At a Break

Today is the lull before the storm.

Yesterday was a very cathartic day.  I went to Chemistry, as always (every day at 8am!), came home, and saw an email that told me I had won the Freshman Learning in the Light of Faith essay contest.  Guidelines can be found at the essay contest website.  Yes, there is a grand prize of $500.  Winning was totally unexpected!  41 essays were entered.  Here is the essay, written the day before the deadline:

Quandary

It is soot black. Rural Idaho has no streetlights; one would be hard pressed to say the two-rut weed patch meandering around the country is any sort of a road, let alone a street.  No moon shines.

If the outside is soot, inside the garage is soot burned a thousand times over, coated with pitch, ensconced in the blackness of a glistening stallion, and laying at the bottom of a five hundred foot pit.  Black as night.  Blacker than night.

Stumbling through the garage, my toe is stubbed by an unknown solid.  By feeling around with hands I can deduce the texture and shape of a wooden box.  Why is it there?  What purpose does it serve?  I can’t tell in this overwhelming darkness.  Everything seems jumbled up, patternless. 

Secular scientists the world over comfortably establish the metaphorical ground on which they stand and then reach out into the darkness carefully until touching something.  By feeling around the object they may deduce various physical properties about the object or even its identity.  However, there is no illumination.  It is meekness as a disciple-scholar that allows one to bring the lights up and see not only the box but also how it fits into the garage’s overall pattern.

First year biology, Brigham Young University.  Evolution unit.  Nobody is late for today’s class: Discussion on Science, Evolution, and Creationism.  Apparently there are not many people disinterested in this subject; most, like me, are listening intently.  As we read the BYU evolution packet I remember Elder Neal A. Maxwell’s assertion that “Restoration theology is expansive, not constraining” (Maxwell 6).  I must remember to keep an open mind about evolution and the processes whereby organisms adapt.

Scientists have documented natural selection really happening.  During a drought on Isle Daphne Major of the Galápagos, medium ground finches’ beaks increased in depth considerably, heightening their ability to survive eating harder seeds (Freeman 506-08).  Over time, this natural selection leads to evolution.  The process is occurring.  The problem I was left to grapple with is how this process fits into the larger plan presented by the Bible and Book of Mormon, which I know are true with far more certainty than evolution.  How is this reconciliation possible?

The answer is through meekness.  Both Maxwell and Cecil O. Samuelson Jr. cite meekness not as just one of many characteristics of a disciple-scholar, but as the chief characteristic of a disciple-scholar (Maxwell 12-15; Samuelson 44).  Nephi, the Book of Mormon prophet, is a quintessential example of meekness.

While journeying in the wilderness, all of Lehi’s sons lose the use of their bows.  When Lamen, Lemuel, and even the stalwart Lehi murmur, Nephi humbly makes another bow and asks his father, “Whither shall I go to obtain food?” (1 Nephi 16:23).  This meekness is one of the characteristics of Nephi that qualifies him for his glorious vision in chapter 11.  Nephi’s vision sheds light upon the mysteries of Lehi’s dream.  The big picture is shown and the individual events are explained.

At the end of the lecture the only pragmatic statement on evolution was that Adam and Eve are the primal parents of our race.  At first I wished something more tangible could be given out, but perhaps this quandary is best put to rest by the words of a wise roommate on the subject: “It’s not hard.  That’s what faith is all about.  You know the important stuff; you don’t need to know everything yet.”

Still dark.  Almost as quiet.  Unable to get anywhere without running into another quite-solid object, I call out quietly.  To my surprise, the deep baritone tone of my father’s voice rings out strong and true.  “I’ll get the light, son.”

Gradually, light fills the room from the dimmer switch.  A path materializes out of the darkness and confusion melts away.  Noticing my interest at the suddenly clear box, my father reminds me, “That’s our Christmas box I made.”  The box fits neatly into a clear grid pattern.  As I thread my way through the narrow, before-unseen path, my father puts his arm around me and together we walk inside.  I don’t yet need to see what else I could have bumped into.

Secular science explores boxes in the dark.  I would rather explore boxes in the light with the Maker close by, exploring the ones that He tells me about, listening to how the box fits into the larger pattern, and meekly trusting Him explicitly.

