Lately I have been feeling nostalgic, mostly because there are a lot of big changes happening in my life and in the lives of my family and friends. I still don’t feel old enough to have my little sister driving, to have friends getting married and married friends moving away or having babies, to be almost done with college (well in my case not ALMOST), to have friends already coming back from missions, to have a little brother who is practically half a foot taller than me, to be old enough to SERVE a mission. I’ve been used to this feeling of “are we really old enough for this” for over a year and a half now, since it hit its peak with Mary and Jonny’s wedding in January 2008. But this melancholy mixture of happiness and sadness that comes from big life changes hit me hardest in May this year.
Mary and Jonny graduated from BYU, packed up their little life together and moved away to grad school at the University of Illinois. Good for them, right? K let me remind you, I live in UTAH. They moved to ILLINOIS. Utah and Illinois are four BIG, FAT states away, not including the extra miles it takes to get OUT of Utah from Provo and to get to Champaign/Urbana once you reach Illinois.
Let me also remind you that after high school, Mary and I came to BYU together. The furthest distance we’ve been apart from each other is when she was visiting her parents in Kaz. And that was for, like, a month. This time is for realsies.
Let me also remind you that even though Mary and Jonny got married a year and a half ago, they still lived basically down the street from me. And Jonny is a saint, always puts up with me, says he loves having me over (which may or may not be true but regardless is appreciated), lets Mary and I have best friend dates and girl time, and willingly comes to dessert parties, movie nights and other little get-togethers. So because my best friend married someone who actually likes me, our relationship didn’t change much after she got married. ‘Cept now we had cooler stuff to talk about, like living with a boy. I still saw her most of the time, we still talked on the phone and met for lunch and went on walks, yadda yadda yadda.
Let me also remind you how not-so-good I am with change. I would like to be good with change, but alas, this is the girl who cries every time Joey says goodbye to Chandler when Chandler moves to Oklahoma for work in season 9. (And he moves back, like, 3 episodes later. Grow up, Jenny.)
Change is, like, 2009’s favorite thing. Big changes, too, not baby ones. So in light of all these changes, I wanted to pay a little tribute to she who has helped me stay level-headed through all of this.
She taught me to be brave to try new things. She helped me see that BYU wasn’t so bad. She taught me how to drive a stick shift after Derik failed at it. She furthered my love for Mexican food, ok, all food. She sang me happy birthday in Italian on my 18th birthday at Macaroni Grill and my mom cried. She took me home to Bakersfield from Provo numerous times and never asked for anything in return. She oh so patiently taught me to snowboard. She is responsible for the way I talk out of the side of my mouth , sometimes with a lisp. She listened to my frustrations about the same boy for five years, and never once told me to shut up about it. She remembered me every place she went, even when her efforts at souvenirs were throttled by Spanish gypsies. She intervened when we decided I was too addicted to FRIENDS, and she designed a 12-step program to help me kick it. She taught me how to make cake balls. She sang me “Blue Christmas” Elvis-style. She upholds my motto that sillyness is an important part of life. She never thinks badly of me, even though I constantly begin my stories with, “Ok I’m not supposed to tell you this but....” She encouraged ice cream for my broken heart. She held my hand when I broke down about my mom’s cancer. She taught me to love unconditionally , to have faith no matter what, that patience is attainable, and that the best thing to do when you’re feeling down is service. She set a supreme example to me by marrying an incredible man and being sealed to him in the temple , and they are to me a preview and hope of what I can have in the future. She has been my biggest supporter in this whole mission process, she calms my anxiety about it and tells me what I already know but need to hear from someone else, and even though she has a life, a husband, grad school and work in Illinois, she is going to make the trip to California to go through the temple with me. For these reasons and countless more, I am thankful for Mary Alison Young and the influence she has had in my life, from back when she was Margle to now that she is Mary Ung. You are a reason I am where I am today.
