Might as well tell you now

I didn't make it to the top five in the Hearst Journalism competition. At least they threw in some cash to make it worth my effort. That certainly helps. And top ten isn't too shabby... But I really wish I could've gone to San Francisco.

Lame.


UPDATE (later today): I'm pretty bummed about this. It sucks to have worked so hard only to not make it another round. But I really don't want to be negative about it. I forced myself to be positive, in fact, by responding to the email. That's something Bitter Lydia would never have done (I mean they just rejected me, what am I supposed to say?) but I wanted to be a good sport.

Dear ----, 


Thank you for notifying me so soon. Of course, I am disappointed to not advance to the final round, but pushing myself to create new pieces for the semifinal has helped enrich my portfolio. I am also extremely grateful for the monetary prize - as a freshly graduated student setting out towards an unknown future, it's nice to have some added security. Finally, it was an honor to be invited to participate in such a prestigious competition. Thank you for giving me this opportunity. 


Sincerely, 


Lydia

And I really did mean it. I truly am grateful. That a group of important people would decide to give me money just for doing what I do best is incredibly generous. It kind of blows my mind.

The lady from the Hearst Foundation responded and she was really nice, she commended me for being positive about it.  I am so happy for how far I've come. I just need to remember that.

And go splurge with that award cash. (kidding!)

UPDATE: Here are the final results. It was really an interesting mashup -- two of the fourth-place winners made it, but the top two finalists in the features category didn't. Oh well. Grumble grumble.

Graduation

Well we did it. We walked, and we got our pictures taken, and we threw hats.

Broadcast people - before the majestic climbing of the walkway.

We also ate a lovely dinner and enjoyed the company of friends and family.

Magleby's -- they catered our wedding, it's only fair
we have graduation dinner with them too :)

I'm going to miss the Heaps!

Last silly time with Haleigh for a long time :(

Elder Oaks

"The mark you receive as a BYU graduate is neither involuntary nor self-imposed. You sought this mark, and it is put upon you by proper authority. After today you have more than a new line on your resume. You have been marked. As a BYU graduate, you are, as we say, a marked man or woman.

...

“We all have marks or labels upon us. Our names and many characteristics of our appearance, such as family similarities, are marks. So is our speech. These marks are involuntary. Other marks are voluntarily assumed, like religious symbols that various faiths use on their apparel, which we honor, and tattoos, which we discourage. Our Savior is the model for the self-imposed mark of the utmost significance.”

...

‘You all have a mark upon you after today — you will be known as a graduate of Brigham Young University, which is part of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The people who know you and see you will judge the Church by you. Your great mission is to hold the banner high.’"

Just striking a pose, you know

I did it Ma!

Where's Andrew?

That's Master Andrew to you!

Brother Curtis, News director extraordinaire

And best of all: we graduated!

"Are we done taking pictures yet?"

No way! Yay pictures!

Here we go

Well, here we are: commencement day. Tomorrow, we get our degrees and then it's off to...

That's right: Casper, Wyoming!

Andrew accepted an internship with the city's budget office that they very strongly suggested will turn into a job offer at the end of the summer. And I'm going to haul myself on over to their TV station and demand a job.

Is it out in the middle of nowhere? Yup.
Is it somewhat... savage country? Yup.
And don't start me on the fact that Casper, Wyoming is ranked at the very bottomy-bottom of the reporting food chain.

BUT considering the fact we wanted to go somewhere we both have job opportunities, it's actually not a bad deal. In fact, it's not a bad deal at all: we'll have jobs in the same city (which is AWESOME considering what we were starting to look at) and it might be kind of fun to live it up with the cowboys for a while. You gotta start somewhere! We also just found out what Andrew's starting salary would be, and we're both feeling really good about that... :)

Off we go to the Wild Wild West!

Hey look, we're grads:

You'd give this girl a job, right?

Right?

I did a photo shoot with the multi-talented Lizzy Early last week. I needed to send in a good head shot for the journalism competition, and then we sort of got carried away... I didn't mind, cause I've never had senior photos. There, that's a first for me!

Hmmm, I've got a good feeling about the next round of this competition.

The final result

Voilà, ladies and gentlemen. I present to you my sweat, blood and tears from the last four months. These are the four stories I'm submitting to the competition. Pray for me that the judges will think I'm awesome and send me a ticket to San Francisco in June!

Wish me luck!

Oh hey

So... I won a national journalism award. Check it out.

Crazy!

Also, that's probably why I've been MIA this whole semester. Internship's going well, radio's going well, and I have zero free time, ever. I'm exhausted and honestly a little bit burnt out right now. But I really want to go to San Francisco to compete in the final round of this journalism competition, so I'm going to rest a little and then kick myself into action. 

