RAINBOWS

Hawaii is known as the "Rainbow State", but I still hadn't seen a rainbow....

UNTIL TWO DAYS AGO

AND

IT WAS A DOUBLE RAINBOW

I was so happy! I really really wanted to take a picture, but I didn't have a phone or my camera....

I'm not going to lie, I was kinda bummed. And I was telling Kell about it so he left the store he was at to go take some pictures of it for me haha

Even if you can't see the second rainbow, you can see the first and that makes me so happy. 

Currently

I have a really hard time focusing on reading stuff if there aren't pictures or if the text doesn't change in size, boldness, italics, etc; so I do not blame you at all if you don't read this because I know I probably wouldn't read it either.

I know I keep saying that the days are flying by, but also dragging on and I can't even explain how true that is.

Just last Wednesday seems like weeks ago.

So I'm going to start with Wednesday night since that is the furthest back I can remember. Yikes. 

Everything is changing so quickly and it is honestly so terrifying:

1. I have a lot of friends here but not very many are like really really close, you know? And I'm the type of person who is totally fine with just one friend as long as I can trust them and tell them anything and be really annoying and they won't leave me haha. I've had quit a few of those friends in my life and all of them have since left me, so I was kind of just enjoying being friends with a huge group of people and experiencing what that's like (I feel like at any given time of my life I have only had around 6 friends and then like 25 "friends"). So now I feel like I have like 45 "friends" and like 5 friends, but there has been an opening for best friend for quite a while. 

Sorry that was a really long explanation for something that really didn't need that many words haha. 

Basically I made a friend who I am really really happy with. His name is Kell, and we actually kind of like hated each other in the beginning? I don't really know haha but that's how a lot of my friendships start out--not that that is a good thing lol!

I can't remember why we were texting but he asked me something and I told him it was a long story that I wasn't willing to type out (I'm really kind, I know) but he was willing to listen in person and we ended up talking for hours. So I guess we are friends now haha. He is one of those people who has seen probably every single movie in the world. So he is "very picky" about movies and has made a list of movies and TV shows I need to watch--it has gotten pretty long by now (don't worry I am still studying a lot. I told him I wouldn't watch any until after my physics test this week--PRAY FOR ME)

2. On Thursday night there was a meeting for the Cheer and Dance team for BYUH. I walked into the room and sat down and I no-joke almost walked out after 5 minutes. There were quite a few girls and for someone who hasn't danced in 3 YEARS I was kinda freaking out. So needless to say, I am so glad I stayed! We moved into the gym and ran two laps (I was dying. I hate running! Honestly just because I'm out of shape and bad at it--if I was good at it, I would love it haha), and then started stretching. Since I haven't done splits for 2.5 years and had only bothered to start stretching 2 days before....it HURT. Honestly it is kind of an unspoken rule, but if you don't have at  least your right and left side splits flat...you have absolutely no chance in dance. Once you are like 12, you better have those suckers down (and I mean it is actually easier if you had started at like say 8, because you like naturally have the flexibility, right?). So anyways, I pushed my hips flat, and I AM SO SORE NOW. Sore everywhere. Literally every single muscle kills--honestly it's a great feeling. I feel so accomplished! 

So after stretching, they tried to evaluate our tumbling. A little backstory--I haven't done flips on ground since Freshman year drill team? And then I mean Junior year was my epic backflip off a tire where I went high enough, but didn't go back far enough and hit my head on the tire while going down and got a concussion.... so I mean I probably shouldn't do any tumbling right? WRONG. You can be a mediocre dancer with tumbling and make the team. That is honestly probably why I have always been a favorite on my previous dance teams. I am making (okay I might not be that forceful...) all my daughters take gymnastics. SO WORTH IT. So yeah mom, I am so glad I did not take you and dad up on that offer in 5th grade (?). The one where if I quit gymnastics we could go on a trip to California. 1. because gymnastics has shaped my life and I wouldn't be where I was without it. I think it is part of why I am so independent. My coaches were amazing. 2. We ended up going to California like the next year anyways lol.

