This

I try not to get too cheesy with this blog, but it's really in my nature, and I am warning you right now that this post might be a little bit on the sentimental side. With today being my very last day in Austin, and my last ever shift at SRD (though who knows, maybe I'll continue the trend and work here next summer, too), I'm allowed to get a little bit cheesy.

As I look back at my time in Austin, I can't help but think of Darius Rucker's song, "This." It is one of my very favorite songs, and I think it speaks nicely to how I even ended up in Austin. Might I suggest listening to it as you read? It will up the sentimentality. Seriously, I had it on repeat as I was writing this.

I'm not sure that I have ever shared this on the blog before, but The University of Texas was not my dream school. It wasn't even really on my radar until my senior year of high school. For most of my high school career, the only school I would talk to you about was The University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia (duh). I became obsessed with the idea of moving far away and leaving everything familiar to me (I was very prideful of this), and attending this beautiful school in the northeast that had actual seasons and a prestigious reputation. UVA was my "dream school," and this was school I just had to attend. Well, April 1st, 2010 (actually March 26, if we're being specific) came, and by this time, I just wanted a yes or no answer. Many of my friends knew where they would be going, and I was tired of saying that I didn't know where I would be going yet. I had contemplated just saying "yes" to UT, solely so that I would have a definitive answer to the "Where are you going next year?" question, but my mom convinced me to hang on for just a few more weeks until I heard back from UVA.

To cut to the chase, I checked my status online, and I saw that I had been waitlisted. So while I was very obviously disappointed (what more did I have to do in order to be admitted?), it took me about 2.5 seconds to get in the car so that I could drive over to Uptown Park to stock up on some UT gear. Obviously I was upset (and out of my mind for voluntarily driving on I-610 in rush hour traffic), but something my best friend told me still sticks with me today: "Kelli, if you really want to go to UVA, you can make it happen, but it seems to me that God is pointing you in a different direction." And what a direction I took. It's so crazy to me that these past four years of my life could have looked so incredibly different had I tried to get off that waitlist and attend school across the country.

So, the first step I took was choosing to move just two and a half hours down the road to the live music capital of the world - Austin, Texas - so that I could work towards earning my degree from The University of Texas at Austin.

Spoiler alert: I did it!

Which led me to live at Scottish Rite Dormitory, also known as SRD, the dirty SRDy, or the virgin vault, and that was arguably one of the best decisions I ever could have made. I met some of my best friends here, I had the opportunity to be a Resident Assistant with some truly incredible girls, and heck, I still can't seem to get away from the place! It made the transition from high school to college so much easier, and you better believe I will be coming back for the reunions.

I had the opportunity to study abroad and spend seven weeks in Barcelona, Spain with one of my best friends. It is easily one of my most favorite cities, and we had the time of our lives over there. We were also able to explore Madrid, London, and Paris, and I know that I will not be able to stay away from them for long.

I have always been into exercise and staying fit, and since coming to college, I have completed five half marathons, and I am currently signed up complete my sixth in January. Who knows how that might have changed, had I not had lived in a city so dedicated to staying fit? Town Lake is just a place that can't be beat.

I was involved with YoungLife in high school, but, to be completely honest, I never even considered staying active with it in college. I am so thankful that I found myself surrounded by such incredible people those first few weeks of college, because that led me to get involved in a YoungLife small group that met weekly, which led me to go through YoungLife leader training, which led me to be placed on a YoungLife team full of some of the best people you will ever meet.

Not only that, but I had the chance to hang out with a pretty awesome group of girls. I was supposed to be the one leading and teaching them, but I learned more from them than they may ever know.

I got to live in the cutest house with some of the greatest humans on this planet. There simply aren't enough words to describe the love, laughter, and crazy antics that went on in our little house and on Wild Wild West 35th. I will cherish these memories forever - especially the ones that involved "What Are The Odds" - and though we are all running off in very different directions, I look forward to the laughs that are sure to come when we all reunite.

Suite 1 forever

Going back to the YoungLife part of my college experience, I can't help but be thankful that it led me to Dylan. I remember thinking he was cute the very night he was placed on my team. Unfortunately for me, I was dressed as a hipster zombie, so while it would be a cute story to say that he thought I was cute from the moment he saw me, I wasn't really doing myself any favors. Above all, though, I absolutely loved getting to know him over the course of that year, and he grew to be one of my closest friends on the team. One sweet letter and one five-hour beach day later, and we've been discovering new restaurants together ever since. He makes me want to be a better person, my stomach hurts from laughing so much when we're together, and I just genuinely enjoy being around him (even when I'm reading and he's playing Sudoku). And though I know it will be hard to do the whole "long-distance" thing (which is really only two and a half hours so can that really be considered long distance?), I am excited to see how our relationship will grow this next year. And he gives me even more of an excuse to return to this great city.