Works Cited

Freeman, Scott. Biological Science. 2^nd ed. New Jersey: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2005.

Maxwell, Neal. “The Disciple-Scholar.” Learning in the Light of Faith. Ed. Henry B. Eyring. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1999. 1-18.

Samuelson, Cecil O. Jr. “The Importance of Meekness in the Disciple-Scholar.” Learning in the Light of Faith. Ed. Henry B. Eyring. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1999. 35-48.

On top of that great news, I took our Chemistry test and was very pleased with my score on the multiple choice section.  What I love about Chemistry is the sense of wonder emanating from our professor.  He truly sparks that natural curiosity about the world in his students.  I was wondering the other day about the hard water deposits on our glasses after we do the dishwasher.  Having just studied about solubility and acid-base reactions I was curious as to how detergent manages to tie up ions in the water.  I learned that the harder the water, the more detergent needs to be used.  Knowing what I know now I can equate that to Ksp and the five solubility rules.  I would be interested to learn more.

After the test I played some Super Smash Bros., which I haven't done for a while.  It was quite fun.  After that I took some soup up to a girl in our ward who is sick, then went to eat dinner at the all-you-can-eat cannon center (or cancer center, as my biology professor calls it).  Stuffed, our Freshman Academy community walked to the Marriott center, where one of our roommates performed in a celebration of Christmas with folk dances around the world.  Very fun.  After that I was privileged to go to the creamery with some friends, then come back and play catch phrase.  Overall, a very, very good day.

Today there is hardly anything going on.  Tests and assignments are mostly over.  It is the slow inhalation of air before the "final" push.  Finals are the week after next and everything is wrapping up in classes.

Furhermore, I got my Elks Lodge Scholarship form turned in a couple days ago and they just notified me that the Byrd scholarship checks are on their way.  These are both beneficial to my financial situation at college and I was excited to hear about them!

Until next time,

Sean

The Here and Now

OK, so it's time for a real update.

Preference was great, both nights.  The first night we took Panda Express food up into the canyon and ate it around a campfire, and then roasted starbursts.  After that we went to the dance, which was either ice skating or an actual dance. We skated until about 15 minutes left, and then danced.  It was quite fun - I love ice skating and haven't been for a long time!  I need to learn to stop though...

On Saturday we made homemade pizzas and then went to a fun dance at the Wilkinson Student Center.  After that it was ice cream!  It was very fun as well.  We danced and had a grand old time.

Rori and I holding our hanger to roast starbursts on on Friday night (7 Nov 2008)

Amanda and I after our date on Saturday (8 Nov 2008)

So preference was quite fun.

I just bought Jesus the Christ, by James E. Talmage, at the bookstore.  So far it's a really, really great book.  I'm only done with the first two chapters though, but I'm plugging away on it.

That reminds me: for mission prep this last little bit we had to talk to 10 complete strangers about the gospel.  It was difficult.  Talking to strangers is uncomfortable sometimes, but it's good practice.

School is going well; chemistry is difficult but getting easier, biology is surprisingly easier than I thought it would be, missionary prep is great, English is my lowest grade but one of my favorite classes, and next semester should be fun.  Signing up for classes is stressing and confusing.  I want to take general ed classes, but I want some fun classes as well.  I want to take more advanced classes in my major but I'm not sure if they will transfer with me if I decide to switch schools.  A fine balance must be struck between fun and hard, general and specific; a academic quadruple point, if you will (closely related to chemistry's triple point).

The weather is very nice.  Today is the perfect temperature - bordering on jackets.  Sunny and bright, the clouds hover high overhead, wispy threads of cotton.

If I think of anything else, I'll throw it up here.

