Adventure is Out There

Golda is starting to get wedding invitations in the mail, and her peers are starting to leave on missions.  It's a crazy time of life.  It's easy to feel like everyone is passing you by when there are weddings and missionary farewells and people moving away.  It's tempting for some of these new adults to feel like everyone else is doing something big, or taking the next step, but in reality, everyone is just figuring out where to go next.  Transitions are scary. Yet it's a time of life when it's OK to do something big.  Huge!  When you're 18 or 19, you can go and do whatever you want to do, so do it!  Don't lament the fact that people around you are moving on.  Move on too!  You can go anywhere in the world and do anything you can think of.  

 Caroline was Dance Co president, and went to UVU.  She has been an inspiration for Golda.  Thank you, Caroline!

 Last week was Golda's friend Evyn's missionary farewell.  He is going to Farmington, New Mexico, and will most likely be within the Navajo Nation for part, if not most, of his mission.  He gave a great talk.  He's so prepared to move on to the next phase.

 His mom brought us a thank you rose.  How sweet!

 I am so happy the girls get to travel now, especially with a whole batch of friends leaving on missions and to college.  These are all pictures that Genevieve sent me.  I was reading my journal from Spain in 1990.  It was my 5th summer spent in Europe, and I talked all about what I would do next time, and where I would go when I went back.  I did go back to Spain a couple of years later to work in a violin shop for the summer and travel around, and I spent time there with Scott in 1996.  But now it's been almost 20 years since I was in Spain.  It's sad to think that a place I loved so much has been all but forgotten in the day-to-day life.  On the other hand, look at the adventures I've had during the past 20 years.  But my point is, do things while you're young, when it's so easy.  I had parents who were super supportive of travel and education, and paid for a lot of opportunities for me.  And I had jobs where I worked and went to school sometimes 24 hours a day, literally.  At one time, I had school from 8 to 4, a waitress job from 5 to 10 pm, a hotel job from 10 pm to 6 am, and another hotel housekeeping job from 6 am to 10 am on weekends, so I could go to Spain for the summer.  It's possible.  In college, I took weekend gigs almost every weekend, where I went to different cities in Indiana and Kentucky to play in orchestras.  So I got to see the midwest, and get paid too.  When I lived in Indiana, I took every invitation to visit friends everywhere. Chicago, New York, Washington DC, Pittsburgh, Ann Arbor...Spain.  I traveled with Gema, the sister of the family Golda and Ruby are staying with in Spain.  We were roommates, and we drove up and down the east coast, all over Indiana, and she even came to Utah for Christmas.  We had fun, and it led to a richer life.  Golda and Ruby had dinner with Gema the other night in Extremadura.  She loves the girls dearly, because they are mine, and I love her for that.

So go and be young, young people.  Do the exciting things; the missions, the marriages, the travel, the adventure, college.  And don't forget to connect with the people around you, to absorb everything about them that is different than yourself.  Give your heart to them.  It will come back to you fuller and deeper than before, I promise.

 Lanslevillard

 Annecy

 Turin

 Turin

Golda, Olympe, Catherine, Ruby