It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

This week we had our amazing ward party. :) It was a bit of an adventure getting there. For some reason Google Maps and my GPS failed me in my attempt to find it. I ended up driving around in circles for about 40 minutes, but a quick phone call to a friend finally got us there. Fortunately there had been some issue with the catering, and they didn't serve dinner until shortly after I arrived. :)

Santa was there!

Being at the party took me back to the ward party a year ago. It is interesting to think about how much has changed since then. Many of my friends have graduated and moved away, and I miss them. But this year I've had the opportunity to meet a lot of amazing people and make a lot of awesome new friends.

I wonder where I will be in a year from now? I am not quite sure where life will take me after graduation, but it will be fun to find out.

Hair

The blond highlight look was fun for summer, but I decided I wanted to go back to my natural color:

I think Shauna was more interested in getting a picture of her Jimmer poster than a pic of my hair, but that should give you some idea of my new/old look. :) I think I like it!

NCFR

This week I got to venture to Florida to attend the National Council on Family Relations. This is a big annual gathering where family professionals from around the country gather together to share their research. I had heard about it for years, so it was exciting to finally get to go for myself.

Can I just say, Orlando is beautiful? I wish we had more time there to just play around and explore. I will have to go back someday.

This was the view from our hotel window:

Everyone at the conference got an official nametag with ribbons attached. Most ribbons said cool things like "Award Winner" "Legacy Circle" or "Section Chair."

Somehow I ended up with more ribbons than anyone else I saw, but they were mostly for dorky things:

"First Time Attendee" "Student/New Professional" "Student Aide"... the one I was proud of said "Certified Family Life Educator." :)

I spent four hours volunteering at the registration desk. It was AWESOME. So many big name professors checked in... people whose research I've been studying for years... I was a little star struck by it all!

On Thursday I presented a poster on my thesis. A lot of people stopped by. They were all nice and said encouraging things. I felt a little bit more like a professional!

Me and my amazing poster

 After my presentation was over, my friends Lena, JV, and I headed out to Downtown Disney!

Even though it's not actual Disney World, it has the same vibe to it. Just being there made me really happy. I found this awesome little souvenir at the world's largest Disney store (World of Disney):

An antenna topper for my car in the shape of Cinderella's carriage... It says "Disney Princess" and it's the same color as my car! Perfect!

 Overall the trip was amazing and I'm glad I went! Hopefully I can go again next year. Also, I need to go back to Orlando sometime and really check out all the sights... Disney World... Harry Potter World... Sea World... All of it!

But even though I had fun, I am ready to be back home. :) I was surprised how much I missed Provo while I was away. Turns out Provo is a pretty cool place to be!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope you got out there and partied! :) We did. Shauna and I were both brave and wore our costumes up to campus for the first time. It might have been my imagination, but I swear there weren't as many people dressed up this year as there are usually. I felt like wearing a costume made me act a little differently... I felt like I had to be super extra cheerful to match my costume. :)

 Here is Shauna as a mad scientist.

 I was a rainbow unicorn. :)

For FHE, our group watched Monster House (great movie!). Then we went reverse trick or treating with a big group of people. It's a great alternative to regular trick or treating if you're in an area (like university housing) where people won't have candy on hand. You knock on the door, yell "Treat or trick!" and then throw candy into their apartment and run away! :D Lots of fun! I definitely recommend it.

Drinking Fountain

Guess who just installed a drinking fountain in her own home all by herself? (well... Shauna helped too.)

Best of all, it looks just like Shamu!

Voila! :) My inner six year old is very very pleased indeed.

Single Flower

My roommate Natalia and I went on a walk today, and we stumbled upon this beautiful flower, still growing strong in the middle of October:

It made me really happy. :)

Life in Provo is going well. Things have just been super busy. This semester reminds me of my very first semester in grad school, when I was stressed out all the time. My second semester was much more lowkey for some reason, for which I am grateful. This semester is crazy, but fortunately I have better time management skills than I did a year ago, so I am getting by.

I am loving having Shauna at school with me. She's been my best friend for forever and it's great having her around to do stuff with all the time!

On the Family Sciences

Dear Friends,

My undergraduate major was called Marriage, Family, and Human Development. It is a wonderful major but one with many unfortunate misconceptions. Let me clear a few things up for you:

1. MFHD is not "the official M.R.S. degree" at BYU, nor is it the Mommy Prep degree. This is not a major people do to kill time before they get married and start life as a stay at home mom.
2. It is not Home Economics. When I tell people my major, they often say "Oh, you must be good at cooking and sewing!" Actually, my program doesn't include a single cooking or sewing class.
3. There is a reason it is called Family Science. Family science is a hybrid of both psychology and sociology with  a family emphasis. It is a science in the same way that psychology and sociology are sciences.
4.  MFHD is not an easy program. Our program is very research heavy. Students must conduct research, study research, and learn to write research papers really well. Our professors are usually family therapists, so they are kind to us, but they are also scholars and they are used to reviewing papers for scholarly journals. They make sure that we are doing high quality work (particularly in the upper level courses).
5. In some ways, studying people and families is more difficult than studying "hard core" science topics (physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, etc etc). Each individual has their own life story. They are faced with their own unique family circumstances and challenges. They bring to the table a unique blend of personality traits, abilities, relationships, and experiences. No two people will react to the same situation in the exact same way. Also, most human emotions and experiences are difficult to capture in a quantitative way. We have to get creative in our efforts to study families and individuals. There are limitations to what we can do that we are constantly having to work around, but that doesn't mean our efforts aren't valuable.
*disclaimer: I'm certainly not saying that our major is harder than physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, etc. Students in those programs face difficulties that we don't have to deal with. But don't discount our program just because our difficulties are different than yours.*
6. MFHD can lead to careers. Many students (like me) go on to graduate programs and pursue careers as educators and therapists. A bachelor's degree in MFHD can yield jobs too. The fact is, families are important and there are many jobs out there designed to deal with family issues.

Friends, I love my major, but I wish more people would take it seriously. Just because it has "Marriage" in the name doesn't mean I am "one of those girls" who came here just to get married. Just because the emphasis is on families doesn't mean the only career track it offers is in parenthood.

Please treat our program with respect, and we'll do the same to yours. We're all here to learn, aren't we?

Love,

Shelece