In The End
Posted: April 30, 2013 Filed under: Student Life | Tags: In the End, Resonate, School, Science, southern utah, southern utah universtiy, Student Life, suu, tbirdnation, Things I learned, Tiger Painting, UT, utah, utah college Leave a comment »Well it is a Tuesday morning. The weather is fantastic, air is crisp, and it is the end of the semester.
Yup it’s finals week.
But I don’t really want to talk about finals. Most of us have faced them before. Some soon will experience, others can reminisce of the days gone by. But finals, in reality, are a reflection of what you learned all year. So that’s what I am going to write about today.
Things I Learned:
I took a genetics class this year. This is a challenging course, I learned a lot, I beat my head against a table a lot, I cheered for joy when the times came. But I can talk to you about mutations, the genetic code and how to translate it. I know some things about population genetics, and I can do some new math.
I am color blind. I have had a grudge against colors most of my life because I suck with them. I have failed multiple times when it comes to matching and identifying colors. But this year I took a 2D design class and I am beginning to like colors now. I understand them. I feel my real 
issue was I was never taught anything about colors, and I have suffered all my life because of it. So the lesson learned, teach your kids. Never assume.
I have already talked about horses. You can find that post from a few weeks ago
Being engaged is awesome, but sucks really badly. Make sure yours is short.
Take a public speaking class. I learned about how to create a great presentation. I learned that a great presentation is not made up of lots of bullet points on a power point. In fact most power points I ever did growing up really sucked, and I should repent of my wicked ways. Read a book called Resonate, it will change the way you do presentations.
Closing Remarks:
Thanks everyone for reading my posts, and making comments. I have enjoyed this semester when it comes to writing for tbirdnation. I probably wont do it next year. I have a few new responsibilities, and a Bio-Organic Chemistry class that is going to consume me next semester. I hope you all enjoyed your school year. Come to SUU if you are contemplating it, and have a fantastic summer.
Masquerade!
Posted: April 22, 2013 Filed under: Student Life | Tags: admissions, cedar city, Cirque du Sunfest, college, dance, friends, Fun, Fun Times, mask ball, masquerade, southern utah, southern utah university, sunfest, suu, suu admissions, SUUSA, tbirdnation, UT, utah, utah college, Utah High School Tour Leave a comment »Last week SUU had their annual SUNFest. The theme this year was “Cirque du SUNFest,” a play on “cirque du Soleil,” which means “circus of the sun.”
Events during the week included a comedian; the Mr. SUU pageant; bingo with great prizes; a showing of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey; a carnival with fun bouncy inflatables, free food, carnival games, prizes, and live music; the Thunderbird Awards Ceremony; and a masquerade ball.
I love dancing. Any time I have an excuse to go dancing is a good time. Sometimes I’ll go to rather sketchy places if I know there’s going to be dancing. When I found out about the masquerade, you can imagine how excited I was to go.
I went with my dancing friend Ali (whenever there’s a dance beat, chances are you’ll see us together) and our outfits matched. Unintentionally.
Black and leopard. I’m not wearing any leopard, but I’m wearing gold which matched her accents.
At the dance (which was free!) I ate lots of cookies and fruits and vegetables, danced, sweated, and got some photos done in a photo booth.
You can see our love we have for dance depicted in this photo with vogue-ing and jazz hands. The other two are just… great.
I love the great activities and events SUUSA does.
Au revoir!
Fly, Peter, Fly! Fly!
Posted: April 19, 2013 Filed under: Cedar City | Tags: Adventures, cedar city, Cedar City Airport, christmas break, college, collegebound, Flights, Fly, friends, Fun, Fun Times, memories, southern utah, Student Life, suu, tbirdnation, UT Leave a comment »Did you know Cedar City has an airport?
Cedar City Airport
Did you know they have flights to the Salt Lake International Airport every single day?
CLICK HERE for a link to Cedar’s webpage about their airport. You can view the regular flight times there.
Did you know that flights are pretty reasonably priced? I’m not saying to fly up north every single day, but perhaps for the occasional concert, event, or wild spontaneous weekend…it’s an option. So, let’s say you want to go to your nephew’s fourth birthday party in Salt Lake on Sunday night but you have to be to class at 10am on Monday morning. Why not just fly back? Or let’s say that you’re super homesick for your rich parents. Why not just have them fly in for lunch? (I recommend the Pastry Pub.) It could happen (for those of you that have rich parents). There are other scenarios I could paint, but let me just tell you, flying from Cedar City to Salt Lake is a pretty good deal. I went home this last weekend for that nephew scenario. Happy Birthday, Cooper….thanks for letting me come to your party.