Lagoon and Preference

Today was a fun-filled day.  After waking up early to take a picture in Provo canyon for our English publication that another girl and I are in charge of, two-thirds of our dorm and some of our FHE sisters went to Lagoon today.  We rode Wicked and the Spider several times, and we also rode the Colossus, the Jetstar II (we squeezed three into one bench seat), the Rocket, Cliffhanger, the trans-park lift, and the Samurai.  It was my first time on the Samurai - every single other time I've been there it's been closed for maintenance.  I loved it.  It was so exhilarating, and wasn't even very nauseating like it looks.  We then went to a hypnotist's show at Lagoon and laughed hysterically at the antics of the unfortunate.  Trevor, our neighbor, went up to be hypnotized but it didn't take hold on him.  We went through a haunted walk-through with strobe lights, glasses that made the walls look 3D, scary costumes jumping out at us, and a very real, very good joker in the style of the recent movie.  The first hypnosis show was at 5; at 7 we went to it again.  This time Dallin and Richard went up on stage.  The hypnosis didn't take on Richard.  Dallin was hilarious.  Dallin sang a gibberish rap, tried to sell us shoes that he was wearing backwards, thought there was a cell-phone in the shoes, got very cold and very warm, smelt a range of odiferous pseudo-fumes, was amazed by the hypnotist turning invisible, and more.  Our rib cages will be quite sore tomorrow from laughter.  Overall it was a very fun night, with fun people and fun activities.

Then I got home and there were arrows from the door to the fridge and in the fridge was a plate of crackers and cheese with a note on it saying, "To figure out who I am answer the following:  This type of cheese contains all 4 letters in my name, one of which is repeated (3 different letters...).  It is an Italian whey cheese commonly used in LASAGNA.  Good luck."
Anyway, so that's fairly exciting!

Recap on Graduation

This is just a text-only recap. Pictures will be dealt with in an upcoming post.

My family left at noon for St. George. We met my mother's parents at the Temple Visitor's Center. My father's parents were already here and traveled with us. We went through the statue display that is completely amazing! Wow. If you haven't been, I highly encourage a trip to the Temple Visitor's center to see the statues.

After that, we traveled over to ye olde Olive Garden and had some most excellent comestibles (I just learned that word). In fact, I'm going to go have a left over breadstick immediately.

OK, I'm back.

So then it was time for graduation. We arrived at the Burns arena at roughly 3:30ish. It was a dreary day, but the weather's disparity with the elation floating in each of the seniors couldn't be greater.

I helped get the percussion ready for the two songs we were playing (A Pirates of the Caribbean medley and the William Tell overture). Then, I went and picked up my gold ropes for good grades and the National Honors Society cape thing. It was then just about time to line up. Jordan, Richard, and I were not allowed to walk in with our class, nor accompany anybody. We were honored, I guess, to walk in at the very beginning with Principal Hoyt, the School Board President, and other dignitaries.

The program proceeded as follows:
A Camber Choir piece called "My Shepherd Will Supply My Need"
The Pledge, led by McKay Butler, Student Body President
A Devotional/Prayer, led by Claire Chamberlain, the Seminary Vice President
The Introduction of the Salutatorian by Tia Beatty, Senior Class Secretary
Richard Wixom's remarks
The Pirates medley by the orchestra
Senior Class Officer Tyson Winder's introduction of Jordan and I
Jordan's and my combined speeches
The slideshow
A Salyce Scarth special presentation
The presentation, acceptation, and presentation of diplomas of and to graduates
The Turn Your Tassels/2008 Cheer and Hat Throw done by all of us Senior Class Officers

Overall it was a good length ceremony. Richard and Jordan both did fabulous jobs. Richard talked about how to be a star to others. Jordan recapped on some experiences and gave some great advice. Afterwords the slew of picture-wanting parents and friends we might not see again drew us into a constantly smiling photograph mode.

My speech went fairly well, I guess. At first I got up and said:

Good afternoon Principal Hoyt, administrators, faculty, families, and guests. To the class of 2008: Congratulations!
Jordan and I have been joking for a long time now that somebody would get up, introduce me, and then I would get up and for my speech introduce Jordan, and then he would take over. So – ladies and gentlemen: Jordan Hall.

I then sat down. You could hear an audible gasp come from the audience. When I sat down, Kirsten Helms leaned over to me and whispered, "are you for real?" in an amazed whisper. It was actually quite entertaining. Jordan got up and said his speech and then went to sit down, paused, returned to the microphone and told the audience he wasn't going to let me get away with that. He gave a few of my more humorous statements and then turned the time over to me. I got up and gave the rest of my speech. We had planned the whole thing from the beginning. After all, I decided, "It's me and Jordan, one of my best buds. Let's have some fun up here!" Besides, it's graduation! It was quite fun to be a part of and shock everybody like that.

