my life no longer a statistic

Britt came and stayed with me quite a bit last semester. She'd stay whenever she had to be at the hospital early for clinicals. During these visits, it was almost a 100% guarantee that we would exchange music with each other for whatever new songs we'd found in the 2 weeks since she last came down. I LOOOOOOVE Lady A! Especially when Brittany "introduced" me to one of their songs that is the story of my life and says exactly how I feel about what I want to do in life. The song: I Was Here.

"You will notice me. I'll be leaving my mark like intials carved in an old oak tree. You wait and see....I know in my heart I want to do something that matters. Say something different...I want to do something better with the time I've been given. And I want to try, to touch a few hearts in this life. Leave nothing less than something that says I was here..." With having listened to this song a lot lately and having an interesting conversation with someone this week (you're a jerk by the way-I know you're reading this), it's made me realize that I am a statistic. I am also part of many "groups", which really just makes me more of a statistic. Everyone is really, whether you realize it at first or not.

I am 1 of Becky's 5 children.I fall into the 61% of women that won't report a rape. As of April 2009 I was 1 of 13,824,854 members of the LDS church. I was the 466th person to walk of our 468, 2008 graduating class. I was 1 of 18 people to open up the ILP program in Weihai China. I am a part of the 26% increase of people attending college. With so many "groups" and "statistics" around to label us all the time, it can be easy for people to get the wrong idea about who we are as individuals. In honor of my 21st birthday being 1 week and 1 day ago, here are 21 interesting/random facts that you may (most likely may not) have known about who I am and what has made me the way that I am:

1..I can run on 2-0 hours of sleep but I love sleep more anything. If I'm sleeping, I recommend you not try to wake me up. Or touch me. Or even breath on me. Cause when I got woken up, you will find yourself facing a beast. 2..the day of my baptism I was suddenly so scared/nervous for some reason that I seriously considered calling it off. In fact, I went to the bathroom while Bishop Callahan spoke RIGHT before the actual thing and I started crying. To this day I'm not sure why. 3..My first time away from home on my own was to stay at Eric and Joni's. I'm pretty sure not a single person in the world has ever been more homesick than I was those 5 days! My family could easily back me up on that. I called home at least 3 times a day. 4...Not only did I use to want 6 children, I wanted them to be 2 sets of triplets. And they had to be a set of girls and a set of boys: Briley, Kiley and Riley/Braden, Kaden and Jaden. I think this was when I first discovered how fun words could be and they way they rhymed and fit together. 5...When I went to New York, I wanted to live there so bad that I even wrote in my journal that I would be a stripper if that's what it took for me to get there. 6..I wanted to play college volleyball more than anything in the world. In a preseason game my senior year, I played harder and better than I've ever played before. That was the game where everything changed and suddenly I was too scared.. 7..I still cry everytime I have to get a shot. Everytime. 8..I am terrified of snakes. Like, deathly terrified! Just looking at one makes me cry, and talking about them makes me pull my legs up because I'm scared they'll be in areas surrounding me. 9..I LOVE the takeoff on planes! I look forward to the little "tummy topple" or flip thing it does once the plane first leaves the ground. 10..I have an odd way of "bonding" with my stuff to where I feel attached to it and will never want to get rid of it. Sentimental things especially but even silly things like my shoes or purses. 11..I have 24 real teeth, 2 fake and 1 MIA. 12..me and Catherine once had a HUGE crush on this guy so we did the typical girl thing of calling his house and then once he answered we would sit there and not say anything until he hung up. Then we'd laugh hysterically and call back again 20 minutes later. In our defense this was a LOOOOONG time ago. 13..when I moved to St. George for college, I cried the whole way down and my whole first night. I was so desperate for Jess and my new roommates not to hear me that night that I bit my tongue so hard that I had a literal bruise on it for almost 2 weeks after. 14..I slept with dolls until I was about 12. I had TONS of them and felt like I had to give all of them equal attention so I made up a sleeping schedule thing where I rotated them through. 15..I have not only been to The Great Wall, I have fully experienced it: I ran onto it, I skipped across it singing Mulan songs, I peed on it, I bought a shirt on it, I terrified myself of falling while hiking up it's 100 degree inclined steps, walked 10 miles on it and I ziplined off of it. 16..my first day of college I pooped my pants by the fountain on campus. An EXTREMLY complex [and actually hilarious]story! 17..One day I went to school and my friend showed me a huuuuge butcher knife in her backpack and was crying, telling me how she wanted to kill her mom. I was so scared that my whole body was shaking all day that my teachers kept asking me if something was wrong. When I went home I gave my mom a huge hug and for the first time said how much I loved her "Just cause." 18...running for Senior Class President was the scariest thing I have ever done. Speaking at graduation was the second. 19..I once tried to quit drinking Mt. Dew. It lasted 4 days and the day I broke we had a football game at Mt. View and I had 23 that night alone. 20..I use to lie about why things made me cry or sad or whatever because I was embarrased. Clearly that is no longer an issue since I now tend to throw all of my embarrasing and personal stories on this blog for whoever to read. :) (Brit...Thank God for Kids falls into this category) 21..I've had some VERY hard times in my life but I think I've turned out pretty great to be honest. I am happy and confident and secure in knowing who I am and not caring about what other people think!

Everyone's a statistic and that can't be helped. But don't let people label you. I want people to be able to say that I loved life! I want them to say that they laughed and had fun when they were around me. I want to be a person that can brighten somebody's day! Be comfortable in who you are and LOVE it! If you don't like something change it or try to look at it differently. Leave your own impact on the world whether it's great or small. Do what YOU want to do and do it for YOU. Don't be afraid to make mistakes and laugh at yourself because that's when you end up with the best stories. So many of my friends get so caught up in being exactly what guys want, or the perfect marriage material or the girl that everyone loves but seriously....WHY?! They get the perfect grades, they look the perfect way, they say just the right things, they're spiritual and motiviated, the cook amazing things, they never mess up, they never do embarrasing things......Who even cares? Have fun and live your life for you and not anybody else. That's when the real fun starts :)

"...and I know that I will do more than just pass through this life. I'll leave nothing less of something that says I was here."