I like this.

I think this is a great pick-me-up during the hard times.

http://lds.org/pages/god-is-our-father?lang=eng

Master of Public Administration

I figured this was probably a big deal in my life so I'd post on it. I am heading off to the University of Utah for my Master's in Public Administration. I am really excited to start this fall. Now the only big question is what my emphasis should be. I'm debating right now between higher education and health administration. I worked with the Leavitt Center and fell in love with higher education administration, however, I also did a year long internship with a public health department and also fell in love with that. Luckily I don't have to officially decide for at least one semester, but due to scheduling conflicts in my courses, I may have to declare one a little earlier than I anticipated. Shoot.

All I have left to do is move to Salt Lake, find a job and start another two years of school. Which by the way may end up turning into a lot more since I am now contemplating getting a joint doctoral degree with my master's degree. I just love making decisions.

My brother just finished the program and really enjoyed it so I am looking forward to it a little more. I am super excited to be able to see him more often when I move up to Salt Lake!

Kelsey is bored

I sympathize with Jeffery. Here I am being bored. I get off work early in the day and lack things to do until later in the evening when everyone else is free. If you can't tell, I'm not exactly a sedentary person. I like to be doing things. Sure, I can appreciate a day of doing nothing, but today I'd really like to be doing something. Therefore, I have found a lovely list of synonyms for the word bored. Please be enlightened on the many ways that you can say that you are uninterested in your current situation.

• arid, bromidic, bummer, characterless, cloying, colorless, commonplace, dead, drab, drag, drudging, dull, flat, ho hum, humdrum, insipid, interminable, irksome, lifeless, monotonous, moth-eaten, mundane, nothing, nowhere, platitudinous, plebeian, prosaic, repetitious, routine, spiritless, stale, stereotyped, stodgy, stuffy, stupid, tame, tedious, threadbare, tiresome, tiring, trite, unexciting, uninteresting, unvaried, vapid, wearisome, well-worn

It can be said that, for the moment, Jeffery and I are both characterless, bromidic, dull, spiritless, stale and wearisome. I am irked with my current boredom. Perhaps it is time for me to find something to do... or maybe the day will pick up a little later.

P.S. Watching Julian Smith movies, like the earlier shown Jeffery is Bored, is a great way to pass time.

SUU I love you.

I did it! I have finally completed my bachelor of science in political science at Southern Utah University.

Let me just say, I LOVE SUU! I honestly owe everything that I am to SUU and my experiences here. Let me enlighten you on why I make such a bold claim....

In 2006 my parents announced that we would be moving to Cedar City, Utah. After months of trying to sell a house we finally moved at the end of October that year. That was about three months into my senior year of high school. I was devastated and heart broken that my parents would tear me away from my friends who were practically family. I won't lie, my senior year was not easy though I did make some pretty great friends during my short time at Cedar High School that helped me out very much. I still know very few of the people I graduated with. Regardless, I look back on that time as a marvelous period of growth in my life. I learned to spread my wings, love my siblings, and be completely comfortable with who I am and what I stand for.

My decision to come to SUU was completely money driven. I had a goal to not go into debt, but didn't have the money to move out of the house and go to school. I also received a 2 year scholarship at SUU. So naturally, SUU was to be the university I'd attend. That same year one of my dearest friends left for his mission and I felt very alone. I missed him terribly and I didn't want to do anything. I met few people and was so shy I wouldn't even accept help from someone when I was carrying a heavy box (though I am now good friends with this person and was always grateful for the gesture). My first year of college was not much better than my last year of high school but that summer was when things started picking up. Enough of the sappy stuff, right?

I was part of an amazing singles ward. I met new friends who have become some of the closest confidants and life-long friends. I had a blast! This is what college was really about. Sure, my formal education was phenomenal, but the things that I learned outside the classroom helped me become who I am today. Chemistry 1010 never really taught me how to be a better person, but it did teach me that I never want to be a chemist. I guess that was a good thing. Thanks to all of those amazing friends who helped me out of the rut that I was stuck in for far too long.

Well SUU seemed a brighter place my second year. I was familiar with the territory and knew how to play the game a little better. I met more and more people though I still was not exactly extroverted. I moved away from home, spent too much money, gained a lot of weight (lost it! Don't worry) and learned a lot about being a "grown up". Yeah, it was some crazy times.

It was the third year that really changed my life. I had been eying the Political Center on campus for quite sometime. I was a political science student, but didn't really have any connection to politics. So I finally plucked up some courage went straight into the Center and looked for the oldest person there. I announced "hi, who are you and how can I get involved?" Best decision I have ever made. It took a little prodding, but the group finally gave me an idea that they had and told me to run with it. Thus Pizza and Politics was born at SUU. It's a political discussion group complete with free pizza. It started off slow, only about 4 or 5 people per week, but it has grown and grown since! Now the program can hardly afford all of the pizza needed to feed everyone. I was so proud of my work there that I applied to be the Student Director of the Leavitt Center even though I was sure I didn't have much of a chance. Another amazing decision.

To my everlasting surprise, I got the position! I was thrilled. This year I have worked harder than a horse to get the Center to go from unknown to necessary on campus. I believe that has happened though there is still a lot of work to be done for next year's Student Director. Our emailing list and attendance have increased by three times what they were last year. Now I must give credit where credit is deserved though, the Executive and Associate Directors did more for the Center than anyone could ever know. The huge increase in numbers can also be credited to the amazing Executive Council, a group of 9 students who ran the Center. You guys are amazing people and I couldn't have done it without you. Shout out to you guys for being so great! The picture below is of me and the two amazing directors of the Center.

