How did I get here?

And now it's my turn to have a birthday - 25 years young! But how did I get here? I've decided to break it down into 25 life-changing events or decisions that brought me to where I am today.

1. I was born. This is very important to the next 24 items!
2. The analytical portion of my brain failed to mature, rendering me a helpless mess at math.
3. At 8 years old I was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, officially making me a member of the LDS Church.
4. I planned and replanned and (poorly) painted my parent's house in an attempt to "make it more awesome." Although it did not, in fact, make it "more awesome," it was the beginning of my love of interior design.
5. In an attempt to make my high school transcript "more awesome" for chance at a good college, I took foreign language classes. Apparantly colleges want "well-rounded" students. Since French is obviously far superior (though far less useful) than Spanish, I took French. Since 4 years of language looks the best, I took 4 years. That's pretty much all the thought I put into that.
6. I fleshed out my procrastination skills, really turning it into an art. From high school on out I procrastinated about everything that could be procrastinated.
7. I attended EFY (Especially For Youth) at BYU the summer I was 16, reconfirming my faith in religion; specifically that I did, in fact, want to be LDS.
8. I proved so inept at match that I dropped out of pre-calculus my junior year of high school, cementing my future as a non-mathematician.
9. I dated a nice guy named John who introduced me to his friend Jennifer. Though John and I broke up, we remained in contact and were good friends.
10. I attended college at BYU-Hawaii, where they had a "language track" or a "math track." If you studied foreign language for at least 2 years you were not required to take any math classes to graduate from college. Lucky for me, I could refer back to life decision #5 and did not take any more math, though I took LOTS more French.
11. As long as I was studying French, studying abroad IN France made a lot of sense. There I received lots more college credit in French language courses, causing me to consider majoring in French.
12. My love of Interior Design and complete disinterest in any other majors BYU-H was offering led me to change universities. None of the BYU's offered undergraduate degrees in Interior Design, so I had to go somewhere that did. Not being a millionarie, I had to go somewhere in-state. CSU was my best option, so I transferred after 2 years of college.
13. Still in contact with ex-boyfriend John, who was still in contact with old friend Jennifer, who was a student at CSU, I got a call asking if I needed a place to live. Although my first semester at CSU was starting in 2 weeks, thanks to procrastination I sure was homeless. Fortunately she needed a third roommate for her and her friend, so I came to live with Michelle and Jennifer.
14. CSU's Interior Design undergraduate program is 4 years long, no ifs, ands, or buts. They flesh out the 4 years with basic requirements, which I had already fulfilled in my 2 previous years of college. With lots of time to spare, I completed my load with more French language courses.
15. Somewhere in here, I broke up with other guys and was single for the first time in a long time. This is important for #18.
16. I met Angela in the various French classes we took together. As you remember, I was still taking lots of French.
17. During football season I jumped on the CSU bandwagon with my roommates, Jennifer and Michelle, who were fanatics and never missed a game, including televised games. Although I was no fanatic, I went along out to CB&Potts to watch the televised CSU v. New Mexico game. CSU was losing terribly, so when Angela (#16) called to hang out, I ditched the TV game and went out with her instead.
18. While hanging out with Angela, who was dating one of Joe's best friends from Craig, she asked me if I'd like to meet Joe, then asked Joe if he'd like to meet me. Being single for the first time in a long time, I figured it would be worth a laugh. Little did I know, it was worth a lifetime.
19. Joe asked me on a date, and I said yes.
20A. Joe asked me to marry him, and I said yes.
21. Asked Joe to tag along to church with me and he was pulled in by a) church basketball, b) great home teachers who were not dweebs, c) 3 more hours with me on Sunday, and d) the promise of a whole lot more than one little lifetime together. To get an amazing guy who, amazingly enough, converts? A girl can't get too much luckier in one lifetime! But read on.
20B. A year after the wedding we recommitted and were sealed in the Denver Temple.
22. Although not married long, we were very much in love and anxious for a child, so we tried to time the due date to be between semesters. If this hadn't worked, we were going to wait 6 more months and have a baby in the summer. Neither one really panned out; I had a baby the first week of my last semester of college.
23. Our love of family life caused Joe to re-think his pursuit of a teaching degree, causing him to go back to school for Construction Management. I didn't have a huge decision in this, but I was a huge supporter!
24. Although I continued my studies in Interior Design, the CSU system jerked me out of quite a few French language credits from my study abroad, making it a hassle to get a second major in French. I settled for a minor and graduated with my I.D. degree in May of 2008.
25. With January just around the corner and Joe's official 1st day of work even sooner (December 22) we are just waiting for insurance to become official so we can repeat #22, without all the hassle of babysitters while I go to class.

So now you see - if I hadn't been so bad at math, I wouldn't have taken so much French, so I wouldn't have met Angela, who wouldn't have introduced me to Joe, and I wouldn't have had a beautiful baby and be looking forward to more all by the time I turned 25. Thank goodness for being creative instead :)


My birthday wish: to have more time to read Les Miserables - 154 pages down, only 1,039 to go!