Real philanthropy

So I read this awesome article the other day about Jon Huntsman. I don't know much about him, but his message was AWESOME.

“Through the compound impact of altruism, I came to understand that people are doing philanthropy wrong. People generally think about charitable work the wrong way. They think that when they’re older and comfortable they’ll give some amount of money to something but that’s not the way to do it. The way to do it is to get involved as early on as possible because, even if it’s just volunteer work or $5, the impact you’ll have over your lifetime is far greater than anything you could possibly do if you wait until you think you’re comfortable. You’ll never really feel you’re comfortable enough to give away your money but if you start now and start doing some volunteer work, donating a little bit here and there, over the next 40 years you’ll have a huge amount of impact and you’ll feel great about yourself.”-Biz Stone

This article has made me considered my own philanthropy. Do we have enough to give more? Yeah we probably do. So I started to think of ways to give that could actually make a difference.

This reminded me of a micro finance company, I did I trial account with probably over a year ago, KIVA. If you don't know much about micro finance, ITS AWESOME (click here to learn more). It allows those people in poorer circumstances, often in developing countries to take out a small loan to go towards building their business.

As they make the money back you get small payments as the investor. 97% of micro finance loans are paid back in full too. So really its a low risk investment. Its almost like you are buying a CD from the government except instead of accruing a tiny bit of interest, its helping someone make a living. Once you earn that money back you can re-invest it in another loan or you can withdraw it.

Basically you give a certain amount of money and choose someone among their many lists of people looking for an investment. Everyone has bios that explain their life, what they will be putting the money towards, etc. I like to choose women entrepreneurs whose goal is to either go to school themselves or send their children to school.

I think this will be something I will need to revisit at every phase of my life. Am I giving enough, can I  give more, am I giving to causes or organizations that can are actually making a difference (surprise surprise all charities are not created equal). I think giving creates a ripple. If we all can give just a little of ourselves and a little of our income we will be happier and that spreads.

The Shine Project at Oremfest!

 I finished EVERYTHING for my grad program today. That's right, I'm finally done!!!!! AHHHHH!!! Is this real life?? I can't even believe there is no more school. Ever, well maybe not. haha

Today I worked for 6 hours as a Shine Project Rep at Orem Summerfest. I also actually sold stuff, so it was a happy day. Thanks to my sissy for helping out :)

When I got home I got to watch this little munchkin while her parents headed to the temple. Weirdest thing ever is that she LOVED me. No tears, ate all her dinner, and just talking adorable nonsense the rest of the night. I love my little Saylor Jae.

Much needed lunch dates with good friends

Today was mostly a waiting day. Waiting to hear back from HR for my new job, waiting to hear back from my supervisors for my revisions for my report, etc. Mostly I did nothing of value. I did try Cubby's Oh my gosh. Amazing. Probably the best chicken sandwich I have ever had. I will definitely be hitting that place up again. YUM.

 

After cubby's and catching up with Amanda we went and visited the new home of public health students, the life sciences building (pictured above). We were raging with jealousy as we walked through the beautifully crafted halls. Our only consolation was that the poor students dont actually have any classes in there so the MPH students have to walk all the way across campus to go to class. SUCKERS. I made this for dinner, delicious. We pretty much watched tv and went to bed super early cuz we were tired. Tomorrow will be a much more exciting day. 

Thesis DEFENDED!!

My project (my degree's version of a thesis) has been defended!!!! AH!!! ITS OVER!! well almost. I have a couple weeks left of report revisions, but my project defense was definitely a huge stress! I can't believe its over. SO HAPPY. SO HAPPY.

Last night I made some delicious food. Siracha lime creamy fettuccine. So good, really spicy, but delicious. Once again I made the sauce from scratch, and you'll never guess what the base was, cashews...whatt???? so good.

Tonight we had Crock Pot Santa Fe chicken, Yum!

My hubby brought me some presents for defending my thesis today :) He knows me.

There were 3, but we ate one before I got a picture

5/20/14

So many things today. goodness.

I am taking over for my mom while she is on vacation and man is it hard.

I drove back and forth from provo twice, picked up my sister and 4 friends from school, took her to young women's, Travis took trevor to scouts, and soon will be on my way to pick them up again. Can I just say I am not excited for this stage in life, being in the car and chauffeuring?? Maybe I just won't do it. Bikes and Busses all the way haha

Also I hate my families dog. Don't get me wrong he is freakin adorable. But he makes me so sad. He is cooped up all day and I just can't have that. My family has already lost a lot of the interest in him that they had 3 weeks ago. Hopefull with summer it will be easier for trev to keep him outside playing all day. But man animals are a pain. So glad my husband is allergic so we will never have one.

