Best of the best

I've been going through my pictures from Europe (I have around a thousand pictures) and decided that I would share my favorites. I also took several videos that no one has really ever seen so I've decided I should post those as well. I've organized them by city and/or trip. Enjoy! O-)<

Swimming Sam

It's a tough life when you're 9 months old and still haven't quite figured out how to crawl. Exhibit A, my nephew Samuel (also known as Sammy or Sam). He sure looks like he is working hard, but I think work = force x distance. Sorry Sammy, you're not working according to science.

What I would have said...

My university held commencement this morning and later on today my college will hold its commencement exercises. Several months ago I was asked to submit a speech for my university's commencement. Being asked to submit something was flattering, but I was not ultimately selected to speak. The speakers who did speak were fantastic and I am still digesting what they said and future blog posts may come as a result of their remarks. Still, I think what I wrote for the speech I would have given sums up my feelings today so I thought I'd share it with everyone who reads my musings.

As I stand here today, I can’t help but remember the day when everything started for me at the University of Utah. I was a little bit apprehensive as I got off Trax and hurried off to my first college class. It was a 7:30 AM National Government course with Dr. Dan Jones and I had heard he was a pretty tough professor. Neither of my parents graduated from college and I remember my mom saying she was scared of how big the University of Utah was when she thought about attending. My parents are from small towns in Cache Valley, so Salt Lake was a big city to them and the U’s student population was 15 times the size of the towns where they grew up. My mom won’t let me tell you how many years ago that was, but mom, the U’s even bigger now then it was then.

My mom’s fear of the U was in the back of my mind as I made my way to OSH. I arrived at 7:25 AM and was relieved that I had not only found the classroom, but that I had five minutes to spare. I walked in to find an auditorium filled with students and Dr. Jones already lecturing at the front of the class. The only empty seat in sight was, conveniently, right in the middle of a row. As I crawled over other students and their backpacks to get to the empty seat, I kept thinking this is not quite the start I had envisioned. Once I got to my seat, I looked around and realized that the syllabi had already been distributed. Dr. Jones was lecturing so, rather than interrupt, I just hunkered down and started to take notes. After class I sheepishly made my way up to the front to pick up a syllabus from Dr. Jones who proceeded to ask my why I was late and telling me how important it was to be on time. I didn’t mention the fact that I was on time, in fact five minutes early, because, well, I was scared of Dr. Jones.

Little did I know that this class and professor would have such a profound influence on the trajectory of my academic career and ultimately help me find my home at the University of Utah. It was in that Dr. Jones class, where I first heard about some of the opportunities at the U and more particularly the Hinckley Institute of Politics. I still remember Bryson Morgan from the Hinckley doing a classroom announcement at the beginning of class (I was on time—at least 10 minutes early I mean—the rest of the semester for the record so I didn’t miss things likes this). I wanted to be just like Bryson. So I made my way up to the Hinckley and started talking with the Hinckley Folks about internship opportunities, the Hinckley Journal, and scholarships.

It was all so interesting and exciting, but for me, it was even more meaningful because I felt I had found my home on campus. And I am sure those in the Hinckley can attest to that fact, because I was always pestering them with my presence whether they wanted me there or not. My relationship with Dr. Jones grew as well and I think he may have forgotten I was late that first day or at least forgiven me, because he let me be his TA for another one of his classes later on. It could also have been his form of revenge as I had to deal students late to class as well. It was another 7:30 AM class.

My relationship with Dr. Jones, the Hinckley, and many other professors and mentors from the U led to unforgettable experiences like interning in Washington, D.C. with Senator Bennett followed by 3 years on his Salt Lake City staff. I was so excited when I heard the news that he will be joining the University staff. The support, encouragement, and cheer leading from the Hinckley and dedicated professors led me to become a Truman Scholar. Their resources and letters of recommendations allowed me to spend the last several months in Brussels working for NATO while world events and history were made around me. As I look back on all these experiences, I realize that I would not have had them at any other institution besides the University of Utah and for that I will always be grateful.