The Cedar airport is a happy place where life moves a bit slower. When I showed up an hour early for my flight, the only employee I could find told me, “Oh, just take a seat by the fireplace and we’ll make an announcement when we’re ready to start the security screening and boarding processes for the flight.” That’s just how they roll there. I loved it. Here’s what some of my experience looked like.
Like I said, don’t necessarily plan on flying from Cedar to Salt Lake every day or every weekend, but if you ever get the chance, just know that it’s an option. And you never know, upon landing in Salt Lake, you might just run into some good friends off on a weekend adventure of their own.
Lookin’ good, Garret and Kyle!
The Salt Lake airport is pretty nice too, it’s just not quite what we’ve got here in Southern Utah. PS, getting through Salt Lake security screening on a Monday morning took longer than my entire 33 minute flight back to the land of SUU. Ain’t no thang.
My sister told me I was pretty cool for flying up North for the weekend, and honestly, I kinda felt cool. Walking into my class at 10am, nobody even knew that my flight had just arrived at 9:20 that morning. Always be aware of the adventures that are awaiting you…even in Cedar City, Utah.
I’m going there some day
Posted: April 12, 2013 Filed under: Cedar City | Tags: cedar city, friends, LDS, Mormons, Religion, southern utah, tbirdnation, Temple, UT Leave a comment »The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has an exciting announcement. Watch!
They’re going to build a Mormon temple in Cedar City. It’s going to be a couple years before this comes to fruition, but seeing as I’ve already been hoping for this for four years, I can wait patiently (and excitedly) for a little bit longer until it happens.
For more information on why Mormons build temples, CLICK HERE.
For some details on the Cedar City temple specifically, CLICK HERE.
For the SUU Journal article listing some additional benefits of the temple, CLICK HERE.
And in the meantime, just know that I’m one very excited tbirdnation-er!
Popcorn Popping
Posted: April 5, 2013 Filed under: Cedar City | Tags: cedar city, Nature, Popcorn Popping, southern utah university, spring semester, Student Life, suu, tbirdnation 1 Comment »Good news.
Spring is here.
And that’s all you need to worry about today.
Carry on.
And I’m Back.
Posted: April 4, 2013 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Busy Life, cedar city, City Life, City Lights, Fun, Mountain, School, Star Gazing, suu, tbirdnation Leave a comment »Hey guys! This week and last week have been utterly crazy but, so much fun. Due to school and trying to get everything figured out for my next semester, my life has been anything but slow and normal.
A midst all the craziness, I was able to take 30 minutes of my time to take a breather and go up the canyon right next to SUU to star gaze. It was a blast! The benefit to living in Cedar and attending SUU is that you don’t have to go far and be in civilization, and you don’t have to go far to be in the gorgeous mountains to the east. Along with the fact that SUU has so many different places to go so you aren’t ever bored inside, we have an amazing outdoors engagement center that has many classes and hosted activities to get you out and enjoying the beautiful places around you.
Whether you like the city or are more of a country guy or gal (like me) SUU is definitely the place for you. It has some of everything and it makes living here and being at SUU amazing and fun every day of the year.
My friends, roommate, and I star gazing! 
Called to Serve
Posted: April 2, 2013 Filed under: Student Life | Tags: admissions, cedar city, LDS activityies, Monday night activities, Service Project, southern utah, southern utah university, suu, tbirdnation, UT, utah, utah college, Utah High School Tour, World War II Leave a comment »
The feet marched to the sound of the call. What call you might ask? The call to action! The call to serve! And the thunder came and the T-Birds arrived to do their civil duty to those who fought in a war that eventually made up “the greatest generation.”
Hopefully you liked my flowery introduction to a service project I had the opportunity to be apart of. I currently belong to the Cedar City Young Single Adult 10th Congregation for the LDS church. My job is to plan Monday night activities. When the congregational leader (bishop) asked if we could do this activity for a Monday activity, I was happy to let them take over the evening.
So at 5 o’clock we gathered together our congregation and one other, which all are SUU students, and headed out to the service project. The project was to help out a World War II veteran named Ravena. She use to fly planes from the factories out to California to be shipped across sea’s and to the front line. That was cool to find out.
When we arrived we found out the project; which was to help bring her yard back to life. At the age of 90 it becomes very difficult to maintain your yard, so we were called in to save the day. With chainsaws, shovels, rakes, and willing hands we went to work.
Everyone working
getting rid of those unwanted branches
T-Birds Represent!