Friday, we learned the cheer dance part, and it is HARD. Also we didn't have much time to learn it and it was a lot of fast movements. ANYWAYS--goodness I always have so much to say!--so that night went pretty great. We learned an actual cheer (like with the word/chant thing), and a dance. I made a friend Danielle, and we practiced the dance in the stake center until we got kicked out because of curfew haha.

The next morning we got up super early to practice before tryouts--running on like no sleep because I made a bad decision to stay out late. Throughout the clinics and even practicing before tryouts, girls started dropping out lol. Like it's awful, but you can kind of tell if you are going to make the team or not.... so tryouts went by, and honestly I killed the dance routines. Cheer....was a little more rough, but that isn't what I was really trying out for anyways.

So Saturday night I got an email to say I made it, along with the two girls I was hoping would make it: Brittany and Danielle.

3. Stake Conference. So stake conference was this Sunday and since there are so many people in my stake we had to have it in the gym. So that meant I had to work. So Saturday night I had to work at a volleyball game, and since we all try not to work on Sunday, AFTER the game ended everyone was trying to set everything up. So we ended up staying a really really long time (I mean yay hours...but I need sleep man).

Sunday morning rolls around, and I have to be there at 8. Which isn't bad, I'm usually awake by then. I set two alarms and they went off...unfortunately that was when I realized that my POC phone's screen had finally stopped working... that meant that all I could do was snooze the alarms that just happened to be going off every 4 minutes. So....I stuck some ticky tack in the speakers, and wrapped it in 4 towels to muffle the vibrating! When I came back home it was frozen on the alarm screen (:

Oops.

ANYWAYS. Stake conference. Sorry, got distracted. So I get there at 8, and it doesn't even start till 10. It takes us like 10 minutes to finish setting up, and then we just sit there for 2 hours. So I go back to my dorm and get a blanket and snacks, because the sound box get's COLD. Like I was laying on the floor in a fetal position with a blanket for 4 hours. So that was fun....

4. I know I said midterms were last week, but....they got pushed back to this week. Which I mean is good since I haven't really studied, but sucks too because I did my practice test for physics and I literally am questioning being a dentist JUST because of this class. I swear. All I want is a C. I took my midterm for GE 110 today though--probably killed it tbh, and am taking Book of Mormon tomorrow, just to get it out of the way. Honestly this week is super packed because of tests, dance, work, and school. So after Thursday...then I'll have a life again (thank goodness!).

Midterms

Everyone I see on social media is just now starting school or started like a couple weeks ago.

Welllllll

Here I am with midterms this week and next....

I have now approached a new level of planning out my day.

EVERY HOUR IS PLANNED OUT

eat, study, class, study, class, class, class, eat, study, eat, exercise, study, shower

every.single.day.

Isn't college just glorious?

I may be in Hawaii, but it definitely is not a party every single day. I spend a lot of time studying alone in my room or the library. And on those few occasions were I sociably study with other people I quickly remember why I do not study with other people (especially Trevor and Sammy *cough*)

So anyways, I am just giving you an update:

I am still alive (barely)

Pray for me!

I'll be back in 2 weeks.

LABOR DAY

You never realize how many people are on the island until a holiday or a weekend!

The traffic was horrendous, but luckily we got off to an early start. We got up at 7 AM and went to Shark's Cove. The visibility sucked. We saw some fish, but once it got to 20 feet we could barely see anything... But we went and saw the tide pool/shallow area and cut my foot lol. I wish I had taken some actually cool pictures but I didn't take any.....lameeee.

After, we went to Haleiwa and beat the line for Matsumoto's Shave Ice, went to a ton of different art galleries (and took all their free postcards lol), took some pictures, hung out at the beach (taught them cartwheels), and got lunch. After awhile, Derek and I started getting tired and hitchhiked back to campus. 

Incase you didn't know, my friends are actually weirdos.

Look how healthy I am! 

Not that healthy, but healthier than my friends lol

(as I eat an average of 4 servings of ice cream a day...)

