Friday, December 21, 2012

wise words from a wise woman

people are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
forgive them anyway.
if you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish motives;
be kind anyway.
if you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
succeed anyway.
if you are honest and sincere, people may deceive you;
be honest and sincere anyway.
what you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
build anyway.
if you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
be happy anyway.
the good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
do good anyway.
give the world the best you have and it may never be enough;
give them your best anyway.
in the final analysis, it is between you and God;
it never was about them anyway.

mother theresa

<3 tutus on the subway

Sunday, December 16, 2012

mission

mission papers officially started!

yep. stoked!

<3 tutus on the subway
aka "sister rasmuson"

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

tell us how you really feel

Hi professor!
I just finished taking the final for calculus 125 and am not sure how I was expected to do well on that exam. I'm saying that to be rude, just honest. I have been doing well in the class so far this semester and got an 89% and 90% on the midterms - which compared to what I have heared seems to be pretty top notch, I'm happy with it - and was confident in how I would do in the class this semester, until I took this exam that is.
I know you're awesome at math so, maybe for you (or whoever wrote this exam) it's wildly simple to calculate 4(12)^4 or add, subtract and multiply extremely long equations with weird numbers in your head without even breaking a sweat, however it's definitely not for me. I sincerely wish I had this skill, I'm rather disappointed that I don't especially when I compare myself to those who clearly do!
You see, I studied a great deal in preparation for this exam and felt awesomely confident that I would nail it at least as well as i did on the others, and then I got to experience the great pleasure which is certain failure while sitting in the Javits building earlier today. However, I don't believe that I was alone, which is comforting. You see, when I walked out of the exam, after an hour and a half of trying to figure out how I could go from so confident to wanting to curl up Into fetal position and have a nice long cry, I noticed that not only were a great deal of my classmates taking an excruciatingly long time to complete 5 problems, they seemed to want to have a nice cry as well. like I said, it's comforting to know that I wasn't just stupid and therefore alone in this situation.
I have spent a great deal of my life considering being a teacher myself but I have come to realize, after this exam of course, that it just isn't the career for me, I say this, not because I apparently am awful at calculus but because I have always truly believed that teachers want their students to succeed but as that clearly isn't the case; I guess my optimistic heart and I will just have to do something more suiting and realistic like professional hockey or sleep studies perhaps.
If I may be frank, professor, I just don't think that that exam was fair. It didn't test what I had studied on the practice exam, sure technically they were the same types of problems but the skills were incomprehensibly different than the ones I used while I was studying. I would have surely done just as well had I never shown up to class or studied as I did with all the work I have done leading up to this point in the semester. I only wish I would have known that in advance because I would have really enjoyed sleeping in or getting a job to fill that time that I spent in and doing work for this class.
Since leaving the exam, I have heard people call it a "weed-out" course. I am disappointed in that fact because I didn't have to take this class but chose to because I wanted to learn more math, isn't that why I pay thousands of dollars a semester, to learn more, not to be set up to fail? or so I thought. I guess for now I'll just count my blessings that although what is bound to be an awful grade will show up on my transcript for all graduate admissions offices and future employers to see, it will not affect my GPA at my lovely home university that I will return to after my interesting exchange here.
Despite your apparent heartlessness I have enjoyed working with you this semester and hope you enjoy the holidays!
Mikayla

Anyone else agree?

<3 tutus on the subway

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

its that time of year

its that time of year again...

nope, i'm not talking about the holidays, i'm talking about finals. yay... wait. boooo!

as you can tell i am stoked that finals season has dutifly rolled around again - or reared its ugly head, you decide.

i have of course put off studying until the last possible moment, aka today because both of my finals are tomorrow (awesome) and clearly am getting a lot accomplished by updating my blog, yep, it's really cementing in how to conjugate irregular verbs in about a million different ways...

but, such is the life of a college student.

some things are helping me to get through the day...

 clearly what i would do if i was at the library right now.
my stress reduction kit :) its really helpful.
while writing my dance paper (yes, they exist) i drank some delicious hot chocolate complete with candy cane and whipped cream. it was wonderful. (ps just changed my background to something a bit more christmas festive)
because obviously.

good luck with finals brave soldiers!
but to those of you who do not have to take finals

hehe

<3 tutus on the subway




Friday, December 7, 2012

t minus one week

that's right ladies and gentlemen, i am going home in just one week.  i can't wait to be home with my family for 6 whole weeks. of course during that time i'll basically be working nonstop but it'll be worth it, my friends.

i was having a really hard time writing my talk for church. this was a new concept for me because giving youth talks was a total breeze but now i'm feeling the pressure to be all grown up and stuff.  its a very different feeling...

but then i watched the christmas devotional done by the first presidency. (click here to view it) regardless of your beliefs, you should watch it because it is all just about the spirit of christmas - and president eyring's anecdote about the perfect gift for his son was actually really funny. it got my right into the christmas spirit and will work for you too, i promise. so i'll give you another chance to click here and watch it because it will be so worth an hour of your time (watch it in pieces if you don't have a full hour)!

i am getting a good way through my talk at this point, my primary lesson and studying are, however, another matter...

some photos of my life lately...

 look carefully at the stickers on her case... see some familiar logos, utah skiers?
 lunch date with felicia. fun but sad because she is graduating and not going to be in my dance classes any more :(
 obviously this is felicia and i shopping.
and i just always laugh at this!

<3 tutus on the subway

ps- do you ever loose you contact in your eye? because it happens to me and it hurts! as a matter of fact, it just happened to me while i was writing this so i am wearing my glasses now...

adorable. i know. :)

Thursday, December 6, 2012

the holidays

i love the holidays. who doesn't?

there's no school, you hang out with your family, eat a ton, everything is prettier, give and get presents... its just a blast all around.

really what i can't wait any longer for is to go home! i want to so bad! i want to see my fam.

i have to do so much before i go home though.... finals are lame. and i have to speak in church on sunday on top of everything else (which i am honestly not looking forward to).

wish me luck!

i am loving nyc at christmas time however:
 the rockafeller christmas tree.


<3 tutus on the subway