This year, again to my surprise, I was accepted to go on a trip to Dubai, United Arab Emirates for a conference called Education Without Borders. Wow. That was the trip of a lifetime. I learned so much about other cultures, doing something for others and trying everything. It was eye opening! I will never forget the people I met and the lessons I learned.

Well this past year I have become far more outgoing, exciting and I love life more than I could ever say. I have learned more in my four years at SUU than I have anywhere else or at any other time. I've made life changing decisions, played a lot (much to the dismay of my grades at times), and met life long friends. My life is full of the best memories I could ask for. SUU will always hold a special place in my heart.

I love SUU.

10 Very important things I learned abroad

So I decided that instead of putting a play by play of each of my trips I would just give you a few little treasures of knowledge that I picked up on my trips across the world. I was recently blessed to travel to England with my family and to Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates for a conference called Education Without Borders. What an amazing experience!! I was thrilled to meet new people, see new cultures and amazing sights, and learn so much about leadership and changing the world.


10. If you poke an Indian, they multiply by 12. Thank you Naman for teaching me this little gem of knowledge. He was one of my favorite people that I met at EWB in Dubai.

9. A proper English breakfast is one of the best meals in the world. Nothing better! This picture is of our Alaskan Waffles at the Romley House in York, England. A proper English breakfast is sausage, bacon (fried ham, not American bacon), over easy eggs, beans, tomatoes and hot cocoa. Delicious!

8. The Persian Gulf is the most beautiful place in the world. The water is warm in March, as blue as can be and absolutely stunning. And it has the most gorgeous and full seashells in the world, not like California where the shells are all broken.

7. The Emerati people know how to throw a party. There is no limit to the amount spent on fireworks and anything that can be summed up with the word fabulous will likely be found in Dubai or Abu Dhabi. The picture below is the Emirates Palace. It was stunning!

6. I want a castle. Some of these things predated the U.S. by nearly 1000 years. The picture on the left is the Castle Coch and the right is Caerphilly Castle both from Wales.

5. I LOVE CAMELS! Look at that happy face! Mine and the camels!

4. Stonehenge is one of the coolest places in the world! Legend (one of them) has it that Merlin summoned it to England for ritualistic purposes.

3. The Buckingham Palace guards are all nerds. Check it out.

2. I'm not so different from other people all over the world.

1. Traveling is my new favorite past time! My goal is to touch every continent before I die. With the exception of Antarctica, I'd be OK not going there.

World Travels in March 2011

Wow.

March 2011 was in a word, incredible.

I have had some amazing experiences this past month! In mid-March, my family went on a trip to England and Wales. The last week of March I was at a conference in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, United Arab Emirates. I learned, saw and experienced so many amazing things!!

First, a brief rundown of my trip to England. I'll post about Dubai later.

On day one we went to Chesterfield and Sheffield England. These were areas where Christopher served his mission. In Chesterfield there was this amazing cathedral and it's spire was twisted. Legend has it that the building was so surprised to have a virgin get married in it that it bent down to watch. Someday when a virgin is married in it again, the steeple will straighten back up.

Chesterfield was a lovely town. Small and sweet. I liked it a lot. It was very picturesque.

On the second day we went to Sherwood Forest! This was Robin Hood's tromping grounds. The infamous thief who stole from the rich and gave to the poor used this ancient forest as his hide away, taking many a rich man by surprise as they traveled through. This picture is of the Major Oak. Its the oldest tree in the forest and now has to be supported by beams. It would have been fun to see it with a little more foliage, but it was still a beautiful place.

I will continue posting about my trips but right now I've got to get ready for church.

Polar Plunge

We do weird things in the name of fun. For example, we accelerate from 0 mph to 60 mph in six seconds just for an adrenaline rush. We jump from bridges with nothing but a cord holding us up and we scream with delight. Weird, right? Well, I love these weird ways of having fun. In fact, in the name of fun (and a good cause) I jumped into a small reservoir in January. There was ice floating on top, 37 degree water, and snow on the ground and it was a blast. This is the second annual Cedar City Polar Plunge "Freezin' for a Reason." This wonderful event is in support of the Utah Special Olympics. It really is a lot of fun! I would highly recommend it to anyone, unless they have a heart problem.

In preparation for the big event, I pulled on my swimsuit that has been sadly neglected for far too long and contemplated how insane I really am. When we got there, there was a fabulous costume contest in which an avatar, Shakespearean people, and a man in his birthday suit were strutting their fabulous costumes. Needless to say, the birthday suit man was the winner of the contest. Luckily my family was the first to take the plunge. We didn't have to watch concourses of people pour into the bitter water and then emerge screaming. The screaming doesn't really help with reassurance. So when "Team Awesome" was announced my whole family plus a few friends ran into the freezing water and dove in the most uninviting water known to man. The water was almost refreshing until suddenly my entire body clinched in reaction to the cold. All I could think was "AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" I burst out of the water with lightning speed. Running into the water happened so fast, but running out of the water is another story completely. Time seemed to slow and even worse, my body slowed to an unprecedented speed, 0.0000001 mph. Once out of the water I got a pin that said "I survived the Polar Plunge." Wow, that is a great way to compensate for my few moments of frost bite. Nonetheless, I will wear that pin with great pride. I did indeed survive my second Polar Plunge!