On paper, the numbers seem to make sense.

I’ve taken different paths in my life than a lot of my friends, and yet, we’ve still had similar experiences that we can relate to. How? Check out these fun numbers:

I’ve never served as a full-time missionary, but I talk about my Ragnar Relay Races like other people talk about their missions.

• Number of Ragnars Run: 3
• Collective Number of Hours Slept While Racing: 9ish
• Collective Number of Hours Spent Racing: 106ish
• Number of Different Teammates I’ve Had: 33
• Total Number of People I’ve Known on My Teams Before Race Day: 2

Though these strenuous, rewarding races are nowhere NEAR a full-time mission, I’ve had so many amazing experiences and met so many wonderful people while running these Ragnar Relays that I just never stop talking about them. You’re away from home, you don’t know anyone (pretty much the case for my Ragnars) – missions/Ragnars are a total, immersive culture shock! Everyone’s way too excited to be there, too – runner’s high, the Holy Ghost, call it what you will. Food is minimal (unless you get fed; thank you, Mr. Wadsworth!), rest is rare, and the masses think you’re crazy. Also, personally, I’ve completely fallen in love with every place I’ve run a Ragnar in (Wasatch Back in Utah, Colorado, and Las Vegas) and I want to go back all the time. However, as is not uncommon for LDS missions, I never gained any weight running these races (unless it was in leg muscle). 

It’s no secret here that I’ve never dated anyone, but I go through Ward Activities Co-Chairs like some people go through boy/girlfriends.

• Number of Times I’ve Had This Calling: 3
• Collective Number of Months Served For: 31
• Number of Co-Chairs I’ve Had: 8

As a side note: It honestly feels like this is my permanent calling, and that other people who get it when I get called somewhere else are just borrowing it. …also, this is my favorite calling. :)

I’ve had co-chairs that I’ve freakin LOVED (in the most friend-ish way – I’ve actually never “like” liked any of them. …I take that back, I did like one of them, but now we’re just friends), and I’ve had co-chairs that looked promising, but that I actually didn’t work too well with. …/didn’t work too well with me. I didn’t really know what I was doing when I first got called, and my first co-chair and I actually parted ways pretty quickly and aren’t even really friends now. Some served with me for months, some only for a couple weeks. Some are just like me, some are soooooooo different. Some people have boyfriends/girlfriends, I have collaborative partnerships.

As another side note: While these partnerships have been similar to the structure of romantic relationships, honestly, the lessons I’ve learned through having friends (both boys AND girls) have given me more life experiences and taught me more life lessons that are similar to the experiences/lessons that my friends have had through dating other people.

And thus we see that God uses various methods to teach His children the same lessons so that each may learn in the most effective way. :)

Life?

Life is good. :)

I love people, and I like to think that sometimes I understand them.

When I’m in the process of getting to know a person, I like to think about what their spouse is like, or what their future spouse might be like. I can’t really give generalizations about what kind of Significant Other a person chooses (or will someday choose) says about them, but it’s interesting for me to think about. I’ll give you a few examples of couples I know that might give you an idea as to why I find this fascinating:

Couple Numero Uno: Total Opposites

The Husband: He is crazy. Like, daredevil, maybe a little arrogant, fun-loving, adventurous, prideful (but still a great person), outgoing, loud, confident, kind of a bro. Also unorthodox and slightly inappropriate at times, as most famously noted in his Sacrament Meeting talks. It’s freaking funny, but it makes his wife roll her eyes a bit. ;)

The Wife: She’s like the sweetest person ever. Quiet, relative to her husband, but definitely able to stand her ground and not a pushover. Super nice, very loving, approachable, generally happy. Strong testimony. Overall great person.

