Coincidence? I Think Not.

It was almost Tuesday night and I had just gotten back from a much-needed run with a friend. I had a quiz due at midnight, an essay to finish, a dialogue to memorize for my Mandarin class, readings to do for my grammar class, and readings and exercises to do for my Modern American Usage of English class which were to prepare us for the take home quizzes that were due the following morning.

The following night, Wednesday, I went straight from orchestra rehearsal to the temple and returned home equally late with an equally long to-do list. Both mornings would see me up by six and to bed some time long past midnight. Monday had been a late night too.

But let's rewind to Tuesday night. I got to bed around one a.m and got up around 5:30 the following morning. By the time I had showered, grabbed breakfast, packed a lunch and dinner, and made it up to campus I had roughly half an hour to memorize the dialogue for my Mandarin class. Usually, this takes me at least an hour. Not to mention this was our longest dialogue yet. By some miracle, I got a perfect score on the dialogue. In my next class, grammar, we had a pop-quiz on the readings, which, of course, I hadn't done. I guessed on all the answers and got them all right, plus the bonus question. With five minutes left in the class and only fifteen minutes before my next class would start, I realized I had not done the take home quizzes for my next class. Skipping the readings and the practice exercises, I went straight to the quizzes, finishing them as I walked to my next class, where they'd be due. Out of three quizzes, I missed only one question. 

I don't say this to flaunt my intellectual prowess, nor to brag on my vampire-like abilities to, evidently, function rather well with limited sleep. On the contrary, I function rather poorly on limited sleep and spent the weekend making up for it. 

I tell you this because I believe miracles happen, and this to me, was most definitely a tender mercy. It would be easy to say that it worked out by coincidence or due, in some part, to my own intellectual abilities, but it would be making a mockery of God to do so. 

And, as proof that I really couldn't do it on my own, after roughly four and a half hours of sleep a night all week, I nearly failed my Mandarin quiz on Friday and then slept the rest of the day, all night, and well in to the following morning. Coincidence? I think not. 

Saturday found me thinking back on the first few weeks of school. Obviously, the first few weeks aren't as rigorous, but even so, I was so much more on top of things--there seemed to always be enough time. Aside from the increased amount of tests and other assignments in recent weeks, I felt there must be something else . . . 

I pulled up my hour-by-hour schedule of the first few weeks and instantly realized what it was. Tuesdays and Thursdays after class I had gone straight to the library to study. Friday nights were spent at home grading papers or in the library. Wednesday nights, after attending the temple, I walked straight home. Sundays were spent catching up on the reading for my religion classes. Free time was spent studying. 

Now, most Tuesdays and Thursdays I "study" after class with Shan Yue, which most days translates to spontaneous excursions, episodes of Death Note, long conversations, laughter, and the possibility of the occasional assignment getting some attention. 

Friday nights are spent on dates, watching movies with roommates, or walking with Katelyn to Pop 'n Sweets to grab hot chocolate floats at the "Mormon Bar" and talk as though both we and the night had drunken from the waters of Tuck Everlasting. 

Wednesday nights I no longer attend the temple alone every night. Occasionally, a friend will join me and another forty-five minutes to an hour is added to my night, walking her home.
Most of my "free time" now is spent editing essays for friends.
Most Sundays are spent doing visiting teaching, having my sister and her husband over for dinner and games, or walking over to the freshman dorms where my best friend from last year works as an RA. We're both so busy that Sunday tends to be our one and only time to catch up, and it's time well spent.    Last week, we came across a group gathered in one of the dorm rooms jamming. Pretty soon it was over twenty people and two guitars crammed into a dorm room having the time of our lives.

So what happened? What made the difference between those first few weeks when life was pretty easy and I was on top of everything, and now? The answer's simple: I found friends. And I put them first.

Do I regret it?

Not one bit. 

Grades and learning are as important as ever, but last year I learned an important lesson. Last year, my first semester of college, I studied hard, and I reaped the benefits. I thought my first semester was pretty close to perfect. Then second semester started and my roommate moved out. It was quite the eye-opener. It was then that I realized, while I had been in my dorm studying, I had missed Foot Ball games, late night runs to the creamery for ice cream, chats out in the hall with my hall-mates, and games and socialization after ward prayer. All the girls were sweet to me, but, when it came down to it, I had no friends. Second semester was harder: my grades were good, but not perfect. BUT, I had friends. 

Sure, my grades are glued to my transcript. They aren't going anywhere and they'll follow me all through college. But good friends will stick with you long past college. And even if they don't, their memories will. No one remembers their grades with fondness, or looks back with a smile on those nights they spent studying alone in the library. 

My first semester I honestly thought college was a lot easier than I'd thought it would be, but I've realized the hard part comes with the realization that college is more than classes and text books. It's not just learning -- it's enjoyment, discovery, relationships, memories . . . friends.

When God created the world he saw everything as good, except one thing that was decidedly "not good." It was not good that man should be alone. And so, I think the Lord smiles down on friendships. Were it not so, why would He have so obviously and so quickly aided me in finding them?

I remember one day when I was walking with Shan Yue to one of her classes, she was asking me something or other about fandoms and Marvel and Animae and it lead to the spoken observation that we really have almost nothing in common. I've known people with whom I've have shared nearly every possible commonality and it didn't work at all. And then I've known people for whom it worked because they had just enough in common. But what Shan Yue and I realized that day was that virtually none of our interests are similar and I wouldn't have paired us based on personality either. True, we both like Mandarin and we both enjoy the occasional spontaneous excursion, but right about there, the commonalities end. And yet, we're such good friends.

Coincidence? I think not.

Candidly,

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