You're the Inspiration

Coming home after college is always an interesting transition. Some visits are easier to make than others. However, when all is said and done, I'm always glad I made it. For those of you who don't know, I am staying in Indiana until February 1st. (I might have mentioned that in a previous post but since it was so long, you might not have made it that far down.) This means that I get an extra month to spend with some of the best people I know.

Something I've learned in the past couple of days is sometimes the people you love the most push your temper buttons the easiest. While I'm not positive as to why this is I have a couple of theories.

Theory #1:
It is my belief that the basic fundamental element to pure happiness is love. The greatest love is found in the family. Therefore, if one is determined to ruin one's happiness, ruin the family first. That decreases the chances of happiness and increases the chances of contention. Now, if you don't know already, contention is NOT a good thing. In fact, I believe it to be evil. I know when I feel contentious, I lose sight of anything else and become consumed by the reason for my contention, whether it be self-imposed or someone else's action. When you inject that contention into a family, it causes one to forget the ties that bind a family together. They don't disappear per say, they just get hidden.

That was a very round about way to say that I have had my fair share of contentious encounters with family and friends the past few days. Some had pretty minor effects, others were not so minor. It had me very confused. How could I possibly have this much contention in my life while I am home? Sure I had a very few arguments with roommates and friends while away at school but nothing so heated as being home. What happened? Do you want to know what I've decided? Well good! Cause I'm gonna tell ya. ;)

I decided that there has been some extra pushing of those temper buttons in my life. Someone obviously knows that my fuse is pretty short. (I know. For those school friends who are reading this and think I'm the most tolerant person in the world, talk to my parents/siblings/room roomies. They'll tell you all about my temper issues.) But that doesn't mean I have to let it be lit in the first place right? I mean, all the experts say that we choose to get angry or sad or happy or whatever. While I don't always believe that, I DO believe we can decided whether or not to let those emotions continue or not. We choose which emotions to hold on to, if you catch my drift. So that is theory #1

Theory #2
Family members have known you either your whole life or their's. With that length of experience comes knowledge of your weaknesses, strengths, annoyances, passions and so on. If you're a private person, this list may not be all that complete but it is my belief that you can only watch someone so long in life without learning a thing or two about them, whether you want to or not. So with that knowledge, your family has the power to act on that knowledge. Agency is one of the greatest gifts we have. Why we use it to purposely annoy/anger our family members? I dunno. I'm very guilty of this though. I won't deny it. Thus is my theory #2.

I propose I change in all of us. Let's try to cut down on the contention. Let's do away with undue criticism and hurtful words/actions. Let us be mindful of our fellow man as well as ourselves. We could all get along much nicer if we weren't so defensive all the time. We could be less defensive if we weren't worried about the next knife aimed for our backs. Let's be sincere in our words. Let's just love one another.

That's my request. In fact, I think I'll make that my New Year's Resolution! I don't know how I'll track it. I'll think about it some more and let you know. ;)

Good day world!

Good night.

Music Box Dancer

The holiday season is always a great chance to catch up with family and old friends, sharing experiences from the past year and enjoying the company of the ones we love.

In my family, we have a tradition of music. I think the piano stayed silent while we opened presents, other than that, there was always someone plunking around. It never ceases to amaze me the talents my family has. Music Box Dancer has become this year's piece of choice. My sister in particular loves to figure this one out. Little does she know that she could easily read the piece out of my binder which lays in my box.

So it's been a while since I have posted on this here blog of mine. I suppose I should catch you up on my life now eh? I have finished my third Fall semester of college. This absolutely amazes me! I'm getting so old! (yeah, I know. Twenty-one is certainly NOT old but I'm starting to feel the affects of maturity sinking into my brain. How can I be childish when maturity keeps taking over? ;) )

I received my call to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints a week before yesterday! Before I tell you where I'm going, let me tell you the story surrounding this call.

I got a call on Friday, December 17th telling me there was a big white envelope waiting for me on the mantle at home. There was just one problem with that, home is Indiana while my location was Provo, UT!! Now how am I supposed to open that beautiful envelope in Indiana when I'm still in Utah? And to top it all off? I was at work!! So I couldn't even leave right then and there to begin my journey home!!

When I finally got off work, I had to go home and figure out where I was going to put all of my stuff! I was taking whatever I could pack into my car back to Indiana and then the rest I would have to leave with various willing hosts. By the time all that was sorted out and several trips made, my friend Rachel and I were ready to hit the road.

Now, for your information, yes we drove from Utah to Indiana. What was it like, you might ask? Well let me tell you. Once we finally made it out of Colorado, the trip was actually really nice! I mean, we stunk really badly and the car was a mess of snacks and the like, but all in all, it was fun! What was in Colorado? SNOW!!! Lots and lots of snow. When we stopped to get gas, the trunk latch decided it didn't want to work. So we sat out there, in the cold (the snow had taken a break for a few minutes) trying to figure out how to fix the latch. While this wouldn't have been too bad, a truck pulls up bearing two guys. For two girls no where near anyone we know, this was quite terrifying. Perhaps if they had just gone into the gas station and made their purchases, we wouldn't have thought anything of their presence. The problem was, they stayed in their truck watching us. Every time we walked by their truck to go inside, they would roll down their window and ask us how the progress was coming on our trunk. Now, if you can see that someone is having a problem, wouldn't the polite thing to do be to get out and...oh I dunno...help the person? Or politely turn away and pretend you didn't see anything. I don't know. Maybe that's just me.

We finally bungeed the trunk down and made our way in to the mountain pass. Someone obviously knew something we didn't because the roads became super slick. To the point that we hit a guard rail while going 30mph. That was a bit terrifying. I called my dad, not knowing what else to do.

Can I just take a minute to shout out to all the dad's reading this? Thank you so much for being a person of stability in your children's lives. My dad told me that I could do it. I could continue through the snow and ice. Why? Because I was a Fielding. I was born in Idaho! I had all the genetic makeup to survive an icy blizzard.

While I still don't think genetics has anything to do with my skill at driving through snow and ice, I appreciated the confidence. We did, eventually, make it out of the mountains with just a little scratch on the side of the car and very grateful hearts. (Note: when I got home, we took the car into the shop to have them fix the alignment. They told us that there was a lot more wrong than just the alignment. The damages totaling up to a very large sum. Basically, my friend and I could have died if the car didn't hold out as long as it did. More blessings from above.)

I finally made it home. Halleluiah!!! We made arrived about an hour before we had to leave for church so I had just enough time to shower, take a grand tour of the newly-remodeled house and get ready for church. When church was over, I went home and waited ever impatiently for the family to arrive for the nativity pageant thing we do every year. We had decided that I would open my call then so everyone could be there to see.

Now, for the moment you've been patiently reading for. I have been called to labor in the California Long Beach mission. I report to the MTC (Missionary Training Center) on February 2nd. I will be speaking English for sure and any other language they may ask me to learn.

I am so excited to serve a mission! For those of you to don't know, I have wanted to serve a mission for as long as I can remember. My whole life has gathered to this grand moment in my life. If I ever had a goal for my life, this was it. Now that it's here, I don't know what to do with myself! Haha It's been quite the adventure getting to this point but I finally made it.

Later I'll share with you a link to my mission blog. My mom will be posting my mass emails/letters there, hopefully so you can keep up on what is happening in my life. Thanks for being such a patient crowd! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!