Home Sweet California

California. It has been my home for the past 18 and (almost) a half years. As I sat up and looked out the car window, I saw the golden hills, the blue-grey of the delta as the sun rose and the frigid marine layer creeping in only to be caught in the mid day sun. I was leaving my California for a new home. I must admit that this past week has been weird with packing up and what not. Plus I, since Saturday, started sleeping (ha! an alliteration) in the guest room of my house in order to pack up the rest of my stuff. Nothing is more humbling than being a guest in your own house. Then I realized this is how it’s going to be from now on. I’m only going to be coming back to California to visit. I won’t say never, but there is a really good chance that I may never live in California again. There will definitely be things about California that I won’t miss. For example: all the pot. And profanity. Thankfully, BYU has elevated(I was originally going to put “high” instead of elevated but I changed it for reasons you might guess.) standards for its students to live by. Goodbye, pot and profanity. However, I will definitely miss all the people who made California my home. I hung out with some of my friends Tuesday night and it was really hard to say goodbye to them. I didn’t want to say goodbye. Then, when I got back to my house and started thinking about everything, a thought entered my mind, “Am I doing the right thing? Is BYU where I’m really suppose to be?” That was followed up by the thought, “Well it’s too late now. You’re tuition and housing are paid and everything is packed and your roommates are counting on you, dummy.” It was scary to sit there and really wonder if I was really doing the right thing. I said a little prayer in my heart right there saying, “Heavenly Father, I’m scared. Help me please.” Then I pulled out my scriptures and started reading in the 58^th Chapter of Alma. Up to this point Heleman was recounting the war that he has fought in the past few years. He lost a lot of men and there were very few of them left. He writes, “Therefore we did pour out our souls in prayer to God that he would strengthen us and deliver us out of the hands of our enemies, yea and also give us strength… Yea and it came to pass that the Lord our God did visit us with assurances that he would deliver us; yea insomuch that he did speak peace to our souls and did grant unto us great faith… And we did take courage with our small force… and we were fixed in our minds with a determined resolution to conquer our enemies.” This was me. I was a small force against a big enemy: doubt. I felt like I was at the door to the rest of the world and it seemed insurmountable. How was little ol’ Afton going to survive life, if even the first semester? But Heleman taught me to have faith that God would deliver me from my enemies. And He will if I trust Him. So as I start this new chapter of my life I’m taking the Nephite approach. I am fixed in my mind with a determined resolution to succeed.

My First Stethoscope and Parking Ticket

Thursday was started out like any other day. I woke up, ate breakfast, went reception shopping with my mom etc etc. But one thing that made this day different from every other day different was two things: my brand new stethoscope, and my first parking ticket.

I had this terrific lunch with some awesome friends: my former coworkers. It was thoroughly enjoyable and I love them to pieces. Then they did something above and beyond anything I could comprehend: they gave me a stethoscope, my first stethoscope. To those of you who don't know I worked in a doctor's office and I am planning to pursue a degree in Nursing at BYU in Provo. I was beyond words. I still am. Holy cow, they're amazing. And I think of them every time see it.

About this time, 2:15 to be exact, a waitress peeps through my happiness and says that it's 2:15 and if you've parked at the park you need to move it because the farmers market is setting up. I parked there knowing that I would need to move and I was like okay I should probably leave before I get a ticket. So I said goodbye to some of the most amazing people and started to walk across to the other side of the park to get to my car.

As I'm walking I see red flashing lights. "Oh no," I first thought "My car is getting towed." So now I'm walking REALLY fast trying to get there before my car gets towed. I get there and it's just a cop car. Phew. Or so I think. After a rather..... unpleasant conversation with the female police officer, I got my first parking ticket. My first reaction to this was, I'll admit it, to cry. It was a REALLY unpleasant conversation and I wanted to cry. But I decided, let's learn from this. And to be honest, I think I have. When a sign says leave at 2, I will be there at 2.

But my day ended well. When I got home I showed my family what I got that day. My cool glass from the Old Spaghetti Factory, my wonderful new stethoscope and my parking ticket. That dinner we spent listening to our hearts and to the opening and closing of our stomachs. Guess what Timmy now wants for Christmas? A stethoscope.