Here is my whole Valedictorian speech from where I left off above:

It’s an absolute honor to be up here with Jordan and Richard, two of the greatest guys I know. They are a lot better than me. I can’t think of anyone better deserving of their numerous awards, including this one. I thank them for their example and friendship. I also thank the faculty and staff. Moreover – – – – you know you’ve been in English class for too many years when that slips out without even thinking about it – I thank my parents and my religion. Together they have at the same time both anchored and lifted me.
To begin I would like to share some memories that we have had together. Let’s begin with the faculty. They are the greatest, aren’t they? Learning mathematics from teachers like Mr. Esplin and Mrs. Kidd-Thomas allows us to plot the number of people that got Mr. Moore’s chemistry jokes on a nice graph and laugh at how it goes zero – zero – one – two – two – and then, all of sudden - twenty. Especially memorable is the librarians’ eagerness to open the doors of the library early on everyday but checkout day, when they look through the little windows at the massive crowd around the door and smile and wave, but make no move for the door. We have a great faculty and staff. I know that I particularly enjoyed the janitor’s clever announcement on free cleaning lessons during the summer to those interested in littering in the school.
Remember the good times and what our class has accomplished. Remember when Jared Behunin broke the school discus record and went on to take first in state. Remember when the girls attacked the high school with sidewalk chalk at Spirit week and the boys had an almost instant rebuttal. Remember when we buried Tyson in the sand at Senior Sunrise and Jake got stuck on the H at H day. Remember the procrastinators, those that would get up at four AM the day a five-page paper was due and have it done in time for school. I guess most of us are procrastinators – almost all of us have waited until the very last day of high school to graduate. I would tell you to stop procrastinating from experience, but…I won’t even mention when I wrote this speech. I’m doing well, though – I mentioned procrastination in the middle of the speech, not at the end.
At commencement our thoughts naturally turn to the future. Incidentally, it is these memories of the past, anecdotal and humorous though they may be, which link us to the future. The future is built upon the past. It is these past experiences that provide the framework for our current and future actions. Each experience tempers character like metal in a forge. Or like the construction of a golf ball. I learned this from my neighbor. Golf balls used to be smooth until it was discovered that the chinks or marks made in the ball made from hitting it would allow the ball to fly farther. So it is with us. Each experience molds our character and when applied appropriately helps us to fly farther and achieve greater heights. Let our experiences, and those of people gone before us, refresh our mind and help guide decisions for the future.
Stay loose. Don’t get so caught up in the system that you think you can’t do something you really want to do. Go for it anyway. We’ve seen in high school that the times we remember the most are those when something…unorthodox occurs. Unorthodoxy happens when we do not succumb to the unifying pressure placed upon us by fear. I am not advocating breaking rules or anything like that. Rather, take courage in pursuing your own dreams. Each of us has our own utopia. Define it and work for it. Seriously. Why shouldn’t that be our ultimate goal? Miraculous things can and will happen when you bend your will to accomplish something.
And remember that with the privilege of contentment, accomplishment and success comes an equally important obligation to perpetuate privilege for others. Success without service is like drawing interest on somebody else’s bank account. As part of that charge, may we always remember our alma mater, Hurricane High School, and give back to the school and community that sustained us.
We have an amazing class. I moved here a few years ago from Bountiful and so I could really see people’s character stand in sharp relief because I didn’t know anybody. You are great. I have seen deep compassion and kindness, acceptance, tolerance, a little mischievousness – especially when it comes to spirit week – and unity. These last few weeks have really shown how as a senior class we are all – well, most of us – friends. Despite our differences, we are one. We respect each other, know each other well, and have a bond. Look around. Smile at each other. 12 long years. We did it. Together. Once again, congratulations class of 2008!

Well...done!

Last night was grad-nite. We got done at about 5:30 A.M. I went home, went to sleep, and when I woke up, it was 3:30 P.M.! Wow! It totally felt like it was 10 in the morning. I have NEVER slept that long into the day before! It kind of wasted my whole day. But hey - I'm not sleepy!

