Summer is Near

Don’t hate because I haven’t posted in 10 weeks. I love you all! But I’m too busy loving life, too. Here I am, writing an update though!

Conference was so long ago but I’ll still tell you how I did. I didn’t do as well as I wanted but still got best times, which is pretty much what everyone says after their big competitions. For me though, I think it’s a little different. I began this year with a pec injury that I spent 2 months working on to heal. After that, I was able to catch up with everyone after a few weeks of hard training. At the husky invite (about 4 weeks into training) I hit times that were near my best. By Christmas training I was in the best shape of my life. I’m not sure what happened after that, but about 5 weeks before conference, I was just super tired and slow all the time. I think it was probably because of a long-accumulated sleep debt. Because of my sluggishness, I was rested extra. In fact, I was rested too much. At conference, I felt really fast for my first race—and then I was really tired. I knew that I had over-rested. But, I got best times and scored, so I can’t complain.

I took a week off after conference, and then I started to swim and lift a bit for the next three weeks after that. Then, Steve’s Sports Conditioning class began, which is basically our way of getting around the NCAA practice regulations. However, I only swam about 4 times a week and lifted 3 times a week, which is much less than in-season. This week, I started lifting at 5:15am with Rory and Austin on Monday and Tuesday, and swimming after. Tomorrow I’ll be lifting in the AM with them, again…I’m soooooo tired! I honestly don’t know how I did as much as I did in-season. I’m struggling to do half as much right now. I suppose it is much easier once I fall into a routine—but still. I’m definitely not in the shape I was in the middle of the year, but I’m getting back into it.

Spring break was really fun. That was about 3 weeks after conference, and was the same week that our 7 guys and 1 girl went to NCAAs. On the first weekend, I was invited (along with two other guy friends) to be ushers in my friend’s sister’s wedding! That meant free food too! The wedding was beautiful, and we helped load up the 5000 pounds of gifts into the parent’s car and went back to my friend’s (Giles’) house to sleep over. We watched a movie, had man talk, and went to bed. The next day we went to the new husband’s parent’s house to watch the new couple unwrap their presents (P.S. for my wedding, DO NOT buy me 25 sets of ceramic plates and cups), and then they went to their honeymoon!

That same day, the day after, and two days previous, I went to three different malls with three different groups of friends. I had been given some money for my birthday back in February and I basically went on a shopping spree. Let’s just say that when I went to buy tacos at the end of the third day, my credit card was declined. How embarrassing. I’ve since stopped buying anything. Ever.

The day after the wedding, I went to hang out with Noah Peller (my AWESOME RA) and slept over at his house. Then I spent the rest of the week at the swim house and we did lots of fun stuff like hiking, driving to Coeur d’Alene, and just hanging out watching Netflix. Oh, and of course, working out.

The break went by really fast, of course. I had more classes, etc, etc, found out I got 100% in microbiology somehow, whatever, and then before I knew what had happened it was Easter break! This was probably the funnest weekend ever…and I’m not being facetious.

I was invited by Kelsie Jenkins to go to her house in Gig Harbor with 5 other people (Gabe, Jonathan, Rachel, Beth, and Kate). Lindsay was there for a little bit when I got there, and we saw a bunch of other friends who lived in the area a few times throughout the weekend. If you’re reading this from Green Bay you have no idea who any of these people are but trust me, they’re all so awesome!

Anyways, I drove to Gig Harbor with Aaron (my future roommate) and it was scary because there was a blizzard on the pass on the way over. Also, we almost ran out of gas in the middle of the blizzard. But don’t worry because we’re obviously okay! We also got lost when we got there because we mapquested the wrong address (my fault). Aaron dropped me off because he went to watch Whitworth’s track team in Oregon and later met up with his friend and then went back to his Uncle’s house in Gig Harbor. He helped drive us home, too.

That night, we all slept in a big pile in Kelsie’s basement after watching a movie. The next day, we woke up kind of late, and went to this brand new park that had a really nice turf field that we ran around on and played Frisbee and just had fun taking pictures and stuff. We came back, made a bunch of Mexican food, and had a homework session. That night we stargazed, had massage trains, and fell asleep watching a movie again.

The next day, we met up with some friends and went to a park in Tacoma, and it was beautiful out. We played some more Frisbee, walked around, and ate bread and drank sparkling juice from Safeway. That night, we went to a friend’s house where we sat around a bonfire that was on the shore and sang songs and talked until the tide came up to put the fire out.

On Easter, we went to Kelsie’s church, came back to the house and had delicious crepes with fruit dip, strawberries, and chocolate sauce. Then Kelsie hid Easter baskets for all of us to find! Her dad is a candy man so it was no problem but it was so nice of her to thin of that for us! Actually, her mom thought of it, but still it was really nice. Basically, it was the perfect weekend. There were so many inside jokes and the weather was amazing and the group was fun!

Last weekend, our school had “Pirate Idol”, which took all of the top two winners of each of the “Whitworth Unplugged” musical competitions we had throughout the year, and pitted them against each other. A band called Alma Desnuda opened, and they were hilarious and were a pretty good and musically diverse band, too. The contestants did great, and the place was packed full of people.

The next day was Springfest, which was really cheesy. Well, actually, it was really fun. I went to the HUB with Levi, and we got breakfast, sumo wrestled in giant costumes, raced through the blow-up course, climbed a portable climbing wall, and fought in a different blow-up pen. Then we went frolfing with a few other people including Kelsie’s little brother who was visiting for the weekend. He’s only a sophomore now, but he said he’s coming here for sure…I’m holding him to that! The rest of the weekend I spent writing essays.

A bunch of other stuff happened during the past ten weeks, but I can’t totally recall EVERYTHING. The most significant other event was that I failed running for dorm senator…but there were a lot of circumstances surrounding that process that explain my loss. I’m okay with it though…it’s for the best.

Basically, I’m really excited for school to end for the summer, but I’m also going to miss all of my blossoming friendships! So sad. Of course I am full of nostalgia and some regrets, but I look back on my freshman year and see a year packed full of hard work and I am happy with how I turned out at the end of it all, with everything that’s transpired.

I have more to say, but it’s bedtime. More to come later!