It aint over 'til it's over

It is hard to be a regular person after having experienced such a trip as Kauai, but I am doing my best to cope. I'd say the weirdest thing is that it is finals week, but it doesn't feel like it in the slightest. I have put forth my best efforts not to procrastinate anything this semester, and it has really paid off. Here I am in finals week and I have little to do. There are less classes so that students can work on their semester projects, but what happens to the students that have already completed their semester projects? I will tell you. I went to the beach for over an hour yesterday. I just laid there on the beach and watched the waves roll in. It was kind of weird. There I sat, while 200 yards away, hundreds of students were rushing to the library to study and do research.

 Another thing on my mind is going home. I don't to think of leaving this place, but I must. I am a crab in a beautiful shell, but this shell is getting small. I created this work of art, and now it is time for me to build a bigger and stronger one. I haven't regretted coming to BYU Hawaii for a second, not even a millisecond. I have grown so much from being out here. I have accomplished of few of my dreams out here:

Attend a University out-of-state

Clean the inside of a Temple

Learn to surf

Live on the beach

I don't think this is half bad considering the price I paid to get out here. I figured there really isn't another time in my life that I could do this. I wasn't even expecting to have fulfilled some of those dreams out here, but I did. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

The things I am excited about for home of course are my family, friends, and blankets. That's about it. Well, and obviously my snowboard. I can't wait to strap that baby on my feet and fly down the mountain.

That is a little of what I'm going through right now. Now to what happened over the weekend:
The school put on the infamous FALL BALL. I have never gone to a College Dance before, nor ever thought I would go. Dances were really fun in high school, but I thought it would be kind of weird to go to one in college. When the weekend approached, one of my good friends from the ward asked us that it was our duty to go to this dance. I was shocked, but apparently the school had paid roughly $30,000 for this dance. I was blown away. My friend told me that not many people were going to go to the dance and the school would have wasted all that money. Thus, it was our duty to participate.

The dance turned out to be one of the most incredible experiences I have had out here in Hawaii. There was an incredible meal just before the dance. It was an all you can eat steak buffet. They had mashed potatoes, fancy green beans, a mega salad and small refreshment tarts (chocolate and strawberry). You might say that sounds like an ordinary meal. It is, but not for a poor college student in Hawaii. I shoved down over two full plates that night.

After dinner we strolled on over to the dance floor with a live Jazz Band. This is where I began to see where all the money was spent on this dance. This band was exceptional! They had a great singer, solo artists on the saxophone, keyboard, flute and more. They played a wide variety of songs and it was just all out fun. Because we came to the dance as a group, and not individual dates, we just had a blast mixing and mingling with each other.

We did all sorts of stuff at this dance. They had rented out an entire ranch on the North Shore. They had karaoke in a barn in the back, dinner was under some huge tents in the pasture, the dance floor was not far from the dinner tents. They had torches lighting up the paths to each of these places. Unfortunately, we didn't take many photos. There wasn't much lighting anyway, but it was really cool.

Saturday and it was time to finish up my research paper. This photo illustrates what the whole day was for me. My paper was very interesting to me and I loved writing it. The topic of my paper was "By learning and applying Abraham Lincoln's leadership attributes, young entrepreneurs will be able to more effectively outsmart and outrun their competitors. Not a bad thesis. I talked about my paper with my professor yesterday, he loved it. He said I am going to do really well on it. I have also been talking to another professor on campus that knows a lot about Lincoln. He has about 30 books in his office on him, so he ought to know somethin'.

Well that'll be all for this week. I might get another blog off before I leave. Next week will be pretty simple. All of my finals fall on Wednesday. After that, I fly home saturday night. I'll have to fill in all those empty days with Beach, Surf Competitions, and Beach again. I am sure gonna miss this place. I am really excited to see most of you during Christmas Break. I better. I'll be home most of those two weeks spending time with the family and I cannot wait!!