Ringing in the New Year

Well here it is, 2012, a whole new year. It's going to be an exciting year, full of all sorts of adventures and not very defined quite yet. After April, our schedule is wide open... and we don't really know where we'll be. At the same time though, it's very invigorating. This year is not the same-old kind of year. It's a year where we will be deciding who we want to be, what our family will look like, we'll be starting "real life" and making all sorts of difficult decisions. I can't wait. And to start the year properly, I actually have made a few goals this year.

I want to write in my journal regularly, weekly being a ballpark goal. I need to keep better records and while this blog has helped to a degree, I want to record all of my impressions, not just the ones suitable for a public.

I also have a secret goal I can't tell you about, but it's a good one. I'll let you know when it's accomplished though.

I want to develop more charity. That means striving to become more Christlike, of course, but the way I hope to accomplish that in a very specific way is that I need to be kinder and more open to people; I need to relearn to make friends, to be more open to situations outside of my life bubble. This will definitely be the challenge of April and beyond, when we leave BYU.

I want to get into better shape. The tangible goal is to get to the gym at least three times a week and run my first 5k this year. (hey, you have to start somewhere. That would be a big deal for me) Oh, and have really awesomely toned arms. That would be nice.

And I want to develop my talents and continue to grow professionally. I'll be interning, working a new job and venturing into all sorts of professional endeavors for the next four months, but after that my goal is to keep those pencils sharp and find ways to stay active in my field.

There it is. In order to get it all off to a good start, here are a few useful tools for each of those goals:

How to pick a mentor - Solid professional advice

List of races in Utah - Anybody want to join me?

Journal writing prompts - These will be really useful for writing more meaningful journal entries, not just "today I ate candy and had a bad hair day." Also, the prompts and tips from the MWP Salon will be great resources.

Looking for a new year's gift to yourself? How about some beautiful writing on Mormon womanhood by Segullah.

And I'll be blogging all about our amazing Christmas break very soon, of course :)

Let's be honest though, whose life isn't crazy these days?

So my awesome Christmas break has turned into a stress-fest... including drowning in paperwork and uncertainty, making stressful decisions and initiating a minor encounter between the car and a cement post... Ahem.

But the good news is there's a point to all (well, most) of this stress: finalizing documents for my internship at KSL and most recently... prepping to anchor the morning news at Classical 89!

I'll be on air Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at 6:30, 7:30 and 8:30 AM (Yes, I have to get up very early... you're welcome, morning commuters.) You can tune in here.

The best part is I get paid to do it (Miserly student job pay, but hey, it's my first paid broadcasting gig!) and Classical 89 is a station I really like. My dad is so proud :)

So yeah, life is good, but I'm definitely ready for Friday to get here - then I really get an actual break, and we can focus on Christmas fun with my whole family!

Goals

Well I'm happy to say that I'm doing relatively well on some of my goals.
I finally buckled down and imposed a limit on myself (using an awesome--and free--website). And so far, I'm feeling pretty good. Let me tell you that I HATE not eating when I want to. I have the most embarrassing lack of self-control in matters of the flesh. Wait, that sounds bad.

Anyway.

I lost one pound! Woot!

And Andrew has been very, very helpful in all of this. I actually rather enjoy going to the gym, and I'm feeling pretty good, so this time I'm planning on keeping it up. I think I can do this.

Ha ha

Life goal...

... accomplished, or at least one of them.

This doesn't actually mean all that much in the grand scheme of things, it's just a ranking according to this organization, but I always told myself I wanted to get into the top 100 (U.S., not world... ha that would be the day!), and there we are now. 

And that's pretty darn cool if you ask me :)

Chill out

I know I need to relax and do things at my own pace, in the time that things are right, but....


why the heck is my pace always slower than everybody else's?!?!?!


Also, why wasn't I born into wealth and high society? Life would be so much easier.

Well I got Who What When Where Why, which isn't what I wanted but it's better than nothing. It's especially good practice because I write the whole segment. I'm a bit worried though because I only have one semester after the next one to anchor in, and it's going to be hard to open up my schedule. Oh well.
I shouldn't say this, but...

Nevermind. I'm just going to sound bitter.

Also, why do I keep choosing majors where there are too many girls and not enough guys?

Christmas craze

I can't wait to have a Christmas when I'm not in school scrambling like a crazy person to finish stuff up before the semester ends.
We had the BDC closing social Tuesday:

In the gorgeous Alumni building

It was officially my last Ballroom dance company event... ever. That's pretty sad. But it really was time to move on. I submitted my anchor application today so cross your fingers for me and if I'm really lucky (or just that good :) then I could be an anchor for the show in the winter! I even cleared out my schedule large and wide to make sure I maximized my chances. We shall see.

