BYU Blanket

So.  I moved home for a bit.  I've heard it's a fairly common post-grad phenomena, so yeah.  So far it's been a blast.  Crazy truth... I kinda sorta like spending time with my family!  :)  Anyways, moving meant packing up and downsizing some of my stuff, and after careful consideration I decided I didn't need quite so many t-shirts.  But you know me.  I have a hard time letting go.  So I decided to turn all my old BYU t-shirts into a blanket.

This is what it ended up looking like:

It's strange to think that there are quite literally five years of memories sewn into this quilt.  That's nearly a fourth of my life right now, people!!!

↓This "SOAR" t-shirt came from a summer ACT prep camp I went to at BYU the summer before my senior year of high school.  Way back then, my life plan was to attend the University of Utah and become a doctor.  And then I went to this summer camp and I decided maybe BYU was cooler than I had originally thought.  So in a lot of ways, this t-shirt symbolizes the first step of my four-year journey at BYU.  If someone would have told me way back then that my decision to go to BYU would lead to three years spent studying chemistry,  my current career goal, up & down dating stories, and best friends who have honestly become just about as close as family, well, I don't think I could have even imagined it.  That's why this t-shirt is so special.  It's like the t-shirt that changed my life (a bit dramatic, I know, but still...)

↓This t-shirt was the official game day shirt from my freshman year.  This was the year that I learned about roommates, figured out how to cook for myself, realized what an awful idea 8 am classes are, and changed into the major I would go on to graduate in.  It was the year I met one of my very best friends, mentioned in previous posts under the pseudonym Ellie-BellyButton.  This shirt represents a year of laughter, dishwasher slip-n-slides, dance parties, meal plans, pranks, fights, dirty dishes, late nights, eating at the creamery, and learning how to date RMs (or in my case, how to not run screaming from RMs).  Pretty epic year. :)

↓This t-shirt is from my junior year.  Free t-shirt from the management at Glenwood, where I was living. This shirt... ^_^  It's hard to describe everything this shirt reminds me of–in a good way, of course.  This shirt is from when I met the Idaho Boys—another event that changed my life! :)  I look at this shirt and I have flashbacks of late nights playing "Left 4 Dead", of listening to Matisyahu, of showing up late to physics labs, of watching "Vampire Diaries" with Casey, of going to Molecular Biology class with Camille.  I see this shirt and I have to smile, because even though Glenwood may not have been the fanciest apartment I've lived in, the friends I made there and the experiences I had are some of my very favorite from my entire time at BYU.

↓This shirt is a more recent acquisition.  One of my friends won Front Row Fanatic tickets, and since he was going out of town, he was kind enough to give them to me to use.  The name kind of says it all–we had front row seats to a men's volleyball game.  As I was telling my little cousins earlier today when they saw this picture, I was so close to the game I could have reached out and touched the players!  Also, if you see this t-shirt in person, you'll notice a small reddish stain on it.  Guess what it is... J-Dawg sauce from the J-Dawgs we got right after the game!  And come on, what BYU experience would be complete without a little J-Dawg sauce, right?

Anyways, there are more squares than blogger would let me upload... and the crazy thing is that I have a million memories for each one.  Maybe that's why I have such a hard time letting go of these old t-shirts–because each one reminds me of the people and experiences from the past four years that have made me who I am.  And that's something I don't want to let go of, ever.  Thanks for being a part of those happy memories.

Love you lots,
me