i kind of hate having to share the date i came home from my mission with a groundhog

two years ago at this very moment i was on a plane coming home from taiwan. 

and i'm sure you guys are like hey megan! just get over it already!

but really you can't just get over it. like elder holland, there isn't a day that goes by that i don't think of my mission. but like sister terry says, life should just continue to get better and better and that you should never actually refer to your mission as the best two years of your life. to help me get into this mindset that life is just as great after the mission, i decided i need to take time every year to reflect on the year previous and think about all the things that happened, what i enjoyed, what i accomplished/did, and what i learned.  last year i did the same thing and have decided to do it each year for the rest of my blogging life however long that life is. and it is okay if you can't get through it all or don't even care to look at it, it is mainly for my and my posterity's sake..assuming at some point i will have some.

i present to you, posterity and or friends and family who care,

 february 2, 2011 to february 2, 2012 and all that happened in between.

and in no particular order because they didn't upload in the right order and i'm too lazy to fix it:

 dirty dash! + first 10 k. this was exciting. 

participated in and photographed brynn's benefit. purposely paying close attention to all the emotion of this day really touched me. 

i bought a new lens!

saw the red hat ladies in the flesh

spent lots of time boating (we are in the boat. trust me)

became obsessed with sushi

 thanks to grace coming into town, hayley getting married, and me moving - we actually saw each other a few times this year. love these girls. 

had some good roommate times, pulled out my rollerblades once, and tried to develop the habit of making the most of good weather in any season

thanksgiving in texas

lots and lots of family time

 i really graduated from college but had a pretend commencement in seattle

 sister's weekend/time out for women

i realized that this blog could be a way to journal AND be a scrapbook of sorts so i went from hating blogging to being the blogger of the year and almost blogged every single thing that ever happened since then. and you know what? i'm really grateful i did. yes it is kind of creepy that my entire life is just out there for everyone to see but i've documented the past year better than any other and because of that i will remember it better. i have the worst memory (which is why i take so many dang pictures) so my blog posts from this past year are so precious to me. 

anyway. back to one line descriptions.

got to hang out with homemaker extraordinaire daryl hoole  

got to spend more time than usual with this handsome grandpa

bear lake!

shot a wedding in wyoming (and stood in a silo)

once again saw lots of shows for ry guy

my hatred for the state of idaho ended

 i told adenoviral keratitis to shove it and got lasik

little mermaid, disneyland, club 33, neon, and being awkwardly posed with friends, and some quality brynne and tanner LA time

 disneyland again! 

but this time with halloween and parents and brother and his family. 

(and more quality brynne and tanner LA time)

i finally learned how to drive one of these guys all by myself

(never once drove brynne's vespa because it stressed me out too bad)

became great friends with mission friend jacquie then had one million sleepovers last semester

 (and yes, even though i am out of school i still think in semesters)

i used my nice cam lots and lots more, and ryan's iphone camera more, instagram was discovered.

  began taking the whole photography thing more seriously, it is even official with the state of utah! 

paid taxes and everything. 

 ry bought us passes to seven peaks. we used them four times.

i was an idiot and have the broken jade bracelet and scars to prove it. 

AND after looking at this picture i have now decided those shorts have got to go. i'm the worst at looking nice in swimming attire because i just hate feeling like i'm in my nakes but this year i'll just need to get over it. 

lots and lots of festivals

participated in the new mission president's seminar, which i loved

realized all you can eat sushi isn't actually a smart idea but kept doing it anyway

consumed a lot of snow cones

went on lots and lots of beautiful hikes, realized utah has even more wonderful things to see than i previously thought, and fell even more in love with nature and being surrounded by it. 

thriller! and many other fun dates

took pictures of an occasion that will never stop making me laugh

made the most of the one time i saw snow in the mountains and am really grateful for that day because now there is not a mountain (or snow really) in sight

 attended my first (and hopefully not last) white party. it was just as great as it looks.

i wore these green pants to a mission reunion in april and then they disappeared. if you have seen them please tell me! this still makes me sad. 

lots of friendship/family cabin weekends

roommates and i had a fake/real obsession with the biebs

 saw love story meets viva la vida performed in the flesh, died, and fell in love with cello solos. 

