Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Choosing to Love
Yes, I know Valentine's Day has passed, but I read this article on Meridian Magazine and was impressed. The article was about choosing to love someone instead of haphazardly falling in love with someone thinking that it's out of our control. It was funny because I had talked about this previously with a friend of mine. He had proposed to his girlfriend and was telling me the story about how they met and how he felt about her. He said that when they started dating, he was going to choose to love her. I was thinking about my relationship with my boyfriend and was confused about my feelings. My friend said to me that love includes using our agency. It's something we control. I was moved by that thought.
As the article states, Hollywood likes to teach romantic notions that aren't real and makes it seem like there should be some sort of magical spark and if there isn't, then it won't work. I was watching "Sleepless in Seattle" a few months ago and wondered if Jed and I had that spark. After talking with my mom, she put away that notion. Maybe the initial spark is the mutual attraction, but the rest it up to me and my deliberate actions of choosing to love him.
I also thought about others who are around me and loving them (of course I'm not talking about just romantic love), but choosing to love them as well. I think it's difficult to make that decision. I have been lazy in the past with my relationships, especially with people who are difficult to love. I seem to think that maybe tender feelings might just come automatically and that I wouldn't have to give much of an effort. Wrong! I've seen that it's hard work. I wish that I could put more of an effort with each person I know. I have been so blessed by everyone that I know. If we can all work harder and cultivate a good relationship with everyone that we can, I think the world would be a much better place.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
25 Random Things About Me
So in case you ever wondered, here are some fun facts about Sarah Beu! I spent three days doing this so you better read them! Just kidding.
Random things about me:
1. I'm addicted to Dave Barry columns. Whenever I'm bored and I'm sitting at a computer, Dave always pops into my head. He is my hero, and I wish I could write like him.
2. When I was younger and my chore was to wash the dishes, I would play "house" with the silverware. I gave them names and jobs. They liked to swim a lot.
3. I hum while I eat. Just ask my family how fun that is at the dinner table. Or my roommates.
4. I love photography. In high school, I was the photo editor of the yearbook my junior year and then editor in chief, but I was still over the photos. I loved learning how to develop photos in a darkroom surrounded by the smells of the chemicals. I thought I would pursue a career in photography, but when I applied for a position on the Scroll, they gave me a writing position and I have never gone back to photography. It's kind of sad. I think I really had a talent for it, but now it's gone unless I work on it.
5. I really like the humidity and I hate dry heat. I think the only reason why I like humidity is because it makes for really great thunderstorms and even tornadoes.
6. In continuation to number 5, I learned from my mother how important the Weather Channel is. When I was growing up, it was our TV's screen saver and we loved it. Whenever there were dark clouds rolling in, we would run to the TV to see what the weather people had to say. Of course they were always showing something going on in East Coast or some big city so we would always make comments about how they liked the bigger cities better than Nebraska. I now frequently check the weather channel on the Internet whenever a storm is threatening.
7. I love smaller towns. I was raised in a town of 55,000 (not too small) in Montana and I loved the size. It was perfect. Then we moved to a town even smaller (7,000), and I liked some aspects of living there but I really enjoy Rapid City, which has a nice size of 65K. I really couldn't live in a metro area.
8. I find myself frequently wanting to express myself in Spanish. Usually it's a word or phrase, but then I lament the fact that the person I'm talking to wouldn't understand me. English sometimes just doesn't cut it.
9. Ever since I was a young girl, I have been drawn to books and movies about World War II and the Holocaust. My fascination started with Anne Frank's diary.
10. Despite being a huge fan of BYU football, I've only been to one of their games. It was against Wyoming in 2004 and we won! But I love college football in general. I really get into the game no matter who's playing.
11. I am a terrible gift giver. I think it's partly my dad's fault because he always encourages gifts of time (especially with gifts for him). But I always have good intentions, but I'll mostly end up giving a gift card.
12. My favorite meal to make is chile.
13. I've been to Europe once and I had so many adventures! I was only 8, but I fell down about 20 stone stairs on a dyke (a canal), a little boy flipped me off on my first day in the community park, I had two boys "fall in love" with me, plus all the normal adventures one has while traversing a new country.
14. One of the jobs I wanted to have when I was younger was a professional baseball player.
15. #14 changed when I saw my potential as a writer in 5th grade. I wrote a short story called "Attack of the Killer Spaghetti." My teacher raved about it, giving me sufficient confidence to want to pursue that career.
16. I've had glasses since the 8th grade and I hate the inconvenience.
17. 5th grade was my favorite year. I was the spelling bee champ, chess champ, capitals and states champ. I also loved my teacher, Mr. Warner, because he introduced me to Bill Nye, the science guy, and to squid dissection. But I also got in trouble a lot for reading books during class when the teacher was talking.
18. I enjoy aerobics, thanks to a couple of missionary companions ;)
19. I just love playing games. My favorite games of all time are Scrabble, Catch Phrase and Trivial Pursuit. I also enjoy card games such as peanuts and egyptian rat screw (or whatever you want to call it).