I think that every student, every person for that matter, is looking to find a place where they belong. “The Road Home,” a song I first heard performed by the University Singers, sums it up nicely saying, “There is no such beauty as where you belong.” College is a time of finding one’s self, one’s passions, and one’s opinions. It’s a time of finding where you belong. Fortunately the University of Utah has amazing programs in wide-ranging fields and covering many interests that I don’t think that my story of finding a home and success on campus is by any means unique. So to the University of Utah—the professors, advisers, and my fellow students here today—thanks for helping me feel like I belong. Go Utes!

Dear Brussels:

Well Brussels, I'm heading out. The game is over. Kaput. Finished. The end. But I have two words before I leave: Thank you.

Okay so maybe I have more than two words, but I really could just leave it at that. Brussels, you see, there's a corny song that says "because I knew you, I have been changed for the better" and I feel like that about you. I'm serious.

I've heard people talk about getting "Brusseled" and would offer a litany of reasons why Brussels wasn't as pretty or exotic or exciting as some other city in the world. They would talk about the times the buses didn't necessarily run on time or at all (to read more about Brussels transportation fun click here) They would mention extreme cases of getting pick-pocketed or taken advantage of in a restaurant and chalk it up to "Getting Brusseled."

Brussels, don't believe a word they say.

You've been good to me. Really good. Yesterday I found a 50 Euro bill sitting on an escalator going down to the metro. Talk about getting "Brussled". I looked around for someone who might have dropped it, but there was no one around. Honest. Brussels, I think you gave me that 50 Euros because you like me too. But even if I hadn't found the money on the ground, I would have felt the same way about you.

You let me live with a Countess and her awesome family; including Titus the dog. To the Van Cutsems (Berenice, I know you're blog-stalking me so feel free to pass this along :) I'll never forget how you welcomed me and immediately made me feel like your house was "home." Brussels, my experience with you would be a bit shallow had I not lived with the Van Cutsems. They made my experience so worth it.

My bags are stuffed full of chocolate, Brussels, and other little trinkets for my family back in Utah. My mind is filled with cherished memories of three months in my life that I'll never forget.

I'll never forget Gran Place and the amazing architecture around the square. I'll always remember the "unavoidable atomium which is to Brussels as the Eiffel Tower is to Paris." (Okay so I stole that from the Atomium brochure because the description was so awesome!) I won't forget the funny shaped trees because someone decided that cutting trees into squares was vogue. I won't forget my time at USNATO, getting up at 5:30 AM to catch a 6:15 AM bus. It was okay getting up that early because I really felt like I was part of a team and was doing something that was valued.

Memories are just rushing through my mind right now.

When I get home tomorrow I probably won't sleep very well and I don't think it will be just jet lag. I'll be thinking of you and when sleep finds me I'll be dreaming of you. When I wake, I may be a bit confused as to where I am, but know, it's just because you've meant so much to me for the last three months.

I don't know when we'll see each other again, but I have a sneaking suspicion that we will.

Until then.

Cody

Talented People You May or May Not Know

One of the great things about websites like YouTube is that they have given people permission to be amateurs. Sometimes this results in hilarious videos of kids coming home from the dentist still recovering from the happy gas and other times it results in awful, but still funny videos, like gymnastics bloopers and young girls singing about Friday. (If you don't know what I am talking about, look up Rebecca Black "Friday" and you will find out!) Okay, fine, I'll make it easy, here's the link, but I'm not embedding the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD2LRROpph0- for the record, it's the most "disliked" video on YouTube...ever.

YouTube became popular when I was on my mission. (Side note- Six years ago today I went to the MTC. Hard to believe it's been that long!) When I got back from the mish, I didn't know what "YouTube" was. Fairly soon after I returned, Miss America took a fall at the Miss Universe Pageant and I missed it. I mean, I am an avid fan of the Miss Universe pageant so you can imagine my dismay.