And finally, because I have yet to mention the very reason that I came to this university, to do the whole school thing, I was able to complete the very best secondary teacher preparation program in the country. It was not without many thoughts of changing my major, many tears of frustration and stress, but also not without many sweet reminders as to why it is that I wanted to do this in the first place.

So, what I'm trying to say is, every seemingly wrong step or bad turn that I took, led me to have the most incredible college experience. I can't even express how grateful I am for the experiences I have had, the people I have met, and this city that I have gotten to know so well these past four years. As sad as it makes me to close the door on this chapter of my life,  I could not be more excited to head back to Houston to start a new one that has me teaching English and coaching volleyball at Bellaire High School. I am so grateful for this opportunity, and it is still so crazy to me how it all seemed to fall into place. It's been a great four years, and it's crazy to think that one little thing could have changed all of this.

Sidenote: I may or may not have teared up a little bit while writing this. Austin, you will truly be missed (though your lack of plastic bags and horrendous Mopac traffic will most definitely not be).

A sweet farewell from SRD

Things I'm Loving Friday V

Happy FRIDAY! I'm back in Houston as I type up this blog post, and I am so excited to say that one of my oldest childhood friends is officially a married woman! I got back to Houston last night, or rather, I went straight to Friendswood with Dylan, crashed there for the night, before we made our way back over to my side of town to head to the wedding. There was a little scare with the rain, but thankfully it held out, though I hear that rain on your wedding day is good luck! But, cheers to the new Mr. and Mrs. Shawn Freeman!

Things I'm Loving

And now for another rendition of Things I'm Loving Friday -

Pinterest Crafts

I'm the least artistic person in the world. Unfortunately, using the transitive property, that also means I'm the least crafty person in the world. So why my craft board on Pinterest has so many pins, I will never know, because I hardly ever actually follow through with any of them. Lucky for me, Dylan loves a good DIY project, so when we went through my Pinterest board and saw this pin, I was inspired to put my own little spin on it and create one displaying my classroom expectations. We had a lot of fun doing this project together, and I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. Possible tutorial to come in a future post!

Baked Goods

I've been off my baking game lately. I'm not sure why that is, but when I was going through my shelf on both the pantry and the fridge, I found a few things that could be used to make these Oreo-Stuffed Sugar Cookies. The recipe was so easy (if you're cheating and using store-bought dough like I did), in that I simply wrapped an Oreo with dough, rolled it in nonpareils, and placed it in a lined muffin tin. Heat your oven to 350 degrees, cook them for 18-20 minutes, and you'll have a treat that is both aesthetically pleasing, as well as pleasing to your taste buds, or so I've been told.

Squirrels

One of the top things I will miss about living in Austin, and specifically about walking through the UT campus, would have to be the squirrels. They are so funny in that they are the friendliest squirrels I have ever come across. They let you get so close to them, and they will never ever turn down food that is offered to them. Two of my roommates once started a squirrel blog, and Dylan and I frequently send squirrel pictures to one another. Props to him for starting #squirrelsaturday, which is sure to be back and better than ever this summer!

Kid President

I don't know how many of you have ever watched this video, but if you haven't, you certainly should. I don't know why but I never watch videos that are sent to me or posted on any social media, but even I watched this one, and I'm sure glad I did. In this video, Kid President shares his five favorite things about summer. And the best part about this video is, every time someone watches, likes, or shares this video, ConAgra Foods will donate money to Feeding America, the nation's leading domestic hunger-relief organization, so that every kid will get to have an awesome summer!

(Source)

Real World: "Commence"

I apologize for yet another extended absence (although nothing can beat my March - May absence, oops), but I promise this absence was with good reason. As of Saturday, May 17th, I am officially a college graduate! And the University of Texas at Austin is now my alma mater (I may have teared up when President Bill Powers said those words).

Because it is impossible for me to sum up the past four years in a single post (and believe me, I sat down multiple times to try and do so), I will simply say that my four years at UT were truly the best four years of my life, and I am so thankful for the people I met, the friends I made, the opportunities I had, the laughs I shared, and the education I received. I could not have asked for a better college experience, and I will only look back at my time at UT with the fondest of memories. And I think this quote from The Office sums things up pretty well, "I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you've actually left them."

Graduation Weekend

My family arrived in Austin late Friday afternoon, and Dylan and I met them at The Roaring Fork out in North Austin for a 7:30pm dinner. We timed it pretty perfectly in order to see the sunset over the water as we were enjoying a delicious dinner. It came as no surprise to anyone that I ordered the salmon dish (predictable), with an order of asparagus on the side. I intended for the asparagus to be for anyone who wanted it, but I ended up eating most of it all by myself. Oops.

It was wonderful, and it was also great to see my family for the first time since accepting my job!

After dinner, we parted ways for the night, but we reconvened in the morning when they picked me up for a 12:30pm graduation ceremony. 

