light the world lift off

i'm in love with the #lighttheworld campaign. it's such a cool concept and i believe it wholeheartedly. everybody has opportunities every day to spread light and when we choose to use that power for good it can have amazing beautiful results. plus, who doesn't want more light in their life?

at the end of december we had a ward activity where we talked about service and let a bunch of balloons go with messages of light on them to usher in a year of lighting the world. it was so so pretty!

the missionaries were in charge (missionaries are legit the best) and it was a super fun night which included the super cool balloon release, the great wallet hunt, the awkward food exchange, and freddy's.

here's to a great 2018 full of lighting the world!

*end note: before the lift off all of the balloons were in one of the classrooms off the hallway and it seriously looked magical with all of them lit up and filling the whole ceiling. pictures couldn't do it justice! (especially grainy iPhone ones)

lets go 2018

this year was the first year i was actually able to check and see how i did on my new years resolutions. it was actually pretty fun to really be able to measure my progress without having to dig up an old notebook that i probably never would have taken the time to find. so even though it' s already a week into the new year and i already wrote about all this in my journal, i figure i might as well put in on here too so that i can look back and do the same thing next year.

this year i decided to set a variety of goals. some are things i pretty much know will happen unless something crazy happens, others are things that are going to take a lot of work, a few are vague, and some are just one time things that i hope i can accomplish at some point in the year.

2018 goals 

*go to Brazil (!!!)

*get my full license 

*get accepted into college (!!!) a scholarship would also be nice but since that's not 100% in my control, i'm not listing it as an official goal. 

*graduate seminary Book of Mormon year, kind of a shoe in goal but my tardy record from last semester would say otherwise. 

*do a no sugar month

*

*finish personal progress (i have a plan to finish it by the end of the school year and i'm really hoping i can stick to it)

*finish saving for hefy and start saving for my future

*make a video it can really be about anything, i've just always focused on photography and want to branch out for fun

*get more serious about photography. i would love to be able to make a good amount of money taking pictures because i really enjoy it 

*set up a hard drive my computer storage has been begging me to the last few months

*journal at least a few times a month

*be at school as little as possible senior year haha, but seriously, isn't that what dual credit classes are for?

*maintain current gpa

*value and improve family relationships since this is my last full year at home. 

*get to know Nashville better 

*go to a concert 

*visit Utah (again, not totally in control here, but i would really like to)

*stay positive even when a bunch of people i know graduate and leave

*service!!!!

*help mom make a christmas card on time

*expand creativity 

overall goal: live! if i have a good idea run with it! enjoy where i am but create the life i want

as far as blogging in the new year, i don't really have a plan. i'm not sure what i want to do. i've been into journaling a lot lately but i also really enjoy being able to add pics to blog posts and find specific memories and thoughts with a few clicks. for now i plan to just post when i feel like it and mainly focus on life. i used to really want to be able to blog for money some day but now it just seems fun to be able to record my life on here and i'm pretty sure there aren't that many people still reading (which is fine with me, because i didn't really do my part in posting but if you are still reading, holy cow you're awesome). i plan to publish some old posts that never got put up and write when i feel like it but other than that i'm not sure. i don't want to force it because i have a lot of other creative projects that are making me excited these days and i don't want to spend time on something i don't love. plus there's also school, my job, and then just having time to actually live that i've got to think about. 

i guess that was really just a super long way to say i have no clue what my blogging plans are. haha.

anyway, i'm so super pumped for 2018 and i cannot wait to see where i am at this time next year. i'll have been to brazil (!!!!!), have my college plans pretty much set, and be in my last semester of high school!! and with the way life goes, i know there will be a few surprises thrown in there too. here's to 2018! 

2017

2017

*got permit and then license!
*first car
*turned 16
*first date
*first blind date
*got my braces off
*first year as a ycl! (plus i got to go to high adventure because of it)
*first ap classes and tests
*went to nauvoo, carthage, st.louis, and st. augustine
*spent pretty much every weekend this summer at our cabin in cumberland
*graduated sophomore year and became a junior (one year closer!!!)
*went to prom
*went to nashville without parents twice (once with emma and once with nate)
*first paid photoshoots!
*officially signed up for hefy
*first job! (i work at a preschool now and the kids are the cutest)
*got a passport (i've had one before but it expired a few years ago)
*got 2 cats, a few fish, and a puppy
*got to do some graphic design work for 2 companies

(pic from my instagram story)

2017 wasn't my hottest year for blogging but it also wasn't on the top of my priority list. one thing i really enjoyed that i actually did post was my new year resolutions. i spent a lot of time at the beginning of the year thinking about the past year and i have a feeling that 2018 is going to be pretty awesome. i decided since 2017 has been the only year that i've actually known where to find my goal list and check it at the end of the year I should probably continue the tradition and add a little recap. my 2018 goals will be going up in the next few days.

how i did: 

*keeping track of my goals: i probably should have checked in on them more throughout the year but I did know where to find them and i kept up with them better than i have before so i'm calling it a win.
*finish the Book of Mormon before my birthday: win! i may or may not have been reading the night before my birthday but it was done!
*write 3 happy things down each day: fail. i went through some phases of being good at this but was never really consistent.
*personal progress: made some definite progress here but maybe should have done a little more? i feel good about where i am though.
*get my license: DONE! seriously the. best. thing. ever
*sign up for HEFY: also DONE! i CANNOT wait!! #brazilbound
*craft camp: another thing done! we hosted a christmas craft camp this year and it was a blast!
*run a color run: still on my bucket list...
*photography: i'm not exactly where i hoped i would be at this time but 2017 was definitely the funnest photography year i've had yet! i was able to finally do some paid shoots and get the word out a little more about my business, plus just take some of my very favorite pictures yet. the year ended on a high of getting to take pictures of an event for our local performing art center with press passes and everything.
*patience: this was one of those goals that i knew would be hard to measure, but i feel like i became at least a little more patient. i definitely still have a loooong way to go, but i think i became more patient in areas that were driving me crazy at the beginning of last year.
* journal more: kind of draw here. i journaled a good amount but in chunks. but between all the photos i have, quite a few journal entries, social media, and the few blog posts i posted this year i feel okay about how my life is being documented.
*spending time more meaningfully : also not sure how to measure this. now that i have a job + school + seminary + trying to spend time with friends and family i'm forced to use my time a little better but i still think i could improve on cutting back on checking social media.
*taking risks: there weren't a ton of risks i had to take this year but i did grow some in the fact that i tried to work on things that made me happy and just go for life instead of worrying a ton. there were several fundraisers that could have tanked (and some didn't end up being the most profitable), getting a job made me nervous at first, signing up for hefy was a risk because i didn't have all the money raised, posting my weekly #sundaythoughts, etc. all these were little things but i'm not sure i would have done them the year before last. there's always room to grow in this category but overall i think i did okay?
*blog 2 times a month: 4 months is better than nothing right? this was one of the first times i felt totally okay about that though. i just decided that blogging wasn't my highest priority right now.

all in all, 2017 was a pretty rad year but it also had some pretty hard times too. its easy to look back on the highlights and see it as a huge stream of success and fun memories one after another, but i think its really important to remember that there were hard things as well as awesome things. i just choose to write about those kinds of things in my journal more than online. 

2017 was a year of learning, growing, and creating a life closer to what i want mine to be. i feel like 2018 is going to be a culmination of a lot of things that happened in 2017 coming together, but also pretty unexpected too. i can't wait to see what it holds!