took some photography classes and became obsessed with historical architecture

bertha (the sexy van i drove because i didn't want to buy a vehicle and my dad was nice enough to let me use) died. like, literally, she just decided to stop driving me to where i needed to go and started smoking so i pulled over and she died. instead of buying a new car i bought bianchi. she reminds me of my  mission bike and whenever i was stopped at a light i had to fight the urge to contact people and tell them to come to church. i miss her. 

i realized that when it is nice outside you can fly kites or play cards or go on a short walk or do other nice things instead of just waiting to be seated at a restaurant. i also realized that making the effort to make the most out of pretty much anything makes it way better and is always worth the effort that was made.  

said goodbye (and hello and then goodbye again) to lots of friends

LOVED watching old junior high friend (or not friend? really can't remember) on sytycd. also worth mentioning is this year i enjoyed watching modern family, parks and rec, the amazing race, pan am (i'm embarrassed), and as i've mentioned multiple times, law and order svu (even though it makes me sick inside and scared to sleep at night). 

costa vida won the eating game. probably ate it more than anything else. it was best enjoyed while watching movies in the park. oh august weather how i miss you. 

i said goodbye to the green gables home and the worst landlords in the world and moved back in with my the best parents in the world to figure out what to do next. 

also went through everything i owned multiple times to try and get rid of things and be more organized. that was a disaster. (also a disaster = the fact that i haven't changed what my room looks like since 5th grade except i did finally take all the kim anderson and anne geddes pictures off the walls haha)

took advantage of living at home by creeping my old stomping grounds

the geefs (minus two) were reunited. it really did feel so good!

finally found mine and emily's home videos of reenacting saturday's warrior. good thing i'm very comfortable with my 14 year old self or else this could be used as some serious blackmail.

because i wanted to make the most of every nice moment outside i could, my eyes were opened to the beauty that is everywhere. so many more beautiful things were seen this year just because i simply looked harder for them. 

the past year (and hopefully forever) i made it a point to be a better friend to those friends who i still cared about but never saw. i had lots of reunions with people i hadn't seen forever and it was wonderful. friends are so precious. did you know one of the top five regrets of people who are dying is they wished they had stayed in touch with their friends? i don't want that to be my regret too. 

all my childhood dreams came true when ry took me (and his nieces) to disney on ice

met mindy gledhill officially rather than just creeping her like the year before. 

further realized the possibilities of the world wide web

stopped hating dogs. well. small ones.  

one more shout out to sisters time. had so much of it this year. i've learned to feel grateful for how far away we all live from each other, for when we get together it is just that much sweeter. 

i said goodbye to the mtc, my family, friends, my awful really old nokia phone, and utah life for awhile. my last few weeks were really the best. i want to live every day as if i'm moving to boston, i appreciated everything more than i would have otherwise. 

i said hello to boston, lots of layers, new experiences, a new job (cross your fingers), new friends, my own instagram account, more determination to be who i know i should be, and of course benjamin franklin.

gosh after looking at all these things (and the many things i chose not to include after realizing this post already had 30234283 photos) i realized what an amazing year this has been. it is tempting to feel bad for not exactly being where i thought i would be or who i feel i should be but there is this great thing that happens when i step back and look at the year as a whole. i realize my life is beautiful and i'm really lucky to call it mine. the beginning of 2011 started a bit rocky but i wouldn't trade a thing that has happened for it brought me to where i am right now. i have learned so much and have a greater resolve than i had the year before to be better and to do more. and as easy as it is for me to stress and worry if i'm doing what is right i feel that i am exactly where God wants me for the time being and i'm in the right place to learn what He wants me to learn and do what He wants me to do. 

God has always had more in store for me and expected more of me than i expect for myself and i'm excited to see what He has in store for this next year of my life. my mission taught me to be grateful for the hard and the unexpected because those are the experiences that draw us closer to the Lord, humble us, and put us in a position to be lifted higher. i've definitely dealt with hard and unexpected things since i've been home but that is when i grew the most and learned the most about myself and the world around me. through those experiences i've learned how to be more loving, more understanding, more grateful, and more forgiving. i wouldn't trade those lessons for anything. like i already said, life really should just get better and better and every year should be better than the last, even if it is harder than the last or not what you thought it would be. i think with that in mind and constantly reminding myself to have an eternal perspective, i can happily navigate through the good, the bad, and even the really hard of twenty twelve and be able to say on february second of twenty thirteen that THAT was the best year of my life.