I turned in the my Thesis today. One step closer. I may have to make a few changes, but its so close to being done. Hallelujiah. Cant imagine what life will be like when that stress is gone. I also did some work and cooked dinner. After the long day I remembered that the best place in my parents house is the yard. Relaxing and reading is my happy place, hello good friend, its been awhile.

5/16/14

Today I worked on my thesis all day basically. Good news is that my committee chair thinks I will be ready to defend in 2 weeks :D I have to finish up a few things but will be done with my paper by next Friday! wohoo!!! 

Me and amanda worked in the lab all day, which was fun, its way better to have a friend in the dungeon. haha We headed to lunch once we had sent off our drafts. We went to a yummy Mexican restaurant and caught up since we haven't seen each other in weeks!!! 

It was actually really nice to be able to focus more on my MPH project this week. I don't know how I would have gotten everything done with all of my other job responsibilities. Blessings in disguise right?

At night Travis and I had plans to play tennis with my parents, but my dad had a last minute meeting scheduled for his bishopric responsibilities, so they had to forfeit. We decided to make dinner and then walk around provo and grab some gelato at Glorias Little Italy. YUMMM. Walking around at night and not being cold was AMAZING!!! gosh I love hanging out with my husband. I miss him now that he is at work all day. 

4/29/14

Today was exhausting for basically no reason.

I got up and headed to my beginning soccer class. I am stoked about this class. I am falling in love with soccer. Who ever saw that coming? definitely only my husband. My family has always been soccer haters. We didn't play today so we got out early.

I went to my lab and worked on my thesis draft.

Next I headed to my dentist appointment. I actually enjoyed chatting with my dental hygienist. Then she pretty much wouldn't let me leave without promising to floss everyday.... i hate flossing.

I came home and finished my draft! yay! I sent it out to 3 reviewers.

Then Travis and I ate delicious taco soup for dinner. One of my favorite recipes I have discovered. We make it every other week.

Then we took a trip to Barnes and noble to spend a gift card on some books we could take on our trip. Our purchases included the third book in the maze runner series, the fault in our stars, and the unabridged Les Miserables (Summer goal).

We also had some things to exchange at Sports Authority. We ended up with a pair of soccer shorts for me and Travis and some soccer socks. (don't worry I added all of these things to yesterdays purchase list)

Then I finished off the day with some Grey's Anatomy while travis watched basketball.

Graduation day

Well it happened, I walked across that stage when my name was read and shook a bunch of peoples hands and got my shiny new and empty diploma holder!

This weekend (Thursday/Friday) has been awesome. Thursday we had commencement! The highlight was walking with my fellow cohort ions to the Marriott center and having president Uchtdorf wave to me and Amanda. We were giddy about this. haha

The rest of commencement was pretty boring, and then there was the my phone deciding to not communicate with my husbands. GAh. we worked it out though and headed over to Tucanos to celebrate with my family. DELICIOUS. I love me some meat and grilled pineapple.

Afterwards travis and I cuddled up in our bed and read until it was time for bed (Travis is really getting into the Maze Runner, he even made me drive today cuz he was on the last few chapters and wanted to finish, so proud of his new found love :))I had to get up at 6am to get ready the next morning. EW.

This morning I got up and ready with little effort, which was amazing and we headed to the Marriott center. I was seated in the front row with my buddies. It was fun walking across the stage and cheering for them and my other friends also graduating!!

We took loads of pictures after with friends, cohort ions and family. Then Travis parents took us out to Zupas. When we got home we were exhausted and proceeded to take 2 hour naps. Whoops!

I loved celebrating the last two years in the MPH program with graduation with my fellow cohortions. I have grown so much in the past two years. I can't even believe it has only been two years. These people are some of the closest friends I have now. In the past 2 years I travelled to Washington D.C, Boston, San Diego, Idaho Falls, Las Vegas, Disneyland and Lake Tahoe (I think thats all but its possible I missed something big). 

I have also worked a bunch of amazing jobs: 3 different jobs for the department of health science, an internship with the state health department, and more recently jobs with Orca health and the Shine Project. 

I've learned so much about who I am and who I want to be. I also got to marry the man of my dreams :) He is the biggest supporter of everything I want to do, and I love it. its been an incredible journey these last two years. 

