A lot of disjointed thoughts

News from me: I got my mission call! If you're reading this, you probably already know that, but I'm still going to write about it anyway. I'm going to the Ukraine Donetsk mission. I leave October 20th and it's Russian speaking. I'm super excited. I've been working on my Russian a little bit and I am sure terrible at it. It is not an easy thing to pick up. Now that I've got my call and I'm just sitting at home at my parents' house, I'm getting a little impatient. I'm working at the swimming pool again, which is ok. However, I'm starting to wish that I would've stayed in SLC and taken some summer classes. I am in some serious need of some intellectual stimulation. I feel like my brain is rotting out of my head. The other day I was thinking about some of the things I learned in Chemistry last semester and I couldn't even remember how to mathematically set up the problem. It's scary how fast we forget things when we don't use them. I'm just going to have to have faith that I'll be able to remember my school stuff when I get home.

When I start to get bored like this, I start to scheme all kinds of trips. Lately I've been wanting to hop on a flight and go to Chicago to see the Cubs at Wrigley Field or go to Boston and see the Red Sox at Fenway again before I leave. I could go to California and have my awesome cousin Clare take me surfing or go to Atlanta and visit Kynalie. I'd love to go to DC again and spend a couple of days looking through the smithsonian. If anyone feels a need to get out of Sanpete county and would like to accompany me on one of these adventures, please let me know.

These feelings of impatience and restlessness that I have been feeling are not new to me. This happens pretty much every summer. I think it is just more intense this summer because thispast school year was by far the most challenging and rewarding one of my life. Even though school was super hard and super stressful this year, I learned a ton. I really gained an appreciation for the opportunity that I have to get an education. I think I became more motivated to do well, too. I'm super excited to be able to move back to SLC when I get home from my mission and continue where I left off. Hopefully I'll be able to go back with a new perspective on life and be better able to enjoy my time there.

Even though October 20th seems like a long time away, it actually is going pretty quickly. It's already been a month since I got my call. I'm a little nervous about being gone for 18 months. There are going to be a lot of things that I'm going to miss. Music, snowboarding, family, friends. Snowboarding is going to be a big one because it is what literally keeps me sane in the winter. If it wasn't for my season pass to Brighton this winter, I think I might have died. Snowboarding is a stress relief like nothing else. Another big one is it's going to be rough to be away from my family. Not being able to call up my pops every day and get his advice on everything that's going on is going to be pretty weird. Also, I'm going to miss music like crazy. Especially Angels & Airwaves probably. Listening to them always makes my mood about 10 times better. All of these things, though, are going to be patiently waiting for me when I get back. I might miss them a little bit, but I'll probably be way too busy trying to learn Russian and trying to teach people that I won't notice it too much. Friends might be another story. I've been seriously blessed with some awesome friends. I'm a little nervous that everyone is going to be married and moved away by the time I get home. I guess that's just part of life though. People grow up. Hopefully I will learn some social skills while I'm gone so that I can make some new friends when I get home, and if I'm really lucky, maybe some of my current friends will still want to hang out with me :)

Even though it's going to be hard, I know without a doubt that going on a mission is the best thing I could be doing with my life right now. It's going to take a lot of hard work and it's probably going to be really stressful at times, but I know it will be really rewarding if I put my best effort into it.

Well, that's the end of this rant. I'm going to try and post stuff on here more often before I leave. I don't think anyone really reads these things but this is kind of like my journal so I'll just keep on writing.