Evaluative Conclusion... Goodbye to Both My National and International Friends

Another semester at BYU has come and gone, but this time I have a blog of entries that document my experiences here for Fall 2011. Because of this blog, I have realized some things about myself that will help me continue education and progression throughout my life:

1. The first main purpose of this blog only occurred to me now that I have reviewed my posts. Although almost every single one of my posts started out with me explaining some kind of secular problem or experience that I was facing in my life, somehow I always related it to a spiritual lesson I learned. Because I having been preparing to submit my mission papers throughout most of this semester, a lot of my focus has been in this area. I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to express lessons, blessings, and realizations I've had throughout the semester pertaining to this significant time in my life. I can't say enough how grateful I am that I happened to take this class at such a perfect time. Had I taken it next semester, I may not have been able to prepare for my mission as much as I did this semester.

2. Sharing the gospel and my small testimony has also seemed very important and reoccurring throughout most of my posts. I find it interesting and fortunate that I got the opportunity to have people from all around the world reading my blog. With 8 different countries reading my blog and about 1/3 of my blog's views coming from Russia alone, I know that it was important that I always related my posts back to the gospel. I didn't realize it until now, but I had been given a special opportunity to share the gospel in a unique way this semester.

3. I used to write in my journal every week on Sunday. Since the beginning of my senior year, I seemed to think that I had become too busy to be able to write in my journal. Unfortunately, I have missed out on several opportunities to be able to document all the experiences that I have had in the last 2 years. Because of this semester, I have realized that I really do have time to write in my journal. I have a renewed interest in doing so because I was often able to write on my blog more than twice a week.

4. A final thing that I've learned this semester because of my blog pertains to my character. At the beginning of the semester, I made a goal to write on my blog every Tuesday and Thursday. As soon as I had made this goal, I stuck to it. Now that the semester is over, I am proud to say that I have 30 posts on my blog, 10 more than was required. Not only did I keep my promise and obtain my goal of an average of 2 posts a week, I have really come to enjoy this new form of expressing myself.

Although most of my Writing class didn't actually work on keeping up with their blog throughout the semester and ended up posting an absurd amount in the last week, I'm grateful that I have spaced it out because I have been able to see a real progression throughout the semester. Even though I am not the professor and have no say in grades, I feel that I have done all that I could to make this blog a real goal and continuing task throughout this semester. THANK YOU SISTER STEADMAN!!!!! I'VE BEEN CONVERTED TO BLOGGING!!