Freshman year in a nutshell: that girl who lived off campus

So yes, it's true. I never lived in dorms. *gasp* That, my friends, is why I got fantastic grades my first semester and went to bed at 10 every night. A good year. A very good year. 


So here we go. Freshman year at a glance. 


Pre-Semester
My first day of NSO I meet up with  my Freshman Academy group and meet Megan (Megan-o) Ward. We became instant friends. (We're now roommates, ps). We had two Y-group leaders, I only remember one. Her name was Mariah. And she's still in BYU Singers, I'm sure she is a grad student by now. But every time I see her I remember her. Creepy? Maybe.
Semester 1
My Freshman Academy peer mentor was Crystalee Webb. I remember being amazed at how happy she was all the time and how positive she was about life and BYU and how on top of things she seemed. I wanted to be just like her. 


My Freshman Academy peeps were a group of off-campus people and Wyview. Most of them were in Wyview, which was kind of on the opposite side of campus. But I went there often to visit Megan. She introduced me to Sons of Provo. Good.  


I took a Humanities 101 class from none other than Lauri Haddock, who is now one of my dearest friends. That class has stuck with me through my time here at BYU. I basically have it memorized by now. But I'm getting ahead of myself!


I took Book of Mormon from Clyde Williams. ...I made it through. 


I took Physical Science with my BFF Jacob at 8 AM , MWF. So this was the first college class I ever attended! We had an iClicker and I thought I was so legit. Jacob came...generally. But it's cool, he came about as much as I had expected. ;) I also had this class with my kinsman Rustin VanKatwyk (my sister-in-law's brother) and I thought I was pretty cool knowing a senior, especially one on the folk dance team. 


I took my first modern dance class with Jana Shumway. I'm still not really sure what modern dance is. But I sure loved Jana. That class was full of MDT's and boys who for some reason had their feet bleed? It happened like 3 or 4 times. Random. We also had live music sometimes, and I'm sure I had a crush on our pianist because I'm like that. 


I ate a ham and cheese sandwich pretty much every day. But sometimes I would break down and eat Teriyaki Chicken even though it made me sick. 


I had a Robots lunchbox (High School Musical didn't come until later)


I became instant best friends with my roommate Kiely. But we'll talk more about roommates later. 


I was an FHE mom. And I was freaked out of my mind because I was basically the only freshman. But I had the best FHE family ever (to this day...they win hands down), we called ourselves the Marshyncanjags, made up of all the first letters of everyone's last name. Genius. 


I tried out for folk dance and didn't even make call backs. 


I tried out for the dance major and made call backs, but not the major.


I found out my mom had breast cancer. 


Semester 2


I took a beginning clogging class with my recently RM sister and met Greg Tucker for the first time. 


I took an Orientation to Dance Class and pretended to be a dance major for a while. 


I took a once-a-week History class that ran 2.5 hours and loved it. This solidified for me that I really loved history and going into history teaching was perfect for me. (I came into BYU with that major, I'm one of those people.)


I took a 300 level history class not realizing that was upper level and meant for not freshmen. Somehow I still got an A- in The Age of the Enlightenment. I still think Kendall realized I was a freshman and was just being nice to me. I legitimately didn't understand most of the comments my classmates said. I do remember feeling smart the day one of my classmates admitted he didn't know what the word "aesthetic" meant. And I knew what it meant. So I felt cool. 


I took Humanities 202 without taking 201 and felt a similar worry of the 300 level history class. But it was nbd. And I met Michael Koecher, who was a Sunday School teacher in my ward who wore a bowtie. (he was in my phone as bowtie boy for a good long time) I also ended up having a lot of people from the ward in that class and that's what started me to get really social in my ward. 

Thanks Bowtie boy!

I took Honors Book of Mormon from Merrill and loved it. There was also a kid in that class that always made funny comments. He wore square glasses. This is a good time to mention that I have written down all the funny comments and things said in my classes in all of college. I will probably share some of those gems now. 

• They committed fornication and they died! Yeah, it kills you. - Bro. Williams.
• Did you recognize the world, or did you think it was a love sack? - Prof. Haddock
• And it was closed so ducks...wouldn't float to Rome. - Prof. Haddock
• I have decided that textbook companies are probably secret combinations. - Bro. Merrill
• You’re gonna start thinking I’m cynical. No I’m not, I’m just really, really suspicious. - Bro. Merrill
• If you live in the wrong part of Utah county you can have 104 sunbeams. - Bro. Merrill
• The unitard. The worst invention ever. - Robin
• She does everything perfect except for on thing, she calls me grandma. - Prof. Hamblin
• She no longer calls me grandma, she now calls me Bill. - Prof. Hamblin
• Conference center as a pagan Ziggarut? You decide. - Prof. Hamblin
• I have gone through my entire undergrad not understanding aesthetic and today I am declaring war. - a student
• And if in fact you get to heaven that is what you will be doing, turning a crane. - Prof. Brown
• Revelation says that dogs don't go to heaven. - Prof Brown ...as far as it is translated correctly- a student

So there you have...Freshman Year, in a nutshell.