Past, Present, and Future from the Past's Perspective

I am currently in Lawrenceville, Georgia right now visiting my family, my house, and my best friend (and only friend who still lives here). It's strange because I've lived here for basically my whole life and I've never known anywhere else as "home" until now. Everyone keeps asking me how soon I'm going home, obviously meaning Provo, and it's so strange to hear that. But it's true, Provo is my home now. Gosh, when did I grow up? I'm an adult who doesn't live at home anymore. I have a job and pay for all of my living expenses myself. I go to school and will have a career in a year. I am completely responsible for myself. Man that all happens so fast. But, I'm not complaining. I'm ready and loving this stage of my life.

That was kind of a tangent that I didn't mean to go off on. One of the main reasons I'm here for a visit is so I can clean out my room and get everything that I want to have with me in Provo. So that means lots of digging and cleaning out. Thankfully I did the deep cleaning last summer so it hasn't been too bad. I've just gone through a small filing cabinet and all the organized boxes in the closet, pulling out the stuff that I want.

The most fun I had was on Thursday when I was going through my filing cabinet. I have a bunch of old school work from elementary through high school. I spent a good amount of time laughing at some of my kindergarten writing. I was so amused that I thought I'd share with you. If I was really cool I'd scan it in here, but I'm too lazy to have to go downstairs and figure out if the scanner still works, so you'll just have to deal with my typed transcriptions.

First I found the little fill-in-the-blank questionnaires for Mother's and Father's Day:

My mom is 30 years old. She has green eyes and brown hair. She is 4 feet tall and weighs 90 pownds. She works at houm. At houm she taks ker of Jeff. Her favorite thing to do is going to UT. Her favorite food is pazzia. She likes to cook fug. On TV she watches ice scading. She and I like to plant flauurs together. I love my mom!

My dad is 30 years old. He has bronw eyes and black hair. He is 10 feet tall and weighs (I can’t tell if it’s 30 or 300) pounds. He is ergoner. His favorite thing to do is sit in the crre. His favorite food is lazanua. He likes to cook food. On TV he watches [baseball] games. He and I like to play together. I love my dad!


Don't fault me for being vain, but how precious! Admittedly I was a cute kid. Reading these made me excited for parenthood, just so I could have my own precious children write that my favorite thing to cook is [fudge]. Ha!

I also found a cute little blurb about my brother that I typed at the computer lab:

3-8-96 I like to hug Jeff And he Likes To hug Me win I git Home.

Aw, if only it were still like that. Actually, Jeff has been fantastic while I've been here. He took me shopping (well, I had the plastic so I was the one that paid, but he drove) and we went and bonded at the Verizon store trying to decide which phones we want when our two years is up next month. I'm not even sure that he's yelled at me once. What an improvement! Last summer, the only time he acknowledged me was to yell at me for existing. So he might not have hugged me when I got home, but he's been a good pal. And he keeps asking me what we're going to do in Provo when the fam comes out in July. So I guess he does love me. I'm excited!

The next thing that made me chuckle was the little book I made that same year called "When I Grow Up." It contained each of the following three sentences on their own page, accompanied by an illustration that you'll just have to imagine:

When I grow up I am going to have 100 dollars.
When I grow up I will have a cunvrdabl.
When I grow up I will have a cunpudr.


1. At the moment I actually have more than 100 dollars. Having 100 hundred dollars is an excellent goal though, as I obviously knew as a child.
2. I'm still working on this one. Perhaps one day though. I still have plenty more time to grow up, so that means I've still got time to get a convertible.
3. I do in fact have a computer.

It's very funny to see our expectations of the future from the past. I actually have another example of this, but we'll have to fast forward from kindergarten to 8th grade. In my cleaning I found a list of 10 goals that I had for my life, a health assignment or something. Here's the list:

1. Graduate from high school with mostly As and only a few Bs
2. Get into BYU and graduate
3. Make it into senior company next year at dance
4. Work hard at dance and get a solo in a show
5. Marry someone who has same standards as me
6. Hang out with good people
7. Continue to do well at playing my flute
8. Get along better with my family
9. Not procrastinate!!!
10.Open my own dance studio


Very amusing to see what was important to me when I was thirteen. I have kind of failed at a majority of this list though...

1. I did graduate with a 4.0, so that one was a check.
2. I am in fact at BYU, on my way to graduating. Only death will stop me.
3. I did make it to senior company at dance at the end of that year.
4. I quit dancing before I had the opportunity for a solo. Before that I had stopped working hard though...
5. I'm working on that one. Hopefully one day in the not too distant future I can put a check by this one.
6. I think I do have this one down. Funny goal though for life. Well, not really, but it is interesting that I put that instead of "Have 12 kids" or something ridiculous.
7. Flute...I guess I did this for a couple more years. Meh, whatever now though.
8. I do get along much better with my family now than when I was in middle school. Ha...oh the angsty rages. They were rare, but they were ugly when they happened.
9. Ha. Like that'll ever happen.
10. No desire in the world to do this anymore. It was in my life plan though back then.

Very fascinating to see what seven years will do to you. I wish I had a list of ten goals from when I had just graduated from high school. That would be extremely fascinating. I'm a completely different person now than I was back then. Crazy what just two years will do to you.

Hmm this is kind of a crazy, random, silly post. I think to top it off I'll leave with a list of ten goals I have for my life, as of right now:

1. Sew three skirts by the time I leave on Wednesday.
2. Work out and lay out every morning, Mon-Sat for all of July and August.
3. Go on 73 dates before July 1, 2012.
4. Complete my list of 21 things to do before I turn 21.
5. Use my time more wisely so that I only do homework at school during the day.
6. Graduate!
7. Be the awesome 5th grade teacher that all the kids want to have.
8. Learn how to play the guitar. And the piano.
9. Marry my best friend in the temple.
10. Raise a family that has a strong testimony of the Gospel.