The Combination: They definitely complete each other. Some say that opposites attract, but others say that’s only true to an extent. I tend to agree with the latter. So what qualities do we see in the husband that we don’t immediately see in the wife? What about the other way around? Or what similarity do they have that we don’t see in either one? It’s fun to look for that kind of stuff. I would say that this relationship is complementary, but they have to have some strong, underlying value or characteristic or something that they connect with, right? Sometimes, as we look closer, we can figure out what that is, but other times… well, we may never know. :)

Couple Number Two: Basically The Same Person

The Husband: Mostly reserved, but has been known to let go sometimes and bring out his goofy side, competitive side, etc. Hipster. Very smart. Creative thinker. Great friend. Very easy to talk to. Hard worker. Overall a wonderful person. :)

The Wife: Mostly reserved, but has been known to let go sometimes and bring out her goofy side. Doesn’t like to watch her husband get competitive because he sometimes almost gets hurt. ;) Loves to be outside. Hipster. …excuse me, Non-Traditionalist. :) Very smart. Good thinker. Creative. Absolutely a great friend. Very easy to talk to. Hard worker. Overall a wonderful person. :)

The Combination: I know both these kids pretty well, and I LOVE THEM. :) That’s not relevant to this post, but it had to come out. Anyway, with couples like this, it’s no WONDER they got married, right? When I look at these kinds of couples, I see their common values amplified. Let me explain: Say you have this friend. You know he loves his family, is very religious, loves biking, and never leaves anywhere without his chapstick. Then he marries this girl who has had a rocky past with her family, but she’s also very religious, loves biking, and always has chapstick on hand. All of the sudden, his love of his religion, biking, and his chapstick seem to be much more important to him. Maybe you didn’t even realize he valued them so much. Orrrrr maybe you did and you saw this relationship happening 100 years ago. Either way.

*Two things: First of all, this doesn’t necessarily mean that he values his family less than these other things. Maybe he does, maybe he doesn’t; it doesn’t matter. The point is that to you, the value he places on religion, biking and chapstick is deeper than you thought it was before. Second, the chapstick may be irrelevant, but it may also represent their shared love of small and simple things. You never know. :)

If a person is not married, then I try to imagine what his or her future spouse would be like. Will they marry someone mostly different than they are, suggesting a side of them I don’t know, or will they marry someone pretty similar to them, cementing the values I already knew they had? Or what if none of that is even applicable? Every person and every couple is so different that these things have to be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Obviously, these are some more extreme(ish) examples, and there are varying degrees of differences and similarities. I didn’t even touch the Happy Medium couples. But hopefully, you can see why I find this fascinating. Some people look inside a woman’s purse, others inspect the window stickers on a car, and almost everyone Facebook stalks. But I think that looking at who they pick/might pick for their eternal companion (or, you know, like, spouse or life-mate or whatever if you’re not LDS or don’t otherwise believe in life after death and the bonds of marriage transcending that event) says a lot about a person, and can help us understand them on a deeper level. :)

Life?

TONIGHT IS THE BYU MEN'S VOLLEYBALL HOME FREAKIN OPENER!!!!!

Life is good. :)

The National Parks

Once upon a time I was in this class and I made a new friend named Caroline.

I like Caroline. She's super down to earth and kinda hippie in a Mormon way. Girl wore Chacos to class. #coolstatusright?

;)

So one day, I think I was looking for new music, and I can't remember exactly how I came to this, but I knew that Caroline listened to this band called The National Parks. Maybe I saw it on Spotify or something...? I honestly don't remember. But since I liked Caroline's style, I decided to give them a listen.

I'm always open to new music, searching for bands that just hit the spot for me. :)

I listened to a couple of their songs, and I liked them! But I quickly forgot about them.

Recently, I remembered this band and decided to give them another listen because I had remembered that I liked them. So I Spotify them again and started to fall in love with two of their songs. Their other songs are not bad by any means, I just tend to be slow with my feelings.

Heaven help my future husband... he is likely to have to wait in the friend zone for a while before I start to like him, let alone before we even DATE. 

BUTANYWAYS.

I soon learned to love As We Ran and Ghosts. I decided, "Yeah, I like this band."

So then today I'm on the Facebooks and I notice that my friend has commented on something about The National Parks and their song called Helsinki. I look a little closer and find out THEY'RE A UTAH-BASED BAND.

AND THEY'RE BYU GRADUATES.

WHAAAAAAAA???!?!?!?

It doesn't matter where they're from, I'd still like them either way, but this just made them so much cooler! And apparently, they were like 19 on some iTunes chart. BYU GRADS, GUYS. #ThatsMyAlmaMater :)

So cool, right?? Here are those two songs I love; give them a listen for yourself! :)

As We Ran

Ghosts

Life?

Life is good. :)