4/23/14

Today was a bid day, I picked up my graduation robes. They are so wizardy. Like seriously, I am going to be a wizard. haha but its pretty crazy, I can't believe its almost here! how did two years go so fast? Time does crazy things when you are having the best times of your life!!! 

On another exciting note, I found a mouse in our house today. It raced across the living room floor and I let out a scream. Later, Travis and I tried to trap it. It did not work, the mouse outsmarted our crafty blockades. 

I went shopping twice during the day. Hah. I bought two super cute patterned shirts, 2 white undershirts, a dress for graduation and a fun floppy sun hat! It was so fun. Now I just need unlimited money to update the rest of my wardrobe. 

Travis and I also attended the MPH closing social. So fun to see all all the first and second years as well as some professors. 

The best part? I barely worked at all. not the plan, but I had no motivation, good thing Mexico is almost here, I need a real break (no access to technology will do me some good)

Miles today:3
Miles this year:14

4/9/14

Today wasn't very picture worthy, which is okay.

I got up at 7:30, travis woke me up all night and finally my body apparently just gave up. I worked on some stuff until I got ready and headed to the mall to buy some lovely bridal shower gifts, and to take another peek into Thai Pan Trading (I love that store). Too bad I couldn't find anything I wanted to buy and was mostly just overwhelmed. Then I moved onto gifts and it took me like an hour and 4 trips up and down the mall to decide. Sometimes I need to not overanalyze how much people will like my gifts. Whatever.

I came home, ate some lunch and started in on my analysis of my MPH project. Whew. I am about halfway done. I need to crank the rest out by monday since I am giving a presentation on this stuff at a conference on Tuesday. Talk about cutting it close. I took a short bike ride in the middle of the day and went back to analyzing. It was actually pretty fascinating when I was paying attention. I am excited to share my results with the world (seeing as this project has almost taken up a year of my life.

After work I headed over to my friend megans where we ran/walked 3 miles around Provo talking about life. These are the good times. Travis cooked a delicious dinner and then we discovered all 8 seasons of house were added to netflix. I watched most of the seasons in high school/freshman year of college but Travis hasn't seen more than the spattering that randomly came on tv when he happened to be bored. Welp I guess we won't be socializing anytime soon :)

Miles today: 3
Miles this year: 7

What the last two years have taught me

As I contemplate graduating in a couple of weeks I've been thinking a lot about the lessons I have learned over the last 2 years:

1. Life is unexpected no matter how hard you try to plan it

I am a planner. I have a planner. I tend to forget things if I don't write them down, and get frustrated when things don't go the way I planned. The let two years have been strewn with unexpected decisions, and events. I never expected to stay at BYU to complete my graduate degree (in fact it was my last resort, my safety school if you will), I never expected to marry my 15 year old crush whom for most of the rest of high school I had a pretty strong romantic aversion to, I never expected to get a job at a tech start up.

I didn't plan any of this, but its made my life the most fulfilling thing imaginable. I couldn't have planned my life better if I had tried. I have learned that most of the time I don't know what is best for me and that I have to trust the Lord and the path he has for me. I know I will learn this lesson many times throughout my life as I have difficult and unexpected situations come up.

2. Passion keeps me positive

I am an extremely passionate person. I love life, I love school, and I love work (maybe a little too much). I think having things that you are passionate about and/or throwing yourself 100% or more into something allows you to do it well and be proud when you succeed. I also think it allows you to stay positive when other things in your life aren't going too well.

School and friends kept me going when I went through a hard break up two years ago. Work kept me going when school was getting mundane and frustrating. My husband and love of exercise keeps me going when I am stressed at my new job.

3. Good friends can make everything better

Good friends are a must at any time in your life. I was lucky to meet the most amazing people in college. I've made friends at BYU that I will have for a lifetime.

4. You can "make time" for things you didn't think you could if you prioritize and use time wisely

I always hear from people oh I don't have time for reading, I don't have time for exercising, I don't have time for cooking. Which I have found myself saying at some points during these last two years. Then about a year ago I realized something: we are lying to ourselves. We do have time for those things, we just decide to use that time for other things whether it be tv, hanging out with friends, or whatever else. I think it was important for me to realize that when I "don't have time for something" its really just not a priority. I've realized that it is pretty easy for me to shift my priorities around and incorporate something new that I want to focus on.