This was the ceremony in which my name was called out, I walked across the stage, and I received my diploma (or a piece of paper promising my diploma).

Because there were only 117 of us graduating with a degree in English, the ceremony was fairly short, and we processed out around 1:45pm.

We then made our way over to the Tower to take some oh-so-original pictures by the Tower,

before piling back in the car to eat a late lunch at Gloria's in the Domain. I was essentially starving by this point, so I filled up on chips and guacamole (mainly so I wouldn't be drinking my orange mojito on an empty stomach) before my shrimp and chicken salad came.

I still managed to eat every last bite, and I think we were all in agreement that it was more than time for a nap. We headed back to the Clubhouse to relax before the evening festivities began. I was contemplating (not really) skipping my own commencement, thanks to exhaustion and a headache, but I have heard from so many people how rewarding the big commencement ceremony is. And though I was standing outside the PCL for a little under an hour, and it took all of the graduates 45 minutes to process onto the Main Mall, it was absolutely worth every single minute to be a part of the evening's festivities.

Both University President Bill Powers and our student body president spoke before we heard from the star of the show - Admiral William McRaven. He is the commander of the U.S. Special Operations, and he actually led Operation Neptune Spear, which resulted in the killing of Osama bin Laden. So, it only made sense that a U-S-A chant broke out among the students. McRaven is a '77 UT grad, and I may be a little biased, but his speech was easily one of the best speeches I have ever heard. I was so inspired that I wished I had a pen and paper to whip out so that I could take notes. Luckily, we are currently living in the 21st century, and a full copy of the speech is available online for your reading pleasure, as is a video recording of the actual speech if you prefer to listen and watch. I HIGHLY recommend that you give it a read and/or listen, because I was left feeling highly motivated to change the world. Because our tagline is "What Starts Here Changes The World," here are Admiral McRaven's 10 ways to change the world:

1. If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.

2. If you want to change the world, find someone to help you paddle.

3. If you want to change the world, measure a person by the size of their heart, not the size of their flippers.

4. If you want to change the world, get over being a sugar cookie and keep moving forward.

5. If you want to change the world, don't be afraid of the circuses.

6. If you want to change the world, sometimes you have to slide down the obstacle head first.

7. If you want to change the world, don't back down from the sharks.

8. If you want to change, you must be your very best in the darkest moment.

9. If you want to change the world, start singing when you're up to your neck in mud.

10. If you want to change the world, don't ever, ever ring the bell.

Again, I highly recommend reading through the entire speech, because it was simply amazing, and I guarantee you will finish feeling inspired. So, in the words of Admiral McRaven, 

• Start each day with a task completed.
• Find someone to help you through life.
• Respect everyone.
• Know that life is not fair and that you will fail often, but if you take some risks, step up when the times are toughest, face down the bullies, lift up the downtrodden and never, ever give up.

After his incredible speech, the dean of each college stood up, said a few words, the Tower was lit up with each corresponding color, and finally, the Tower was lit a beautiful burnt orange while sporting a '14. The grand finale was the fireworks show, which was easily one of the best that I have ever seen.

It was a truly incredible night, and I have to admit that I had goosebumps as I sang "The Eyes of Texas" at the conclusion of the ceremony. I am so proud to be an alum, and an official Texas Ex, of the greatest university in the world, and I absolutely cannot wait to get out there and change the world!

Cheesy, but true. As bittersweet as it is to end this chapter of my life, I could not be more excited for the new chapter that lies ahead. As I mentioned in this post, I will be teaching English at Bellaire High School, and I have also just accepted a position coaching freshman volleyball. A mere 30 minutes after I walked the stage, I received a text message from one of the coaches at Memorial High School asking if I would be interested in coaching at Bellaire. Overwhelmed with all that was happening in that moment, I gave it a few hours before replying with a resounding (as resounding as a text message can be) YES. I can't tell you how much my volleyball years - and my incredible coaches - meant to me, and I look forward to (hopefully) having even half the impact on these players that my coaches had on me. I know that being a first-year teacher is going to be tough enough, only to throw a crazy volleyball schedule on top of that, but I knew I would have regretted saying no to this opportunity. 

I met with the head coach at Bellaire yesterday afternoon, and I went up to Bellaire again this morning to talk specifics, go over the calendar, and learn a little bit about the Bellaire volleyball program. I left the school feeling even more excited than I ever thought I would be, so I'm going to go ahead and say that I made the right choice in saying yes to this opportunity. And I cannot forget to thank the numerous coaches I have had along the way that have been nothing but supportive and helpful throughout my career as a player, and now on my journey to becoming a coach. Y'all are the best, and I cant' wait to see you guys on the (other side of) the court!

And hopefully the regularly scheduled posts will resume starting tomorrow - I'll do my best to make that happen!

*Disclaimer: I typed this post up on Tuesday evening, and am just now getting around to posting it, so I apologize if some of the verb tenses don't make as much sense.