruler on our desks. Watching channel one in the mornings. Walking home from school with Mykel and Kim. Sticking my banana peel in the sprinkler box of our neighbor's house. Summers were spent playing night games. Winters were spent sledding down the ravines behind our house. I remember having THE FATTEST crush on Trey Reed, we called him Trey Fausway. I would peak ever so carefully through my window to see if his window was open across the street. Sometimes we would rendezvous and have a meeting point to say hi to each other. Most of the time I was too shy to talk to him. I remember the day a bully on the bus put something around his neck and tried to choke him, usually we would walk home together, but this day I knew it was different, he walked a long distance away from me because he was crying....it was that day I knew I really cared about him. When I started 8th grade, that was a hard year, didn't know who I was, my friends were changing, I wasn't getting along with my family....I choose to not remember. 9th grade, I was still awkward....bad hair, bad zits....the like of being a teenager. I met Shaughnessy and Tawni.....yes, this is the year I appeared, you too:). I learned how to type really fast in typing class...that year President Bush was elected! I also learned how to make flannel shorts to sleep in....I still have them and use them. All the while Moragh, my piano teacher, was turning me into something of a pianist with her persistence and patience with my stubbornness. She would always tell me "Whit, relax your shoulders, relax." 10th grade I was diagnosed with mono. But met a great group of friends and really enjoyed that year. 11th grade, I took every smart class I could think of to qualify for BYU. I had a great seminary teacher that year. I remember one time Shaughnessy, Nefi, and I sluffed to go to McDonald's...it was a rainy day...and we dared Shaugh to eat a worm...which she did without hesitation. 12th grade was a blur....I think I was having so much fun, I missed the academia part. Favorite memories were going to the dam and jumping off the cliffs there or just sitting on the beach. Going waterskiing in the morning with my dad before school started. BYU hit! Freshman year, sophomore year, junior year, senior year....two years of nursing school in there with prerequisites. Amazing friends. The whole thing blows my mind! And now I'm a nurse? How did this happen?

And the most amazing thing, the mind blower for me.....somehow my parents decided they were going to stick with us the whole way through. That is, honestly, the most amazing part of all of it for me. That they stuck with me! All that time! I mean 23 years is a long time. And I had opinions, I was stubborn, I had sass....and yet they never gave up. They took us to church every week, we said prayers together as often as we could, priesthood blessings before school started each year, chats at the dinner table even if we didn't want to talk, balanced meals at dinner, good friends that came over, visits every summer to Maryland for family reunions at the cottage or the beach. My mom was home every night to chat with us. They were understanding when we were having hard times, they were excited for us when we had successes, they were honest in their dealings with others, they showed us how to discover the world, how to find knowledge, they gave us a desire to learn. They taught us how to work. How to be self reliant.

It just amazes me! I have a huge legacy to carry on. But they did it....step by step with faith. I really hope I can do the same.