“The beauty of love is that in giving it away, you are left with more than you had before.”

— David Simon

I know many of you are waiting to read my “Year in Review”. Many of you liked my entry last year “Nights Like These”. So, I decided to do another blog post recapping the year.

To be honest, I fell out of love with journaling because of two reasons. 1) I was getting in my head that none of my articles were actually being read, and so I was upset with all the work I was putting into these posts, that no one would ever see them. 2) I had no time since I decided to enroll in school year-round…yeah that almost killed me.

Now, I am reflecting on my year and realizing that I was letting these two SIMPLE yet COMPLEX issues bar me from doing something I love. I think the word I would use for this year in 2024 is RESILIENCE because I’ve seen myself achieve some of the hardest things this year…and at the time, I was unsure of how I was going to do X or achieve X.

I stumbled across the quote on Pinterest a while back and fell in love with the quote.

“The beauty of love is that in giving it away, you are left with more than you had before.”

For me, I love so much and when it’s not reciprocated it’s as if I was being stabbed by a thousand needles…or needless to say…Death by A Thousand Cuts. But, I realized in my Physics class this summer, that energy is expended but not destroyed. You exert energy and it goes into something else, but it doesn’t disappear. You need to figure out how to repurpose it or in other words, use that energy in a different form (Law of Conservation of Energy).

I, like most individuals, crave a partner to share life experiences with. Think Heartstopper, yet not so cheesy, and more realistic. That’s the type of love many of us desire and hope to find. I am 24, finishing up college, and have not even had the chance of having an actual relationship. I’ve decided situationships can’t count as relationships because they are so one-sided. I’ve had 4 situationships in my 20’s.

But, I’ve realized that I am giving opportunities to love and if they don’t stick with these specific individuals, guess where it’s going to go? It’s going to the next person. My love for the special person in my life is going to receive 4x as much love as the first guy I dated. It’s almost like these guys are playing “I’ll double it and pass it onto the next person” without realizing they are all doing it.

This quote doesn’t have to only apply to romantic love. I think it can apply to all facets of our life, and we can repurpose our love for our hobbies, jobs, familial relations, and life in general.

Now, that I’ve hopefully had your attention… let us review the year.

January

I started the year by participating in round 2 of student body elections and continuing my work on Bateman (a national PR competition). Not much more than this.

February

Highlights in February were spending Valentine’s Day with my two GBF (Leila and Elena) we watched a movie together, got dinner, and made cake pops. Since I am single, I make sure each year I choose one of my girlfriends who is single and we make a date out of it. Very fun tradition I started a few years ago because many of us don’t want to be alone on a day meant to show love and appreciation for those in our life.

I went to a “Dress As Your Type” for a Galentines party with a lot of my graduating PR friends. I went as an English major because I love a man who reads and loves art, the spoken word, etc.

Leila and I got invited by one of our PR professors to join him on the court at a BYU men’s volleyball game. That was super dangerous because we were so close to the opposing team and we kept making unhinged commentary about them…I really hope one of them dm me back.

Bateman and Student Body Elections in one month was HELL. But, it was one of those moments that I saw myself excel. Bateman required all our campaign plans to be implemented in February. Those events included tabling for multiple days, creating social media posts, inviting dozens of people to our event at the end of the month, etc. We hosted a Human Library (which I am not going to go into detail with but you can look it up online) with several students at BYU who identify as “in-between” cultures. It was such a beautiful night and we had a good turnout. The next day was the Student Body Elections. I got to campus at 6 AM and campaigned all day until 7 PM when we all met upstairs and received the results. We WON! This was my second win as a Social Media Manager for a campaign team.

March

Worked endlessly on the report that we had to turn in for Bateman. Chewed my nails for weeks to hear our results.

April

Got our results and the other Bateman team managed to get into the top 3. We were just a point off from the other team. It was very aggravating, but humbling. They gave us feedback and I could see where we could’ve improved. I was endlessly impressed by my team and so glad to have worked with them for six months.

May

I was asked to meet with my boss…which didn’t happen out of the blue at 10:34 AM. I was so scared…running through every possible reel I posted, or the fact I painted my nails, or something I may have said out loud and he maybe overheard and wasn’t happy about.

The meeting went well because he asked me to step up into Lab Leadership…which was a good promotion. I accepted the role and began to work as an Assistant Student Director. I decided to try a Spring Term and realized quickly that I couldn’t keep up with the workload and sadly dropped the course.

June

I decided to try the Summer term instead, after realizing that Spring/Summer terms are no joke. I helped with the finals that the Spring Capstone students were working on (they did an excellent job!) I started Summer Term driving to SLC twice a week with my coworker Brileigh. Let’s say those drives we learned more about each other and grew closer as “siblings.”

My parents went to Havasupai for the second time and I was jealous. However, upon their return, I was grateful that I had a busy work/school schedule.

