The past eight weeks have been absolutely wonderful. Quite possibly some of the best eight weeks thus far in my life, I’d venture to say.

I think I’ve felt more myself in the past eight weeks than I have in a long time. It’s been a feeling of arrival. A feeling of ‘oh yeah, so this is what I’m meant to be doing!’ I’ve worn my hair up in a bun about 90 percent of the time, and I’ve worn lipstick a handful of times, and my overwhelmingly neutral wardrobe is performing fabulously, and maxi skirts are my favorite, and I fixed up the layout of this blog, and running the hills of Provo is turning into my thing, and it is so incredibly refreshing to be living a constant rush of new experiences.

And new experiences come with new lessons, right right? So just for fun, let’s have a party and lump those lessons into a list, shall we?

Comfort food is a must in life. Yeah, eating healthy is all great and everything, and I make sure that happens the majority of the time, but I’ve come to believe that anything rich and creamy just makes the world a better place.

And meat, for that matter. I think I’ve taken meat for granted thus far in my life. As soon as you have to make meat all by yourself whenever you want it…….yeah who has time for that?! {a.k.a. I’ll graciously accept any donations of deliciously seasoned, cooked chicken anytime. Just kidding. Sort of.}

Moments for introspection are a necessity. A strange part of me actually enjoys having to walk everywhere because that’s when introspection opportunities are prime. Especially in the mornings, when I’m nice and on-schedule for getting to class on time. But late nights + music are also pretty decent for the introspection thing. And long runs.

October is my favorite month. I can’t say I’ve ever had a definite favorite month until now, but this year’s October has settled it. There may be some more words coming your way sometime in the future about the loveliness of October, so no guarantees, but it’s a possibility! Isn’t it the best that October is a thing?

People change, and often times will have completely different sides than you expected, but you just have to love them anyway. This has been a hard one, and it’s been a lesson that’s actually taken a lot longer than eight week to figure out, but it’s coming.

Everyone should take a Zumba class in their life.

Roommates happen for a reason. I’m so grateful for all three of my roommates, and they’re exactly what I needed.

Free food is the best. I used to care about how healthy the free food I received was, but now…yeah, no, it’s free food, I’ll take it. I make plenty of decently healthy food on my own, so I figure I’m covered there.

Random moments of gratitude are also the best – those moments where I’m least expecting it, but then all of a sudden it’s like someone flipped a switch and I just want to tell anyone who’ll listen how beautiful life is. This morning when I walked out of the temple was one of those moments. There was the crisp morning air, and the clear blue sky, and the lake in front of the mountains, and Provo just laid out in front of me, and the red-orange-yellow leaves, and the flowers, and thoughts of the temple, and everything in the world felt right.

I really, really, really want to live in New York City. Actually, I suppose this doesn’t count as much of a “lesson learned in the past eight weeks.” More like a fun fact…a fun fact that pretty much everyone already knows. But yeah, after living out here for a little while, now it’s just like, “Okay, let’s bring on New York now!”

Fun lessons, right? Maybe I’ll elaborate on some of them at some point…maybe not…who knows! Inconsistency tends to be my thing when it comes to blogging, but it is how it is, and I’m a fan of blogging when there’s substance, and not just a need to have a Monday-Wednesday-Friday post or some sort of similar schedule. At any rate, October’s doing beautiful things around here, so I have some good intentions to make some sort of a post on it.

And if you want some fun things to read, here are a few lovely pieces that I’ve stumbled across this week in my various perusing of blogs…

New girl. – Beautiful insights on the nature of change.

What We’ll Miss About NYC – Part 5 –  I found this old post today on one of my favorite blogs, and I love the documentation of small, significant moments.

Creamy Garlic Mac and Cheese – Okay, does this not look like the best thing in the entire universe? Did I mention the comfort food kick that I’m on?

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