I had some amazing friends and roommates during the spring semester that made things bearable. Camilla, Tara, Sabrina, and Brooke were the best that I could ask for, even with our apartment drama. Outside of the apartment I also had my old roommate, Kiwi, who is going to Russia for ILP this fall and I'm really excited for her. We had some big ups and downs through the semester, like Tara getting engaged, Sabrina and I fighting, Camilla graduating, and the passing of my Grandpa Glen. Just when I was finally over the semester and really just ready to leave it all behind, something unexpected happened, I guess you could call it love, but most people just call him Zane.
It was just a couple weeks before the semester was going to end and at the last minute I decided to go to my bishop's house for a closing ward social on July 12th. I had been to his house many times, so I knew what to expect, there would be a giant slip and slide made out of tarps on the grass,floating down the canal, a trampoline, food, and a lot of my friends there, so my roommates and I decided to go. We got there a little late and everyone had already left to float the canal, so we would have to wait for the next run. We ate and socialized a bit, and then got a group to go with us, when we got back Camilla and I made an agreement that we would do the slip and slide just to say that we tried it. After trying it once, I wanted to give it another shot to see if I could go further but she was done. Zane and I kept at it, and one more try turned into 20+ runs and races. Afterwards, I teased him saying it was too bad it took us all semester to find out how fun he was because we could have been friends, to which he laughed and joked back, saying who knew the slip and slide would bring us together. I invited him to our last game night the next day after church, and then he asked to join our FHE on Monday, which ended up falling through.
On Tuesday, July 15th, a week before finals, devastation hit Rexburg, Idaho. A severe thunderstorm dumped over 2 inches of rain within 45 minutes resulting in a flash flood, affecting many campus apartments and even the school buildings, some areas reaching a height of 6 feet of water. Our apartment was the only one in the ward that was affected by the flood, and compared to some apartments, we were kind of lucky. We had amazing friends and FHE brothers that rushed right over to help us bucket out the water as it was pouring in, working hard to stay on top of it. Most of the ward came by to help and to check on us. It was really comforting in this time of devastation across our campus to see so many people helping others and serving in any way that they could.
After we recovered from the flood, I continued on throughout the rest of the week and semester, all the while still getting to know and spend time with Zane. I moved all my stuff down to Utah the following weekend, then came back to turn in my projects and complete my finals. On Tuesday I said goodbye to Rexburg. From there I headed down to Utah where I had plans to stay with my cousin and her sweet family until the 31st, because we had tickets to see Wicked in Salt Lake City, but because of Zane I decided to change my plans. Instead of leaving on the 31st to California and spending 10 days with my family before I needed to be in Florida, I stayed in Utah until August 9th, where I flew straight to Orlando and met up with my mom and Tim so we could get everything ready for my check ins.
In the two and a half weeks that I spent in Utah before check ins I had a really great time. Even though hitting it off with Zane was really unexpected and unplanned, and kind of unwanted, I mean I was moving to Florida for 5 months, it all felt right. We spent every day together, getting to know each other more, meeting parts of each others families, and growing closer and decided to make things official. We knew that long distance wasn't going to be easy, and even though I didn't really want to leave, even for Disney, we both knew that I needed to follow my dreams and that we would both do whatever was necessary to keep us together despite the distance. So on August 9th, Zane took me to the airport and we said goodbye to each other, as I took off on my next adventure to Disney check ins.
