Fall Semester Breakdown

I only have one more year of generals before I can apply to pharmacy school!! Oh gosh, it can't come soon enough.

Here is what my schedule looks like:

Human Physiology with Rose
Medical Terminology with Salazar
Biochemistry with Sheridan
Anthropology with Peterson

I know it's only 12 credits, but I am fully expecting a rough semester. Human Physiology is probably one of the harder science classes you can take, and I'm really hoping this will get me noticed on my Pharmacy school application.

Hardest class?:
Human Physiology for sure.

Easiest class?:
Medical Terminology for sure.

Most enjoyable?:
I think I will really like Anthropology actually...Peterson is a lot like Bones and I'm completely enthralled by that show

Class I will study for the most?:
Human Phys...and then Biochemistry.

Class I will most likely be late for most often?:
Biochemistry on Mondays (that class starts 10 minutes after my Human Phys class gets out on Monday)

Bring on the semester!

I love you Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday!

I can't fully explain just how much this woman means to me.
She has taught me just about everything I know (with the exception of the OChem stuff...that's a little foreign to her).
She taught me that if I want something I have to work for it.
She taught me to pick myself up and keep going when I feel like I can't do it anymore.
She taught me about Christ and shows me daily how to be like Him.
She taught me how to love others unconditionally.
She taught me how to laugh when I felt like crying.
She taught me where to go when I am in need of comfort.

And SO much more.
I marvel every day that I was blessed to be her daughter and I will NEVER take that blessing for granted.

Happy birthday Mom!

I love you lots and lots and lots and lots!

Thank you for being my everything :)

I'm still alive!

Hello world! I have been a horribly awful blogger this year...but I am going to try to do better.

Summer has been nutso it seems like and now it's almost over...I just don't know how to handle this haha

Here's a quick rundown of what my life has been like as of late:

I am still working at Seasons of Hope in the billing department. We have undergone a lot of changes in the six months or so that I have been working there. It seems like just when I get a handle on how things work I get yanked into something else. It's a good thing I absolutely love the people I work with or I would have a total mental breakdown...good thing I work at a mental health agency huh?
I just finished my second week at a new position in the department. I am now the Psych Testing Coordinator! (Sounds super prestigious right?) When I was first approached about it I was super skeptical and not very excited because Psych Testing was always the one thing that seemed to baffle me the most, however, I have come to find that it's not completely impossible to figure out and it's pretty cool to share an office with the manager :) This means that I attend meetings almost every day...that is, until school starts up again. Then I'm going to have to learn how to cram 40 hours of work into 30. Oi! Wish me luck!
 Oh, one more thing. Dr. Sommer is quite possibly one of the coolest people on the planet. Somewhere along the road to becoming a Clinical Psychologist he learned to read people REALLY well. Or maybe I'm just super easy to read...that's also a possibility. Anyway, he always seems to know when I'm really stressed and says things that make me feel much much better. Like the other day when he saw me waiting for a meeting to start and he said ratherly loudly, "Emma! We like the Emma. We have even talked about cloning the Emma!" Kinda weird, but it definitely helped relieve some of the bottled up stress I have been feeling as of late.

This summer has just been a learning experience. I started kinda dating a guy in May...ish. We weren't official and then some things happened and I "ran away" from the relationship. Much to my surprise, we went official in June. We had a lot of fun together and I learned a lot from him. He is a computer engineer and even though he really doesn't like biological sciences like I do, he was willing to discuss it with me. It felt nice to have someone to talk to on that kind of level. Gosh knows that hardly ever happens. He is a really great guy, but I guess just not for me. We broke it off a couple of weeks ago (if you couldn't tell by my use of the past tense in most of this paragraph) and it has been a weird transition for me. I've been through all the emotions I can think of, from sadness to anger. I hate that anger stage...but it's so difficult to avoid when you've had time to think over the way things happened. Oh well, in my heart of hearts I know this is for the best, but I still have lots of weak moments that are set off by the most random things and I HATE that the most. It just kinda sneaks up on me. I know in time things will pan out and I will stop avoiding things that remind me of him, but until then I will just continue to grin and bear it when people say things that they think are comforting (that's just the way it always goes right?)

But enough with this depressing stuff right? Yesterday I went to the concert on the quad with my roommates and met up with one of my very best friends. I tried to keep my mind occupied through the opening act...the music just wasn't my style and honestly I couldn't understand most of what the guy was singing. The guitarist was really talented though, I could tell that much! And then *dramatic pause* LINDSEY STIRLING was on! You remember, the hip-hop violinist that was on America's Got Talent? Yes, one and the same. I was in awe the entire time, no joke. Her renditions of The Lord of the Rings, River Flows in You, and Phantom of the Opera were phenomenal!
 I think being a violinist myself made me appreciate it more than some others did. Unless you have tried to make those kinds of movements while playing you just don't get how hard it is. You have to be constantly aware of how much you're moving because if you move too suddenly your bow bounces and you get a horrible scratchy, bumpy, bleh sound. It was just awesome :)

Oh yeah, I was also called as the Second Counselor in the Relief Society Presidency at the start of the summer. It has been a real challenge trying to keep up with everything I am supposed to be doing, but it has also been a blessing. Of course, because the Second Counselor kind of oversees activities, all my dreams of getting away from planning the Relief Society Activities kinda went down the toilet, but it's fine. We played Water Balloon volleyball this week and even though only a few girls showed up, I count it as a success!

Oooo and indexing still rocks! I can never get enough. The Relief Society and Elder's Quorum are having a competition this month to see who can index the most. I keep hearing rumors about how a couple of guys have already indexed over a thousand names. I honestly don't know who will win. It could be really close! I know one other girl in the Relief Society is just about as big into indexing as I am and has set a goal of 2500 names this month. I just passed my goal, but I have a few more days, so I might as well keep going right?

