어떨까?

I think one reason I like stories so much is because you assume that after they end, everyone lives "happily ever after". Well, in the stories I read, anyway. Everything comes to a head, the good guy and the bad guy (or girls) fight, evil is defeated, the girl gets the guy, and they all go home and live a quiet life raising their kids and/or ruling their kingdom.

Alas, life is not like that.

시간이 빨리 지나네

It's already almost the end of November? But wasn't it just the end of October? And I could have sworn August wasn't that long ago...not to mention April.

What have I got to show for this time I've spent?

This is what I miss. He's so big now... :'(

Home

I heard Michael Buble's song "Home" today while I was working at the mall, and it reminded me how much I miss mine. Lately I've been, not homesick, really, but I wouldn't be adverse to seeing my family. I miss them. I miss them now more than I did when I first moved away from home, and since then I've lived away from them for the better part of three years. There's so much you miss when your 'second family' is so much younger than you, and it makes me sad to think about it.

I guess it really is true, what Dorothy said,

"THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME, THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME!"

In Defense of the Sabbath

"And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath."

-- Mark 2:27

The Law of the Sabbath is not one of those commandments I had much respect for as a child. Sunday was my least favorite day of the week: we had to be reverent, wear nice clothes and keep them clean, we couldn't play outside, and then there was the dreaded Quiet Time -- a mandatory two-hour span that we had to spend playing quietly in our rooms while my parents took a nap in theirs. At the time I thought they were the worst two hours of my week, and I thought my parents were awful for being so unfeeling as to impose them on me. Now I wish I could get my family to go back to Quiet Time.

I heard someone say something to this effect in a sacrament meeting one time: "Our great-grandparents called it the Holy Sabbath; our grandparents just the Sabbath. Our parents called it Sunday, and now we simply call it the weekend." We are becoming increasingly more casual about our Sabbath observance, and the effects are beginning to show. I love what Preach My Gospel says about keeping the Sabbath day holy, and the consequences of not doing so:

Our Sabbath-day behavior is a reflection of our commitment to honor and worship God. By keeping the Sabbath day holy, we show God our willingness to keep our covenants. ... When a community or nation grows careless in its Sabbath activities, its religious life decays and all aspects of life are negatively affected. The blessings associated with keeping the Sabbath day holy are lost. ... Latter-day Saints should set this holy day apart from activities of the world by entering into a spirit of worship, thanksgiving, service, and family-centered activities appropriate to the Sabbath. As Church members endeavor to make their Sabbath activities compatible with the intent and Spirit of the Lord, their lives will be filled with joy and peace.

I have definitely seen the truth of these statements in my own life. When I treat the Sabbath day as a sacred day of rest and dedicate it to renewing my covenants with my Heavenly Father and "recharging" my spiritual batteries, if you will, by setting aside "activities of the world" -- homework, my beloved Korean dramas, gossip, etc -- my week and my mood are so much better. I am much better equipped to handle the stress of juggling a job, college, and all the attendant difficulties. The Sabbath is a commandment from God, not because He likes to sit up in heaven and watch us chafe over all the things we "can't do", but because He knows that we need a break from the world and He loves us enough to bless us with one. I know that keeping the Sabbath day holy will bring tremendous blessings to your lives, and hope that in the coming weeks, you will search your heart and your life for ways you can do more to obtain them.

There Are Worse Ways to Put Yourself Through College

...but my feet sure do hurt.

Yesterday marked my week anniversary of starting my new job at a shoe store in the mall. This is my first time working retail, and let me tell you, it is a different experience.

I was really lucky to get this job, seeing as how I have no experience in retail at all. I am even luckier because my manager is a really great guy who genuinely cares about what he's doing, loves his job, and is concerned about his employees. Plus he has really cute kids and his wife is adorable. They're from Thailand, actually, though he's Chinese and they've all been in the States for awhile now. I'm also lucky because I actually enjoy doing what I do -- helping people find shoes that fit their needs -- most of the time. It's just when I've been there for five hours, listening to the same CD of Brittany Spears, Shakira,*Nsync, and the Backstreet Boys (which is better than the alternatives, believe me) for the fifth time, standing up the whole time, and no one's come in the store in at least an hour that I start wishing I had a little more interesting job. Or when I hobble home on aching feet and finally collapse on my bed and wonder if $8.50/hour can possibly be worth it.

But, as I said, there are worse ways to put yourself through college. I try not to think about the job I had freshman year, before I left for the mission -- student circulation aide at the Naval Academy's library. It was easy, it was 15 hours a week, and it paid $3.50/hour more. Not to mention it was within walking distance and I didn't have to stress out over the unreliability of the public transportation. And I never had Brittany Spears stuck in my head.

Then again, maybe the Lord doesn't want me to take the easy road. I'm certainly learning things I wouldn't have learned at the library, and I can't help but think of Calvin's dad (in the comic strip Calvin & Hobbs) saying, a little superciliously, "It builds character." In this case I think it is. And who knows, maybe three years down the road I'll look back and see clearly that this was better for me and served some greater purpose in helping me develop into who I need to be.

But my feet really do hurt.

Some Life Goals

1. Live in such a way that I can be with my family eternally

2. Run at least one marathon

3. Speak Korean fluently

4. Be a good wife to my husband and mother to my children

5. Do something big - not sure what yet, but something big

6. Climb a mountain

7. Travel to every country in the world

8. Live abroad with my family

9. Make the world a better place for families

10. Develop some artistic talents - photography or pottery, preferably

11. Fall madly, passionately in love and stay that way

12. Be a genuinely good person

13. BE HAPPY! :)

Uncertainty

It all works out in the end.

Right?