Monday, April 25, 2011

Blazing Trails

BYU 2010-2011


Expectations:

1. I worried my future unknown room mate would be psychotic, hate me, steal my food, play obnoxious rap music in the apartment while I'm studying, or become so possessive that she would want to kill all of my friends and family so she can keep me to herself. Okay, maybe not the last one, but insert any overused college room mate stereo-type fed to us by the media, and I worried about it.

2. Failure. I knew college classes would harder and so different from high school classes, I wasn't sure I'd be able to handle the stress and achieve success.

3. My experiences at church would be roughly the same as I had growing up.

4. I love music! Loved it all my life. I thought that that naturally would lead to being a Music major heading towards Music Education.

5. College wouldn't be as great as everyone told me it would be.

6. I might not make it through my freshman year.

Reality:

1. I had the incredible luck to have this amazing person Suzette Rovelsky for a room mate. She is one of the kindest and most unselfish beings I know. She made the apartment a happy home for us as she ran around singing and dancing to Disney songs, befriending everyone in the area within the first 20 minutes, and by being optimistic and laughing through every trial she faced. Staying up late doing homework together at the kitchen table, growing sillier and more ridiculous as the hours went by are some of my happiest memories from this year. Suzette always cares more about the people around her rather than herself. I wish I could be more like her.


2. College is hard. There were nights where I would stay up for hours on end studying and finishing assignments, wondering how on earth was I going to get everything done. There would be days where I would sit in my room practicing clarinet and seriously considering throwing it against the wall. Those who know me well know that I get stressed about pretty much everything. Yes, I was stressed a lot of the time about how everything would turn out. Sure, a few classes smacked me around and almost broke me, but I didn't crack and I didn't give up. Every disappointment I experienced had its purpose and I'm learning that everything doesn't always turn out according to your plan.

3. Living at BYU, you are surrounded by church members who, for a majority, share your same standards and beliefs. We said prayers in some of my classes and sang hymns in others. All of my classes connected the topic in one way or another to living the gospel, I couldn't believe it! You feel so connected to Christ and his teachings as you begin to realize that every part of your life can connect to your religion, even Astronomy and Marching Band. College is the hardest thing I've done so far in my life but is has also been the most fulfilling because I'm learning to rely more solely on a higher power to get me through my day.

4. Not going into music was incredibly disappointing at the time. It seemed impossible to move past it until that glorious day when I remembered English. It has always been my favorite subject; writing just came easy for me growing up. I'm one of those weird people who actually enjoy citing sources in MLA format. Writing papers is my fun assignment of the day that I look forward to while doing all the other tedious assignments for other classes. The day I started looking at English classes online for next fall was the day everything fell into place. I will always love music and continue to play, but English is where I belong. This is what I'm supposed to do.

5. This past year alone, I went to every home football game including the bowl game and played in the pep band for the legendary Cougar Basketball team, traveling around the nation with my boys during the post-season tournaments. I played incredible music with the Symphonic Band, lived 5 minutes away from my brother, sister-in-law, sister, and best friend from childhood, lived with two amazing people, aced my English papers, spent many sleepless nights with my room mates finishing homework and having a ball, stood in the same elevator as Jimmer Fredette (TWICE!), saw hilarious comedy sketches with Divine Comedy, memorized 35 constellations, reconnected with old friends while meeting new ones, and made more memories than I can ever write down. I'd have to say college was even better than I had ever expected.

6. Here I am on the other side, still standing. Who would've thought?

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Okay. ONE) I love this. TWO) I'm glad you finally got your own blog! Now I can stay updated with you! THREE) I LOVE THE PRIDE AND PREJUDICE SONGBOOK!! It's beautiful isn't it?

LOVE YOU!

Theresa said...

Yay! This totally just made my day Miss Rachel Bailey. The only thing that could make it better is getting to see you soon! :) You are absolutely darling!

And PS, I didn't talk to my freshman roomate for like a week because she had a tie dye bedspread and it freaked me out-haha! She ended up being wonderful though! :)

sky michelle said...

Yay!!!! Welcome to the blogging world! Love you dear haha :)

S'Acclimater said...

You're awesome! Okay, so did I put (for those roommate surveys) that I liked rap music? Because I'm curious to see where you got this rapper (yo) version of me. Thanks Rachel, and you have no idea what impact you had on me! P.S. I cannot describe how excited I am that you are blogging!

whit2ney said...

K, girl. you need to teach me everything you know about pictures and posting them. there's GOTTA be an easier way! like the cool ones on the side?? teach me your ways! and i miss you! and have a great summer!

Rachel Taylor said...

Thanks everyone for reading it!
Audrey, I have to say your blog is one of the main ones that inspired me to start! I'm glad we can stay in contact this way too!
Theresa, I can't wait to see you!!!
Sky, I can't see your blog for some reason. Is it private?
Suzette, my fears were completely irrational ha ha!
Whitney, we'll figure this stuff out together :)