One of my favorite things about team was our director: Curt Holman. He's awesome, and it's really been a pleasure working under his direction. He expects a lot out of us and pushed us hard, but he was never evil and is lots of fun too.

And of course my AWESOME teammates! Thanks everyone for a fun last semester--it's been great getting to know all these talented people, and it's really crazy what a diverse group we are--we've got engineers, linguists, scientists, sociologists, reporters :) and of course, dancers.

Tango at the faculty concert

the girls at my last show

Ok, let's go on a little tour:

First team: spring team

First number

And then came summer team, where I noticed a handsome young man named Andrew Nelson...
(OK, he actually caught my eye before that, I just happened to spend more time around him when we were on the same team)

First (and only) latin number

This photo is probably a good explanation of the reason I don't do Latin. I just don't think I have a good feel for it, ya know?

Then came fall: 10 o'clock team with Kirstyn

Of course, you can't help but take a foxy photo when dancing the foxtrot

Yep, those blue dresses again...

Oh Gab...

And concert :

Technically these outfits have skirts to them, but who needs a skirt right? I'm pretty sure the gentlemen of the company had a vote going on for best legs after this, but it's just a rumor I heard. 

And then of course backup tour team, also known as BUTT, which I think is an atrocious acronym. But that's really how we were called on the order of events list!

Bye bye Ballroom company, I really will miss you!*

*Minus the early mornings, the drama and the politics. Of course.

Cross your fingers for me

Please :)

Changes

I'm beginning to think it's a bit silly to have two blogs... who needs two blogs? I'd been keeping the one for just crafting/sewing/other creative ventures, but it's a part of my "normal" life too so I think from now on I'll just post it all over here as well. Voilà.

Awkward...

I am in the midst of New student orientation right now, which is fun (it is also hot outside). Our group has 10 guys and two girls, one of which (yikes. Is that correct? one of which?) is a big flirt so that kind of cracks me up.. Anyway.
The following conversation is an exchange between me and one of the girls in our group. We're greeting the students, making small talk, get-to-know you type stuff.

Me: So where are you from
Girl: I'm from Las Vegas
Me: Oh, that's where my husband's from!
Girl: What? You're MARRIED? (look of disbelief on her face)
Me: yes, yes I am...
Girl: you look like you're eighteen! How OLD are you???
Me: ... um I'm going on 22... (In my head: that would be four years older than you to begin with...)
Girl: I just can't believe you're married. You look like eighteen!
Me: polite smile (In my head: yeah, we went over that part already)

So, I get it that I look young, I really do. I also realize I married young.

But really? Is it not just a teeny bit rude to act so shocked? And to essentially tell someone they look like a child bride? And to demand proof of their age?

And really? Do I look like a freshman? I mean I was wearing a big goofy Y-group leader t-shirt, I guess that does look very "teenager-ish". I know I have big round cheeks. And yes, I know, I'll look young when I'm a middle-aged woman. yippee.

Sometimes this worries me though. I hope people don't see me and think "oh look a dumb blond teenager" and then skip over me for opportunities I am MORE than qualified for.

I'll simply let them know I just set the curve in my tv news producing class.
When I turned in my first paper at BYU, my professor thought it was so good that he ran it through plagiarism detection software to make sure I had actually written it. And promptly gave it 100%. I work as a translator alongside people who have masters degrees. I'm on the way to graduating without debt because I've been WORKING my way through college. I've made it to the back-up ballroom team because I saw them perform on BYUTV and said to myself: "I want to be on that stage." Last year, I danced on that stage. And again this year. And I will next year.

Oh, and I met the best man on earth and married him. Why wait if it's the right decision?! I can't stand arguments like "marriage will prevent you from fulfilling your academic dreams." Actually, my husband is pushing me towards them.
And you know what? I'm GLAD I married young. I know what direction my life is going and I'm glad I can start planning for the future with my husband.

Sorry about the brag fest. But sometimes you have to remind yourself that you are capable of things. I know what I'm worth.
Doesn't that deserve a little respect from little miss freshman?


What are you proud of?


PS: THIS is what a real child bride looks like.

(Yep, that's me with my mom's veil)



Oh and by the way, I've decided to give twitter a try, but it's not much fun without friends. Come check it out!

a momentous occasion

I obtained my learner's permit Wednesday (on the first try, might I add) and am now learning to be a responsible driver thanks to my dear husband. I thought I should immortalize the moment in a drawing of my own creation.
I call it:

Andrew teaching Lydia how to drive