I met a guy and began to get involved with spin! Very fun format that incorporates dancing and cardio. Quite fun! Also attended a lot of Dirtylicious, participated in a poetry reading that my dear friend Leila puts on and went to my first pageant.

The pageant had my friend Sarah Sun participating in it as Miss Utah 2023. I went because the boy I was interested in was going to be there…and let’s say it was a fun-filled night.

July

When driving to my summer class in SLC, a rogue tire on the road bounced down the highway at insane speeds and slammed into my left side drivers mirror completely shattering it. Brileigh and I were so grateful that it didn’t injure any of us.

I dyed my hair blonde once again…I have a habit of doing this around when my heart is broken….yes the spin instructor decided to label us as friends.

The bishop from the first area of my mission also randomly died…very tragic.

It was a birthday month for Elena, so the entire month was dedicated to making sure she had the best birthday. I bought an entirely new outfit to take to dinner which was so so so fun.

Went back to Idaho and remembered why I love Sun Valley.

August

I got pulled over for the first time for my front right light being out…idk how he saw it when he was behind me. But, I also had stopped my car slightly over the solid white line at a red light. Got away with just a warning, but was scary.

Later that day I finished my Dirtylicious Instructor Training! I decided last minute that I was going to take the leap and get certified. A week later I boarded a plane and went to Scotland. Spent a few days in Edinborough, went North to a football match, stayed in a renovated abbey on Loch Ness, and then took a night train down to London. Spent a few days in London shopping and visiting a few sites. Sadly, the Eras Tour tickets were too pricey so we spent the money on some yummy food at Din Tai Fung.

I got certified and approved to be an instructor while in Scotland. Then the weekend after returning home I taught a bachelorette party for my friend Sarah Sun.

Went to my first of three concerts at USANNA. Saw Hozier for the first time and it was SO GOOD. I love live music.

September

I started my senior year with a PR Lab staff meeting and went up to Bear Lake for a family reunion. Took some four-wheelers out and enjoyed playing games on the lawn. I attended a few workshops for DDF and it was so much fun.

Went to Back 2 School pride with two of my friends Emmaline and Leila and spent the night listening to live music and watching a Drag Show. Found out that a boy in my program is gay…and spent the rest of the semester spiraling because I sent him a like on a dating app…with no response.

Went to Pitbull for my second concert with my DDF friends and let’s say everyone around us loved our moves to Cyclone by T-Pain. I shaked my butt a lot that night.

October

October was the month that I finished Kingdom of Ash. Fellow TOG lovers know how heartwrenching those last 400 pages are. I cried and sent the tears to my friend Gabby.

I began to start Choreographing dance combos to get added to DDF. I finished my “Got Me Started” combo and submitted it. I attended a few DDF events and had a fun time meeting the manager for fitness classes at Provo Rec. I mentioned I would like to teach classes, and she said she would have me audition in November.

Took some fall pictures in the mountains! And that was gorgeous.

I also went to my first Encircle event with my friend Emmaline. We got dressed up like fairytale characters and went up to SLC. It was a HOOT and may have had some wine accidentally…but we aren’t sure.

I went to a Halloween party my friend Gabby hosted. We painted pumpkins and did a “hear me out cake.” I got pulled over on the way home for running a stop sign I had no idea existed…RIP my luck.

I also drove to California for a conference…spent an entire week in California and while I was there I visited the beach twice, went to Disneyland, the SWEAT tour (Tate Mcrae and Kesha performed too) and taught the PRSSA Icon Conference how to DANCE to EFY songs haha.

I went to Imagine Dragons at USANNA the day before I left to California.

November

My obsession with cucumbers continued as I brought them into work daily. I attended the Twerksgiving event with DDF and it was so much fun. Dance has become a central part of my life. Met up with some old friends, fell out with a few other friends for a while, and had a photo shoot for my birthday. I have social campaigns for my birthday every year so this was abnormal.

I auditioned for DDF at the end of November and it went so so well. I had a big class…maybe 20 people show up which was great. I also went and saw Wicked for the first time and sobbed. LOVED the movie.

I also attended an awards ceremony for PRSSA to see if my team won any extra awards….we were finalists but lost to Zions Bank…smh.

I continued my addiction to Chili’s and took my first nap in the new PR Lab.

December

This was an insane month…I had so many finals…one was my History 220 which i was so scared for. If i didn’t get higher than a 20/80 on my exam, I would have to retake the course. Gladly to say I exceeded that 20…and passed the course.

I presented my capstone with my team…we did such a great job that BYU Athletics continued to share our work with the rest of their staff which was so cool to see. We celebrated by going to Chilli’s which I introduced two of my friends to for the first time! I don’t think any of you realize how good this place is.

I finished off the month with my birthday with my close friends and spent Christmas with the family. My heart is so full and I am so excited to see what 2025 has for me.