My little brother told me to look it up on YouTube and I had no idea what he was talking about. He explained and I looked up Utube and couldn't find anything. I thought he was full of it. Well, come to find out, he was right and once I found YouTube, I think I spent the next 3 or 4 hours watching every bloopers video on the entire site: I think this was when I "normalized" post-mish.

Besides blooper videos, one of my favorite things about YouTube is that ordinary people with incredible talents can also put videos up. Sometimes they're lesser known bands trying to make it big or just people with a hidden talent or two. I am always amazed at how many good/talented people I find on YouTube. Here are a few I've come across lately. It's too bad, really, that these videos get far less views than the blooper ones I waste time on. Who knows, you may already know some of these people.

Natalie Weiss: Up-and-coming Broadway star from what I gather. She is amazing...A-MA-ZING! Her voice control is incredible. She has runs and trills but they don't seem forced or contrived or show-offy...just natural. I could post a baker's dozen of her videos, but I've narrowed it down to my favorites:

Angela Jeffries: One of Utah's own. A quick google looks like she is/was performing at Hale Theatre in A Tale of Two Cities as Madame Defarge. Just came across this video and the way she tells the story through song really struck me.

Matt Johnson: Matt used to be one of my roommates and is an all-around good guy. I knew him before his video went over 10,000 views. His song is a hilarious Mormon-take on Adam Sandler's Chanukah Song.

Nikki & Rich: I actually first saw this band on the Tonight Show w/ Jay Leno (the clip I've included below) and really liked them. Their music has a throw-back feel to the big-band era mixed with this funky 60/70s vibe with a modern twist if that makes any sense at all.

James Egan: James is one of those guys who you want to hate, but can't find a reason to. He's really smart, funny, and talented (I might have a man-crush on him). We met while attending the University of Utah and I know very few people who are just genuinely "good" like him. I can't find a YouTube video, but, better yet, you can see him performing live this Friday April 8! I am really bummed I can't make it as I'll still be in Brussels. Check out the details and listen to some clips from his CD So Much Still Remains on his website: http://www.jameseganmusic.com. My favorite song is "Rachel, Ms. Operator".

Cody Rogers: Kind of dorky and nerdy. I mean, he forgot to take his name tag off in this video, but give him a break, I know him pretty well.

Whitney Layne: Whitney and I went to high school together. She was known as Whitney Wooley then. We were in Oklahoma! together...she was my "wife" to be exact. She's in Nashville right now working hard and I'm looking forward to saying "I knew her when" when she makes it big.

Follow your heart

My roommate, Paul Russell, who is staying with the same host family as me is a pretty cool cat. (he's single ladies...but he's not on facebook.com, but I might know someone who knows his e-mail address, if you're interested...)

Anyway, sometimes when we are trying to decide what to do or if I am thinking out loud--which is a really unfortunate habit of mine--Paul will frequently tell me, "Follow your heart."

I don't always know what my heart is telling me. It gets confused at times. The little neurons in my brain also tend to mix up the signals from the little-red-pumping-thing

Last weekend, I was in Paris. I was alone. I know, I know. Alone.In.Paris. Epic fail! What was I thinking!? At first I thought it was kind of a bummer, but I realized that it gave me much needed time to think some things through which had been weighing on my mind the last little while.

As a side note there were two Dutch girls who asked me to take their picture near Notre Dame, which I did. Afterwards they asked if I was in Paris alone to which I replied, "sort of." I had a co-worker who was in Paris with her Parisian boyfriend and we had planned to potentially hang out. The Dutch girls asked if I wanted to "make party with them." I ran away. Suave.

Anyway- back to the story- as I was walking around, different songs were running through my head as odd as that might sound. I like to think that I have a sound track to my life and maybe this is my unconscious way of having it play. All the songs going through my head had to do with "home".

Without going into the nitty gritty details, at the time I was in Paris, I was potentially going to stay in Brussels for a pretty exciting opportunity and I was seriously considering it. Yet, as I walked past the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower I had a feeling that my time in Brussels was coming to an end, not just beginning. It was surreal. So I followed my heart like Paul is always telling me to do and before I got back to Brussels, I had decided to not accept the opportunity in Brussels.