Aaaaanyway this post is way too long and has a complete lack of pictures...I will work on that for next time. Until then, it has been nice to get some of my thoughts recorded somewhere other than my journal. (By the way, I'm still going strong in the whole journal writing thing! I don't remember the exact day, but it's over 1530 :)

Letter to Someone's Ancestor

Dear David,
 I don't know why your name unveiled itself to me. It was just one of many on the page, and there are many others like me out there sitting in front of computer screens prayerfully trying to decipher a long ago census worker's cramped writing. Your name seemed funny to me at first, appearing as Dand. I quickly moved to the next name, but a quiet voice somewhere in the back of my mind whispered, "His name is David." I looked back, and instead of scribbled handwriting, I saw a clearly legible 'David' written there. I took a moment to ponder the significance of the moment. Perhaps your progeny has been searching for years to find your name. Perhaps you have been waiting a long time to be found. Perhaps your family just needed the one final push to break open your line. I don't know the real reason and I don't know the actual circumstance, but I do know that moments like this are what I live for. Stories like yours, even if they are only imagined, are the ones I long to finish. David, someday I hope to be able to meet you and shake your hand. Until then, I will be here- in front of a computer screen striving to finish more stories like yours.

With much love,
Emma-Leigh Owen
Indexer

Spring Semester Outcome

So this semester was one big surprise for me. Nothing turned out like I thought it would and it just got busier and busier the further I got into it. I learned so much about myself this semester...but I'm glad it's over. :)

Here is my semester outcome (just a few days late...). My original answers are first and my actual answer is highlighted.


Class I Will Love the Most:
Organic Chemistry (If last semester is any indication it will be)

Ding ding ding! Organic Chemistry!

Class I Will Hate the Most:
Probably going to be a tie between Micro Lab and Anat and Phys Lab.

I went halfsies on this one. It was a tie between Microbiology and Anat and Phys Lab.

Class I Will Study the Most For:
Organic Chemistry and the lab...actually, I should probably be studying for all of these classes the most.

Just Organic Chemistry. I didn't really study for the lab...at all!

Best Class (in terms of grades):
Microbiology (Professor Winston said we have three take home exams and the final is in class, but the questions all come from the take home exams)

Organic Chemistry baby!! I'm still on cloud nine about that one :) This girl ended up with a 95%!

Worst Class (in terms of grades):
Organic Chemistry (just cause I love it doesn't means it's a walk in the park)

Microbiology. How ironic right? The class I thought I would do worst in I actually did best and and vice versa.

Number of Times I Will Be Late for A&P Because It's at 8:00 and on the Other Side of Campus and I Have to Walk if I Miss the Bus:
Hopefully not often, but I can definitely see myself being late :( uhhh...two, maybe three)

Ummm...I may have absolutely hated the TA that taught the Immunology chapters and decided that I would rather spend my morning studying for Organic a few times...so I missed that class about...well, let's just go with 6 times. But maybe it was only 5

I came...I saw...I just wanna take a nap

This semester has been so utterly busy...I just don't even know.

I just finished my last final and while I am so dang excited that summer is finally here...I am probably more nervous now than I was during my last test. I just have one more hour until that fateful time when I go and see how I did. OChem, please be nice!

Honestly, there hasn't been a whole lot of excitement in my life as of late. I wake up, go to class, go to work, go to class, go back to work, and come home and do homework. Then I go to sleep. The cycle is never-ending! I did manage to squeeze in a little bit of a social life in there (probably too MUCH social life. That will be determined by my final grades :P)

All I know for right now is that I am so excited for SUMMER!
Some friends and I are planning on starting it out with a bang :) Hopefully there will be many posts in the coming weeks seeing as I have been completely absent almost all semester.

Now, to spice up this boring post a little bit, here is a picture that I thoroughly enjoy:

Look how cute she is!!

This now makes me the one and only girl in my immediate family who has never been crowned some sort of royalty at a dance. 

...I must have been too busy being a nerd *snort*

Over My Head

This last weekend I had the opportunity to go to Time Out for Women. Let me tell you, it was absolutely amazing. I will try to write a post entirely dedicated to that later, but for now I want to focus on one specific song that really stood out to me.

Jericho Road has always been one of my favorite groups. Imagine my face when I learned that they would be providing the musical entertainment for the very conference I would be attending *commence laughing*

I was so star-struck the whole time. I couldn't believe I was in the very same room as them. One song they sang was called Over My Head.

I'm in over my head
Right where I wanna be
I'm so lost within your love 
The love that always covers me
So high, so deep, so wide
A strong and cleansing tide
My soul has found a place to rest
I'm in over my head

When they sang the words I'm in over my head at the beginning of the chorus I immediately felt as though the song would apply to me. I have been feeling so overwhelmed trying to balance work and school that I truly felt like I was drowning.

The next line threw me off. Right where I wanna be? No sir, I would much rather feel like I was in complete control of my life instead of like I'm losing control.

I'm so lost within your love, the love that covers me. Then I began to understand.

Since that moment I have remembered to thank God for all I have. I may be crazy insanely stressed out right now, but I have a job. Something millions of people don't. I have the opportunity to go to school and extend my education. Something millions and millions of people don't. I may not know where I'm going to live next semester, but I know that I will have somewhere to lay my head at night. So many people don't have that assurance.

So it's true, I'm in over my head, but I'm right where I wanna be. I'm so lost within His love...it's the love that covers me. My soul has found a place to rest.

I love the gospel.