The View from Here to There

Poor Mitt. I was very sad to hear that he resigned from the campaign today, but I think it was a wise decision on his part--because anything from here on out probably would have just been a waste of time, money, and energy. And he needs to get started with his preparations for 2012!! My classmates loved harassing me today, and they forced me to concede defeat. But, I told them that I'm not the only one losing--America and all of its citizens (including them) are losing their only chance for a great President :-) Today was kind of a long day of classes and projects, but I always enjoy that (theoretically) I have Fridays off. Last Friday I was able to spend pretty much all day getting things done around here, but that is quite rare, and I'm afraid it will never happen again. Tomorrow Aly, Dan, Alisha, and I are going to the booming town of Marshall, Illinois to take pictures of Route 40 and other such things for the upcoming museum exhibit. So, it has the potential to be a long--but hopefully fun--day.

Speaking of the museum exhibit, its new title is "The View from Here to There: Transportation Corridors in the Midwest." Lately I've been thinking about the view from here to there in my life--I've certainly come a long way since high school! It's pretty interesting how things work out along the way so that you can learn the things you need to know for what you're supposed to do in the future. I started out wanting to be a high school business teacher, so I transferred from BYU to UVSC to complete the Business Education program there. But then I decided I liked history better, and I had some not-so-great experiences with a certain Dr. Whelan-Berry (she is the one person who I can truly say despises me), and I wanted to be Susan Black's assistant, so I went back to BYU. While getting my associate's degree in business at UVSC though, I learned a lot of valuable skills that have really helped me along the way; and I had the opportunity to work on a big-time research project that taught me that doing research can be fun. At BYU, I was sure that I wanted to stay there and do the history graduate program, but we all know that didn't happen because, according to Dr. Daynes, I am not capable of "baking cakes"--only frosting them. Then, it just so happened that my good friend Dr. Rugh was friends with Dr. Reid here at EIU, so she suggested that I come out here. I remember that it was about a year ago right now that I was first thinking about EIU. Mom and I came to visit campus during our February trip to Chicago and Bloomington for the Illinois State History Symposium, and though I thought campus was nice, it was waaaaay too cold to consider going to school here :-) But, alas, here I am, and I'm glad I came because I've been having a lot of great experiences . . . and most importantly I met Greg! So, in looking back at the view from here to there, I think my life has gone in a good direction--even though it's a bit different than I imagined. The only thing I wish is that I was closer to home, but thankfully I have been blessed to have good friends out here. And, I'm happy that I can go home to visit! Well, I'm off to bed in a little while so that I won't be too tired for the big trip to Marshall tomorrow. They tried to convince me to drive, but I told them that the last time I went to Marshall, despite the help of the GPS, I ended up in various random cornfields, and I am not doing that again :-)