Perhaps the Busiest Week

Warning: Long Post Ahead

This last week has been...insane. I've been to four class periods the whole week - two on Monday and two on Friday. I've slept in my own bed once in the last seven days. Here's the story.

We'll start with Monday. At lunch-time FBLA left for our State Competition. We had a long six hour bus-ride up there, and then stayed up there until late at night Wednesday. We had lots of fun (I guess) in Ogden, where there is nothing to do. Especially by our convention center. However, here are the awards I remember:

• Josh M. - 3rd in Accounting I
• Sarah C. and Kassara S. - 3rd in *Desktop Publishing
• James P. - 6th in Cyber Security, 8th in Computer Problem Solving, 9th in Networking Concepts
  
• Kirsten W. - Was elected as a State Officer - Secretary
• Sean F. - 1st Place in Business Communication, 5th Place in Cyber Security, 6th Place in Business Calculations
• Sean F. and James P. - 1st Place in E-business
  

Remember that these awards are State-wide, and are not broken down into school sizes like sports are (5A, 3A, etc). We compete against the entire gamut of students.

*Desktop Publishing requires the submittal of a production test; our team had to create a logo, calendar, flyer, and other Desktop Publishing creations to be prejudged, then take an objective test at the State Leadership Conference (SLC)

Which means that James and I are going to Nationals, and there is a good chance that both Josh M. and the team of Sarah and Kassarah could be coming as well. Kirsten is also attending as a new state officer.

On Thursday the day was devoted to Sterling Scholar Region. Long and boring intervals were interspaced with brief moments of heart-attackish type adreneline rushes. We practiced the awards ceremony, broke for interviews, had lunch (hamburgers), had dinner, then had the awards ceremony. We had one Sterling Scholar Region Winner (Jordan H. in Mathematics) and about five runners up (I got runner up in General Scholarship). The winner of the General Scholarship competition had a 33 ACT score and had been out of the country for several weeks helping poor children in Cambodia or somewhere.

Friday was the day I went to school for half of the day again. The other half was spent decorating for Prom. At about 3:15 I left the Prom decoration event and went to the high school to travel on a bus back up north for the State Jazz Festival. Strangely enough I got the same bus driver I had for the FBLA trip, so I spent more than 25 hours in that exact bus. Big time waster. We played That's Cool by Shelly Berg, In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning, by I'm not sure, and Mongo's Mood, by I'm not sure (a different I'm not sure). We received a II, another II, and a II+. Pretty good considering this is the first time we've even qualified for State Jazz in approximately ten years.

We got back from our trip on Saturday at around 5:00 p.m., just in time to go home, get ready for Prom, then attend the Priesthood Session, then go pick up our dates (Jerry R. took Sarah C., and I took Whitney S.). We ate at Olive Garden, then attended the dance. Jerry and I were both at State Jazz, which means that we were not around on Saturday to do any sort of "day date" thing, so we are planning a cool date for next Saturday, which I'm looking forward to.

Prom was generally awesome. All three of the others in my group, including my date (Whitney, Jerry, and Sarah) were fun to be around. The only complaint I have is that the picture line was too long; we only were actually on the dance floor for about an hour and fifteen minutes. So I was pretty annoyed, and when I'm annoyed I'm edgy, and so I probably wasn't the most fun to be around in the line ;). We had a bunch of fun though. Swinging is always a fun dance style, even if your flower falls off. (That reminds me...a quick note...I learned how to make corsages from Jerry's sister, and we both made one for our dates; it's so cheap and easy I don't know why we don't do them all the time ourselves) I was elected as Prom King, a great honor that is nice to have and boosts self-esteem, but it was an award I would rather not have received (at least in front of everybody at the dance). I am not built for publicity and stuff, and then people come up to me in the hallway all the time and say stuff like, "Congratulations on being Prom King!" and some try to be sneaky and come up and say hi and then under their breath breathe, "Prom King," like I'm supposed to say, "Oh, thanks" rather sneakily and give them a big fake wink. I never know what to say when people say stuff like that. I thank them, but I'd much rather everybody forgot about the whole deal. This kind of stuff makes me uncomfortable. Natalie H. was the queen, Cody P. was the prince, and Tanya H. was the princess.

