Update

Hello everyone, well here I am updating my blog after THE worst night ever haha last time I checked the clock it was 5 and I was still awake, so if I write something and it doesn't make sense you know why - sleep deprivation. What is new? Well I am officially done with spring term which means being FINALLY done with the three prereq courses I had to take for statistics and research analysis. I'm not saying that I didn't enjoy all of them because each one of the researchs I did were about a subject I was interested in; however, I cannot say that they had external validity because I mean the sample was composed of BYU students - that is obviously biased but that's ok. So yeah I'm officially done and now I have only psychology classes from the cluster I'm actually interested in - Clinical cluster. Starting Monday - I know I'm insane - I'll start taking classes concerning personality, abnormal behavior, social psych, critical issues etc. So I'm really really excited!! On the other hand I'm also really busy because of that. I have decided to go to graduate school into Marriage, Family and Adolescent Therapy. So obviously I'm sarting to think of my resume, my recommendation letters and of course the infamous - and may I say useless - GRE test. So busy busy. For this, I already collected five recommendation letters out of the three they asked me. I have done two indepedent research with teachers, which builds my resume. I have worked in the psychology department as well. I also applied for a job for the Fall working at a clinic as a observational coder for families with serious conflicts and problems. I'm still waiting for them to answer so pray for that haha I really want it.

Ok so let's leave school for now, I think I have enough of that already! So next week I'm going to Vegas to watch Boston and Styx on concert! yay! I am so excited for that! That will be like the only vacation I have this year! Brian burned two cd's for me of their greatest hits so I've been listening to them like NONSTOP! I can say that I've becomed quite a fan. I already picked - kinda- my favorite songs. That would have to be mmm Peace of Mind, Feelin' Satisified, Livin' For You and Rock and Roll Band, also Lady '95, Show Me The Way, Renegade and Come Sail Away. So yeah I'm def excited to go as I've been going to school nonstop haha again my fault but I def need a break. As of lately - as I told Kelli haha- Show Me The Way has been quite an inspirational song for me haha....u guys should read the lyrics they are pretty good! So I hope they play that song at the concert!

What else? oh yeah! At Gold's Gym they opened a new class called Zumba, which is a combination of all latin dances, salsa, merengue, cumbia, samba, Venezuelan drums, bachata, and of course reggeaton. I went last Thursday and it was absolutely amazing! The teacher had us dancing nonstop for the entire hour! It was a great experience as I feel absolutely amazing when I'm dancing. As I have described before, dancing is my passion and this Thursday while I was listening to all these latin music and what not I felt so incredibly proud of being Latin! The music moves me from the inside. It's funny so I'll try to describe it, I feel kinda as if the music runs in my veins and whenever I'm listening to it or dancing my heart starts beating fast and I just can't help myself but to give everything when I'm dancing. I give my whole heart to every step. And the best part is that it makes me absolutely happy. Whenever I've had a problem or just too much in my head I've gone dancing to it and I absolutely forget about it and just let myself go...it's the best feeling ever. I am so proud of belonging to this massive family of hispanics and latins! It's almost as if there's like an internal drum that connects us! The culture is so rich! What can I say I love it! Anyhow I believe this will do nicely for now...

Some thoughts on agency

Well it has been a couple of days since I have posted something so since I'm at the library right now and me and my psych group just finished our final paper I decided to write something more to relax a little bit. I know it sounds ironic that all I've been doing for the past two days has been writing - first my ten page paper for art interrelations and then this twelve page paper for psych research class - and I find it relaxing to write more haha, oh well.

Yesterday just before I decided to stop doing homework and go have dinner I was thinking about the lesson for FHE. As an FHE mom I try most of the times to really think of something to tell the group that would be useful for them. I try to think of the things I struggle with and try to generalize it. So I was having dinner I was reading through my D&C notes and B of M notes. It took me about 15 minutes until I read the scripture in D&C that it says "beware concerning yourselves." This scripture made me think of the one scripture in 3 Nephi when it says that there was nothing in the land that would stop them from progressing lest they should fall into transgression. That's it! I though to myself. I started thinking about Pres. Maxwell's talk about agency and how he said that agency is the ONLY thing that is truly ours to give to the Lord. Everything else we have already belongs to him. Hence, the importance of using our agency adequately. This is the ONLY gift we have for him, the ONLY thing he wants from us. It would be so easy, but it's true, there is nothing that can stop us from progressing but ourselves. Temptations and deceptions will come but at the end of the day it is our decision.

I find it funny how I try to relate everything I do to a gospel principle. This time I found agency as an essential topic in the Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina. This is the classic example of the struggle between an apparent determinism and agency. Anna - the main character - loses everything because she truly believes that she is the victim. She blames everything that happens on the environment, her relatives, the cosmos, heredity etc. The novel starts by the following phrase: all happy familes are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. It is funny to find out that at the end it is exactly the opposite. Happiness is rooted in our individual characteristics as sons and daughters of God. This hold true for the Oblonsky family in the novel who are extremely unhappy - they are self-centered and they abandomned themselves to the idea that they can't help it. I'll stop giving details now for those of you who would like to read the novel. It is a fantastic piece of art! You should read it, the only problem is that it's very long - almost a thousand page book. But hey it's worth it! I promise you won't regret it!

In short, thinking about agency these past couple of days and trying to apply that for my semester paper has been a good experience. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more!