I've posted a few of the songs below to give you kind of an idea of what I was feeling. Sorry that some of them aren't necessarily the "original" or actual videos of the songs...some of them are blocked because I am in Belgium, but you'll get the idea.

I know it's not September...not even really close. But this song was in my head.

"Of all the things I still remember, summers never look the same, years go by and time just seems to fly, but the memories remain...reflecting now on how things could have been, it was worth it in the end."

This journey into the land of Belgium has definitely been worth it and time really has just seemed to fly.

"When every boat has sailed away, and every path is marked and paved; when every road has had its say, then I'll be bringing you back home to stay...look how far your dreaming's gone."

"When every town, looks just the same; when every choice gets hard to make; when every road has had its say, then I'll be bringing you back home to stay."

I feel like I am being brought back home to stay. For how long, I don't know, but for now, that's where I am supposed to be. As I'm graduating in May, I am, perhaps, a bit reflective on my "college-days" and the line "look how far your dreaming's gone" really struck a chord with me. Entering into school, all of the adventures I've been on- interning on The Hill in DC, working for a Senator, living abroad- all seemed like pipe dreams and now I look back and I did it. I hope that doesn't sound prideful or boastful, but sometimes dreaming isn't just having your head in the clouds, its envisioning a future that can really happen if you work towards it. How fortunate am I that it actually happened.

"Another airplane, another sunny place...I'm lucky I know, but I wanna go home."

"Another winter day has come and gone away and even in Paris and Rome and I wanna go home."

I've been extremely fortunate to visit even Paris and Rome and so many other amazing places the last three months I've been here, but again, there was this nagging feeling that it's time to leave all these amazing places for now. Some people might say it's homesickness, but I can tell you it's not. After spending two years in Ukraine, I know what homesickness is and it's not that. It's different even though I can't really explain it.

"Get caught in the race of this crazy life. Trying to be everything can make you lose your mind."

Sometimes I try to be everything to everyone and forget me in the process. I forget to ask, what do I want? What is my heart telling me? It's a good reminder.

"When adventure's lost its meaning, I'll be homeward bound in time...set me free to find my calling, and I'll return to you somehow."

"Then the wind will set me racing as my journey nears its end and the path I'll be retracing when I'm homeward bound again."

I find this song hauntingly beautiful. When I was on my mission, I would sometimes imagine that these were the words I was telling my parents. They have always "set me free to find my calling", always encouraging and never getting in my way or setting up obstacles and in return I always want to say, "I'll return to you somehow." I want to say that I understand it's hard to let me go off on my own, without knowing when or how long I'll be away, but wherever and for however long, I will always return home somehow.

Sister Davis, my mission president's wife, had a little cross stitch in the mission home that said, "There are two bequests you can give your children. The first is roots, the second is wings." My parents have done this for me as sappy as that sounds.

So there you have it. An overly long and overly personal blog post about following your heart when you are at a fork in the road.

Two Roads...

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

--Robert Frost

Do you ever wish you had a crystal ball that would tell you the outcomes of the two (or three or four...) roads that lie ahead in your path? I mean, something that would show you what your life would be like if you went left and what your life would be like if you went right and then, upon seeing this, you could make your decision about which one you wanted to take?

There are some interesting...well...developments in my life right now and I'm trying to get a grip on them. I'm trying to make decisions and I suck at making decisions. (sorry for the s word for all your tender eyes out there.) I think that the decade between age 21 and 31 should be called the decade of decisions. That's not to say that you don't make important decisions after you turn 32 but, it seems to me, that most of the fundamental decisions in life--the ones that formulate the general trajectory of the rest of your life-- are made in that time.

I'm not trying to wax philosophical or anything. I'm really just trying to make decisions and for some reason I have the feeling that those decisions may change me--not necessarily change for the bad or good, but just change. I am at the fork of those two roads and deciding which one to travel...wish me luck.