Before
After
It was a great service project, and everyone had a fantastic time. There is always someone out there that we can help, and we T-Birds are always excited to help. Hope everyone had a happy Easter and enjoy the rest of your week.
Viva! Las Vegas
Posted: April 1, 2013 Filed under: Student Life | Tags: admissions, Bellagio, cedar city, Circus Circus, college, Dick's Last Resort, Dick's Restaurant, Excalibur, friends, Fun, Fun Times, Las Vegas, southern utah, southern utah university, suu, suu admissions, tbirdnation, UT, utah, utah college, Utah High School Tour Leave a comment »Of all the places on earth, I have a deep connection to Cedar City.
It’s my home and I love it here.
However, it is nice to get away for a bit, especially when it’s your friend’s birthday!
Las Vegas, Nevada is only 175 miles away, or 2.5 hours driving time, according to GoogleMaps.
Ten of us friends went to Las Vegas to spend time together and celebrate Nick’s 21st birthday!
We stayed in Circus Circus. Friday night we were going to party like 1999 and decided to walk from Circus Circus along the Strip to Excalibur for dinner. I wanted to drive because I was pretty sure the distance was a lot further than anticipated, but, in the end, I was glad we walked because we became closer friends and had some pretty awesome things happen.
Awesome thing #1: While enjoying the wonderful 80° F weather on our walk, a gentleman had the top down in his convertible and was blasting music. And it was good music. So I said, “Thanks for the tunes!” and he pointed to me and sang to us as we walked by. That made my day 
Awesome thing #2: This black gentleman came up to us while we were taking photos and said we needed some color in the picture. It was great!
And then he took one of the whole group!
I love nice people
Back row LtoR: Martin, Abby, Nick, Jenni, Braden, Scott. Front row LtoR: Chris, me, Cadence, Adam!
Nick, the birthday boy, and Martin
Jenni snapped this gem of me watching the Bellagio water show. Apparently, I was quite amused.
We were walking to Excalibur to eat at Dick’s. It’s a restaurant where the servers are intentionally mean and swear at you and throw things at you and it’s quite the experience. They also make really inappropriate hats for you to wear. I, however, have a filter when it comes to posting things on the Internet so I will only be posting a photo of my hat, which was the only appropriate one made….
This is the only hat that I want photos of on the Internet. It says “Maybe if I cut my hair people would stop mistaking me for a 12 year old girl.” This is my “12 year old girl” pose.
After dinner and drinking lots of water (I don’t drink alcohol. Notice how the pitcher I’m drinking right out of is water? I was super thirsty), six of us went to a dance club and danced the night away! It was the most fun!
After a long night of walking, eating, laughing, dancing, and have the best time ever, Nick was tired so Martin carried him to our hotel room on his shoulders.
Lovely photo by Jenni of the moon over New York New York and the front of the Monte Carlo
Of all these people on the trip, there was only one that I didn’t know because of SUU. Every day it is hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that I have the best friends in the world.
Thank you, SUU, for giving me friendships that I will value forever.
FHE Talent Show
Posted: March 29, 2013 Filed under: Student Life | Tags: cedar city, college, FHE, friends, Fun, Fun Times, southern utah, Student Life, tbirdnation, UT Leave a comment »Gather a bunch of church people, ask them to share their talents, and I guarantee everyone will have a good time. This is just one more thing you could experience as a member of Tbirdnation. The pictures will tell you the rest of the story. Good times, eh?
Kick Ball
Posted: March 26, 2013 Filed under: Student Life | Tags: admissions, cedar city, college, Future, Kick Ball, southern utah, southern utah university, spring activities, suu, tbirdnation, Upper Quad, UT, utah, utah college Leave a comment »
Spring is in the air and it’s time to go out and play… Sorta. I still have tons of homework to be working on, but a break is good for the soul.
Last Thursday I got a text from a friend inviting me out to go play kick ball in the Upper Quad here on SUU’s Campus. I jumped on that idea real fast because I love playing kick ball, so when Friday came I was geared up in shorts and a t-shirt and was ready to go.
At five o’clock we met and set up our teams and the games began. I was the first kicker and sent a huge kick into the right field. Most people were not expecting that because they didn’t know that I use to play soccer and still have a good leg on me. From that point on it though, I no longer had that advantage so I had to really try to control my kicks.
The game went on for about an hour and a half and in the end I think our team won by a few points, but we stopped keeping track after 40 minutes or so.
Over all it was a blast! I was sore all weekend because of it, but that’s all apart of the fun and games of it all.
Eric
jillowhitaker
Kirk
Laurel
Jess
Nathan
Thor
Becky