20. I enjoy fast pitch softball which I played all throughout high school and three semesters worth in college.
21. When I was a sophomore in college, I wanted to be a brunette so I dyed my hair super dark. That lasted for a couple of years, I think before I brought it back to my natural dirty blonde color. I like being the only blonde in my family!
22. I enjoy doing french braids in girls' hair. I felt so proud of myself when I finally learned how to do it on my Barbie!
23. I am enjoying planning my wedding from over 4,000 miles away.
24. I've been playing the piano since I was 5 years old and my favorite songs to play are Pachebel's Canon in D and I Saw Three Ships (Jon Schmidt version).
25. My sisters and I love to wrestle, thanks to our dad who would wrestle with us every Saturday morning when we were younger.
Random things about me:
1. I'm addicted to Dave Barry columns. Whenever I'm bored and I'm sitting at a computer, Dave always pops into my head. He is my hero, and I wish I could write like him.
2. When I was younger and my chore was to wash the dishes, I would play "house" with the silverware. I gave them names and jobs. They liked to swim a lot.
3. I hum while I eat. Just ask my family how fun that is at the dinner table. Or my roommates.
4. I love photography. In high school, I was the photo editor of the yearbook my junior year and then editor in chief, but I was still over the photos. I loved learning how to develop photos in a darkroom surrounded by the smells of the chemicals. I thought I would pursue a career in photography, but when I applied for a position on the Scroll, they gave me a writing position and I have never gone back to photography. It's kind of sad. I think I really had a talent for it, but now it's gone unless I work on it.
5. I really like the humidity and I hate dry heat. I think the only reason why I like humidity is because it makes for really great thunderstorms and even tornadoes.
6. In continuation to number 5, I learned from my mother how important the Weather Channel is. When I was growing up, it was our TV's screen saver and we loved it. Whenever there were dark clouds rolling in, we would run to the TV to see what the weather people had to say. Of course they were always showing something going on in East Coast or some big city so we would always make comments about how they liked the bigger cities better than Nebraska. I now frequently check the weather channel on the Internet whenever a storm is threatening.
7. I love smaller towns. I was raised in a town of 55,000 (not too small) in Montana and I loved the size. It was perfect. Then we moved to a town even smaller (7,000), and I liked some aspects of living there but I really enjoy Rapid City, which has a nice size of 65K. I really couldn't live in a metro area.
8. I find myself frequently wanting to express myself in Spanish. Usually it's a word or phrase, but then I lament the fact that the person I'm talking to wouldn't understand me. English sometimes just doesn't cut it.
9. Ever since I was a young girl, I have been drawn to books and movies about World War II and the Holocaust. My fascination started with Anne Frank's diary.
10. Despite being a huge fan of BYU football, I've only been to one of their games. It was against Wyoming in 2004 and we won! But I love college football in general. I really get into the game no matter who's playing.
11. I am a terrible gift giver. I think it's partly my dad's fault because he always encourages gifts of time (especially with gifts for him). But I always have good intentions, but I'll mostly end up giving a gift card.
12. My favorite meal to make is chile.
13. I've been to Europe once and I had so many adventures! I was only 8, but I fell down about 20 stone stairs on a dyke (a canal), a little boy flipped me off on my first day in the community park, I had two boys "fall in love" with me, plus all the normal adventures one has while traversing a new country.
14. One of the jobs I wanted to have when I was younger was a professional baseball player.
15. #14 changed when I saw my potential as a writer in 5th grade. I wrote a short story called "Attack of the Killer Spaghetti." My teacher raved about it, giving me sufficient confidence to want to pursue that career.
16. I've had glasses since the 8th grade and I hate the inconvenience.
17. 5th grade was my favorite year. I was the spelling bee champ, chess champ, capitals and states champ. I also loved my teacher, Mr. Warner, because he introduced me to Bill Nye, the science guy, and to squid dissection. But I also got in trouble a lot for reading books during class when the teacher was talking.
18. I enjoy aerobics, thanks to a couple of missionary companions ;)
19. I just love playing games. My favorite games of all time are Scrabble, Catch Phrase and Trivial Pursuit. I also enjoy card games such as peanuts and egyptian rat screw (or whatever you want to call it).
20. I enjoy fast pitch softball which I played all throughout high school and three semesters worth in college.
21. When I was a sophomore in college, I wanted to be a brunette so I dyed my hair super dark. That lasted for a couple of years, I think before I brought it back to my natural dirty blonde color. I like being the only blonde in my family!
22. I enjoy doing french braids in girls' hair. I felt so proud of myself when I finally learned how to do it on my Barbie!
23. I am enjoying planning my wedding from over 4,000 miles away.
24. I've been playing the piano since I was 5 years old and my favorite songs to play are Pachebel's Canon in D and I Saw Three Ships (Jon Schmidt version).
25. My sisters and I love to wrestle, thanks to our dad who would wrestle with us every Saturday morning when we were younger.
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