The best part of the logistical side of the dance was the music; because we picked all of the music beforehand ourselves, and because we spent the little extra money to hire a good DJ, the music was awesome.

We sold out of Prom tickets beforehand and then sold some more at the door. We sold about 175 tickets, which means about 350 people at the dance. After the dance we stayed to help clean up, because I'm on the Prom committee, and then we went to Tia B.'s house to eat crepes. We did get a picture of the Prom committee, but not of the royalty.

Sunday we left again, this time to watch general conference at my grandparents house in St. George (we don't have T.V.). Hectic. More posts coming soon.

Happenings

I'll quickly breeze through some happenings.

We're counting up ballots for Prom 2008 royalty right now...every free minute at school is spent doing it, and they're not ScanTrons, either. We are going to have a run-off ballot, where the top eight or ten are put on a ScanTron to finalize the vote.

The Photography Club field trip is on Thursday, March 27th, to Michael Fatali's gallery up in Zion.

The State Jazz Band Festival is coming up on April 4th and 5th.

Prom is April 5th. I'm on the committee, so we have to plan it.

Website work is fun. I must say.

Preference

Preference was pretty awesomely cool. I'll relate events here.

First, the group. Tiffany Seegmiller and I, Josh MacDonald and Whitney Spendlove, and Stacia Pederson and Chance Steglich. (I bet I spelled somebody's name wrong...apparantly this blogger interface thinks so too)

The day dawned bright and early, and lucky for the three of us, we were already awake. Our respective dates had woken us suprisingly at 6:00 A.M., dragged us to Stacia's friend's house, and cooked us breakfast. We had eggs, pancakes (both regular and blueberry), bacon, apple juice, and hash browns. Yum!

The Guardian was next on our agenda, a movie which I found to be quite interesting and very good. It was about the elite of the coast guard.

So then we went home at about 11:00 A.M.

Later that night, we were individually picked up by a LIMOUSINE! A limo! It was awesome. We then drove IN THE LIMO to the Pasta Factory, then we were picked up and drove IN THE LIMO to the high school.

We proceeded to the picture line, then to the dance. The dance took maybe about a half an hour to pick up, and then we had a great time.

It was quite fun.

Low Stress! Wahoo!

Today in AP English we had our gargantuan day. We totally finished our vocabulary book, turned in our take home Jane Eyre test, wrote two essays on Jane Eyre in class, took a Barron's How to prepare for the AP English Test vocabulary test, turned in a three page paper I wrote yesterday on a play I read yesterday (Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller), and thoroughly enjoyed being released from class. So now a load has been released. I just have to work on the two websites, listen to Jazz, eat ice cream, and prepare for Preference tomorrow.

I mean, Prefernce.

Valentine's Dance

As many of you know, today is Valentine's day. In honor of this special occasion, the school music department hosted a Dinner Dance, in which spaghetti and Jazz, breadsticks and Rock, and mints and music mixed for a few mellifluous moments. I performed in (I would list all of the numbers, but even I don't expect my memory to be that good! In fact, I've probably left out a bunch that I played in...in other words, please enjoy this list of a small sample of the performance tonight):

• Boo-Ray (percussive joy)
• Stick Schtick (percussive joy)
• Sea Sounds (we all got some good "vibes" from this piece)
• Embraceable You (choral in Utah, and we don't even have an ocean!)
• Smoke on the Water (Rockish piece played by the Jazz Band)
• Too Young (Ballad)
• It's Only a Paper Moon (Jazzy piece)
• Do Nothin' 'till You Hear From Me (likewise)
• In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning (ditto)
• That's Cool (Cool Jazz)
• Steam Heat (choral in Utah, and we don't even have an ocean!)
• We had a few skittish people up on stage, didn't we?
  
• and much, much more!

It was fun, the food was good, the dancing was slow in more ways than one, the auction made some money, I assume, and the performers had fun, and the night was pretty much worth the effort we have seen over the past weeks and months, I'd assume.