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. My friend Trevor and I spent 3 HOURS in the caf lol. Friends just kept coming and we just kept talking. And then we just kept being lazy and not wanting to move....you know, typical. Then we went and talked with friends and played around the world ping pong. And then, everyone wanted to watch a movie, but then I left and watched the same movie by myself because I like watching movies with small groups of people better haha.

Update

Last week I said the days were flying by,

NOW the days are flying by.

And now it's not a great thing it's an awful terrifying thing because that means midterms are in the next couple weeks. 

I am actually so freaking scared.

So....physics is actually awful thanks for asking. I do think that God has blessed me with a lot of time to study though. I recognize that he gave me a job that allows me to study the whole entire time, and allowed 2 of my classes to be cancelled--leaving me with all of Thursday to study! yay. 

This has been such a struggle for me because I hate feeling stupid. Absolute worst feeling in the world. And I know I'm not! But I feel like everyone thinks I am in the class. But by this point I am totally okay with that because I am just trying to keep afloat so I am totally okay if all these people think I'm an idiot--most of them are graduating either this semester or next semester anyways!

The problem is that the teachers here teach everything so much different than my old ones. My tutor who is a math major was trying to show me how to do one of the problems but I was SO confused on how he was doing the partial derivative of one of the ln functions (you probably have no idea what I'm talking about, but that's okay, just pretend like you do). He was explaining how you use the chain rule which sounds really familiar, but the way he was doing it was so confusing to me because I had learned it another way and didn't realize till after he had finished the problem. So there is just a lot of confusion for me...

Anyways yeah. Sorry I will probably mention physics every single post until I pass this class at the end of the semester. And if I don't pass then I will be retaking it next year and ranting every post. 

(and I know ranting is just catharsis and psychologists have proven it doesn't help you cope with stress at all, but I don't care. because they haven't given me a better way to deal with it besides like running which I don't have time to do and if I did I still wouldn't do it)

ANYWAYS.

Job:

So I got a job as the Audio tech for our school. They set up the microphones, speakers, and music for dances, concerts, devotionals, and athletic events. It's super simple which is nice. You just come early, set everything up, test to make sure it all works, and then sit and make sure the speakers don't blow up. Aka sit and do homework or watch a movie. I'll probably stick with this job until March and then when I come back in the fall get the Graphic Arts tutor/lab attendant job so that I can work on my projects and get paid for it lol. 

THANKFULLY, the minimum wage just got moved up! It used to be $7.25 (!!!!!), but now it's $8.50 which sucks, but compared to $7.25.....I feel super rich. It's really hard to find any job that pays more than that. I haven't heard of anyone making more than that. It's just a super small school in a super small city so there aren't too many options.

Doesn't that sound board look super intimidating?! Yeah same. 

When I went in for the interview I almost walked out because it looked so scary.

Enjoy this beautiful picture of cafeteria food. Some days it's really bad, and some days they get really creative. They went all out with National Cereal Day which made me so happy because Junior year I  used to be obsessed with "national days" (free food). We also celebrated crepe day and the paninis are to die for (relatively speaking lol), and the ice cream machine is my go-to food if nothing looks good.

Speaking of which..........

I DID NOT GAIN 500 POUNDS EVEN THOUGH I LOOK LIKE IT IN THIS PICTURE

All around we just look trashy.

Lol

Get it?

For one of my classes we were just assigned to clean up the beach. Class was cancelled and we had to send her a picture haha. Life is great.

Lastly, although there was quite a bit of trash, soon we will be getting so much more! yay.....

Do you know why??

2 hurricanes are headed my way!!

Hurricane Madeline and Lester.

technically I think Madeline has shrunk to just a tropical storm, but Lester is supposed to hit my side of Oahu on Sunday (:

At least if I die I won't have to take physics.

In all seriousness though, I'm actually so pumped. I hope it's super exciting and floods a lot. That would be cool. I just want to be in a hurricane. 

So yeah! Hopefully your week was wonderful, and if it wasn't then you and I both are praying it gets better.

Aloha,

Mikaylie