5. My family is one of the best things in my life

My family is incredible. I have an amazing relationship with both of my parents. My mom is one of my best friends. We don't always see eye to eye on things, and have gotten in some of the stupidest fights on the planet, but she is always there for me and gives really great advice. The great thing is that I get to be there for her too. Sometimes we just call each other to talk, its the best. My dad is one of the goofiest people I know, and he makes me laugh so easily. On top of that he knows a lot about the world and about life. I love going to my parents and discussing life and decisions with them. My little sister is also one of my best friends. We are completely opposite in so many ways, but she is tuna and so wise for her age. She loves helping people and often shows me things I want to develop in myself. And if you have met trev you know he is the most hilarious little thing. I am so lucky to have had them close for the 5 years I have been in college.

6. I don't have all the answers

I think when I graduated from undergrad I was very sure that I had all the answers. I knew what was going on and so many other people were clueless. There is a stereotype that young people come out of college know everything and I carried that one like a champ. I have since realized that I do not have all of the answers. I realized how important it is to know both sides of an issue before deciding which one I believe in. I realized its important to hear from young and old alike because both perspectives are important. I realized that I am EXTREMELY stubborn and sometimes its hard for me to let go even when I know I am wrong (working on it).

7. Be grateful for everything, none of this was me alone

Sometimes I get a little high on myself. I get prideful. I think most people do, but its very easy to do when you are going through higher education. I've realized that I couldn't do any of this without my Lord and Savior. I have made many mistakes along the way and am so grateful for the opportunity to repent and become clean again. I have prayed so many times throughout this journey for peace, for help, and for a positive attitude. I know the Lord won't leave us. He wants us to succeed and wants us to be happy.

Going through this program was extremely challenging and frustrating at times but I am very glad for the people I have met, the memories I have made, and the experiences I have had as a result of it. My grad program was where I learned a ton of life lessons.

Ever heard of The Brave Life Project? Yeah I hadn't either

Okay well have you at least heard of Keds? Okay good.

So Keds started this project, called the Brave Life Project. Basically they are encouraging young women go for their career dreams and Be Brave. Cool right?

Since I follow Keds on Facebook, I saw their application, the prize was $1000 to use to further career goals. I saw it and thought, hey this is cool, might as well apply. Since it was a national campaign I applied, and forgot about it. I mean who ever wins stuff like this? Not me. haha

I got an email last week detailing that I was one of the 50 girls to win. I was shocked. SHOCKED. Really excited but shocked! The brave life project will feature my story on their webpage sometime in the next couple weeks. Finally I will be famous ;) not really. haha

The coolest part is that I get $1000 dollars to do the two things outlined in my application which were:

1. Half of the money to put towards a project I am working on with some of my classmates. It's called Move Well, its an app, and its gonna be cool (social impact cool). With some money we have won through other grants and competitions we have enough money now to hire a programmer to create the beta version as well as conduct a mini trial to find out if our incentive idea actually works.

2. Half of the money to fund me attending some kind of grant writing class, conference, or workshop. Anyone have any ideas? A lot of my job with the project/ my current job has to do with grant writing. I am not the most confident writer and really want to get better and more confident. I am thinking about attending one of these conferences somewhere cool. DC? New York? Where should I go?

It feels pretty cool to get recognized by a national program!!! Excited to see where this can take me!

I also love that Taylor Swift is the poster child for this campaign. I won something endorsed by her. COOL.

How will you be brave this year?

12/14/13

I was too tired to write last night, but yesterday was a blast :) I got all of my stuff done for the rest of the semester, hallelujah!

Travis and I went to my cohort Christmas party :) it was so fun. Love my mphers so much! We had a delightful potluck, I made Andes mint cookies, you can find the recipe here. I've made them two years in a row, and they were a total hit both times. We had a white elephant, in which my gift, awkward family photos, was the most popular! The we watched the movie the internship (in honor of all the internships we had over the summer) the movie was hilarious, I just didn't love when like 20 minutes of the movie were in a strip club.

Today Travis and I just hung out at my house until we went to see the movie the Saratov, which we have wanted to see for a while. It was amazing and crazy. The basic idea is that 2 LDS missionaries get kidnapped and ransomed in Russia. The craziest part is that it is a true story. In march of 1998 two LDS missionaries were kidnapped in Saratov Russia and held captive for 5 days. I can't even imagine what their families were feeling during that time. As a sister of a current LDS missionary serving in Spain, I was touched to say the least. I would break down if something like that happened to my own brother. 

2 weeks till me and Travis are married :D ahhhhh!!!!!!!