That's right, this week has been record breaking. The BYUSA team achieved two amazing feats: registering more students to vote than had occurred previously, and also, according to attendance, holding the biggest single event (Fall Fest) in BYUSA history. This little post today is a shout out to all the volunteers and officers who helped make both of these events a success. Thank you!
This week has also been a great week for meetings. On Tuesday we heard from an Irishman named Ronan Tynan. He's a disabled athlete, famous tenor, and medical doctor. He sang two amazing songs and talked about his life with a bunch of BYU students at our forum.
I also attended my first University Athletic Advisory Council Meeting, and first University Student Council meeting. I had a bunch of fun at both of these meetings; but, probably not as much fun as the Alumni Association chapter heads meeting that Deidre invited me to sing at. I sang "You Raise Me Up" and also had a chance to listen to Dr. Daniel Peterson. He sits on the churches committee on Islam (working to improve relations) and he had some amazing stories. Faith-promoting stories reminding everyone that the Lord is in-charge and knows what's going on. His stories involved working with a professor in New Zealand, digitizing texts at the Vatican, translating Arabic into English, and working with foreign dignitaries.
Anyway, life seems to be moving along pretty well. I also went on a Field Trip for Biology 100--we went bird watching. Our teacher, Dr. Hal Black, is hilarious. We were enthralled for about two hours, it was great. Good times!
Yes, the people above are most of the general officers that I met while in the President's Loge (yes..loge, not lounge) this last Saturday in the game versus UCLA. President Samuelson invited the BYUSA presidency up and we loved it! Who would've thought that we were going to be able to sit in the box during one of seasons most exciting games. In fact, I actually got a little tired of getting up and down to sing the fight song. Ha ha ha. In all seriousness, between this game and the last game, it was like NIGHT and DAY?! I kept on having to poke myself to see if the whole experience was real. I would like to extend a huge thanks to President Samuelson for allowing us to attend--amazing (NOTE: The General Authorities jump up and down for the fight song, clap, cheer, and I even heard one say "Crimeny Pete"--whatever that means).
This week has been a ball of fun. Saturday morning I went to the MSS Freshman retreat and laughed so hard. A few upperclassmen were asked to cook breaky and also facilitate a game/huge object lesson. The lesson involved blindfolded freshman trying to find the "iron rod" and upperclassmen taunting them along the way. We led people to the wrong path/rod/tree--it was great! I learned so many lessons that I will be able to apply in life and I'm also grateful for the knowledge that I have about the gospel. I loved it. That night I also caught up with a bunch of freshman at a BYUSA Freshman Facebook dance that we sponsored. Without any formal advertising, they had over 1000 kids there. Who does that?
Also, Friday night was a blast. Dinner with Bethany at Guru's and then we went to this raging party at a random Provo house. Remember how that house was big enough to have a soccer field, pool (with pool house), beach volleyball court, tennis court, beach ping-pong table, and another yard for dancing. The hosts had food all over the place and even a soft-serve ice cream machine--really? Following that was "Rock the Block" (speakers galore) and then bedtime.
BYUSA has been treating me pretty well. I'm learning heaps about life and regularly receive requests from students or random people from all across Provo. I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve others; I know that when you think about others more, life just feels better. Jeanessa, the intern, also came out to have lunch with us (and come to the game). Good times. All-in-all, a great week with a lot to love. I'm excited to see my mum pretty soon here and we go to D.C. in two weeks. Oh my word.
Well, I've begun my new class & sleeping schedule--10pm curfew and up at 6am. I've been exercising pretty regularly and studying relatively well. One of the most exciting things I've discovered this week is Law. I wasn't sure if I enjoyed it (because I've never really studied it) and I found out this week that I love it! I have a Business Law class and a Law Lecture Series that have been great. If you can imagine, I actually enjoy the reading and case study work that I do for the class. This is exciting for me because after I graduate--I'm going to Law School. I apologize if that's a shock to any of you, but that's been the plan for a while. Ha ha.
Anyway, I'm also enjoying the early rise/to bed schedule. If someone knows where the President Hinckley quote about being able to accomplish everything needed in day between 6am and 10pm--please let me know.
I was also able to attend the Club President's Retreat at Springhaven. We had over 60 people there being trained and getting to know each other. After waiting for dinner, we finished up pretty late and then played "Capture the flag", "Sardines", and "Murder in the Dark." So funny. I had heaps of fun getting know these students from all walks of BYU life.
After California, our crew got to take part in Foundations of Leadership, where a bunch of freshman came together and made friends etc. I didn't have a group per se, but I did attach myself to a few and became good friends with some of these kids from the class of 2012. I think that they are amazing; I am really grateful that I can associate with people of such outstanding moral character.
For the next few days, I hung around with the New Students--about 4000 to be exact. I gave a little speech to them, I handed out "Redefine Service" pins, and I also did a bit of dancing! Needless to say, I had heaps of fun. I really have no pictures to show for it, but I will always remember the Fall 2008 NSO. I am also grateful for the Events Management Team, who put it all together, they did so well.
Another exciting thing that happened this week was I moved into my new house! La Costa. I'm already enjoying the ward and the rooms are spacious. It's AWESOME. Oh, my roommates are great too.
Blog Disclaimer:
This is the official blog of Adam P.G. Ruri and represents his personal opinion. The blog is not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, or individual. The views of the writer are his own, and do not in any way reflect the views of the site they are posted on, other sites affiliated with this site, the staff involved with the site, or any other members of this site. Furthermore, they do not necessarily reflect the views of the the people who live in the author’s neighborhood, city, province, country, continent, hemisphere, planet, star system, galaxy, or universe of origin. Nor do his views necessarily reflect the views of anyone in his family, social network, or other group Adam Ruri is loosely associated with. Furthermore, the individual letters, words, and punctuation marks involved had no option but to be placed into the story, and should not be held accountable for the writer’s statement. Any spelling or grammatical errors are not the responsibility of the schools the author attended, the teachers the author was taught by, the regional governments who did or did not fund the author’s educational system, or anyone else involved in the author’s education.
