Graduation!

Last week I graduated from college! What a crazy feeling! I feel so old in many ways, yet so young in others. My parents were able to come up for my graduation services and stayed with me in my apartment. It was great to be able to spend the weekend with them and catch up with all that has been happening in their lives!

Mom and Dad split and went for a week-long vacation in Philadelphia yesterday. I am planning on going on a little vacation of my own out to Yellowstone tomorrow (Tuesday) with Guinevere and Clark! We just decided to move our leaving date up a day and so now I have to pack up and organize my life all in one day! It will take a lot of work! It has been fun going through all of my boxes up to this point because I am seeing symbols and souvenirs of old memories from as far back as high school! It is fun to reminisce, but it was so sad when I made the subtle realization that these things are all too much clutter to keep any longer. So, I decided to at least make a list of a couple of these things so that I can always remember them and the memories associated with them:

1. An Italian National Team flag that I got when the BYU soccer team traveled to Italy. We had the opportunity to play the Italian National Team and then traded souvenirs afterwards. I got it back in the Summer of 2004.

2. A doll that I got my senior year of high school from my mom. All of the lacrosse team's parents got together and made a doll for each of their girls on the team. Mine has a striking resemblance to me! It even has a red stick, which is my signature lacrosse identity! Good job mom!

3. The many many many letters that I wrote to my friends on missions during the last 5 years. Most of them are home and many of them are dating other people or married. I read through some of them one more time and kept others, but threw most away. I have really enjoyed writing to missionaries through the years. Their accounts and testimonies have such a strengthening power for me.

4. All of the information that I gathered together in the long process of taking the GRE, research schools, applying, and interviewing for various programs. I am glad to have a solid plan for grad school! There have been so many doubts and questions along the way about which location in the country and which school would be the best fit for me. The only material I still have is for registering for my new program!

5. Many of my DVDs are a few years old and just take up shelve space instead of being enjoyable to watch for me still. I am planning to take them all over to a store that buys back old DVDs.

6. All of the MANY cords and electronic gadgets that I have collected through the years, but that are now very outdated and useless.

7. A few pairs of old cleats. Probably about 5 pairs. Don't worry, I'm keeping 3 pairs of brand new ones that I still have from my soccer days! (2 pairs are studs) Don't let me ever buy another new pair again!

8. Most of my dishes that I have used for the last 4 years, since I moved into the brick house that Mom and Dad owned.

9. My get well and birthday cards from my 19 birthday, just before my first ACL surgery. SO many people came over to wish me well during that time and I kept many of them. I am sad to see them go.

10. This was an accident that I just realized about. But in with all of those birthday cards was a card from Grandma Thomas that she sent me just a month before she got really sick and passed away. I wish I had remembered to grab that! I loved getting grandma's birthday cards and I am so grateful for all of the many uplifting notes and phone calls that she made an effort to make throughout her life. What a great example. I will always remember that card in specific though.

There are many other things that have significant value for me in my life and there have been more than a few that have brought tears to my eyes as I realize that I am ready to move on to a huge new chapter of my life. However, there is something exhilarating about throwing things out and starting anew. I look forward to the new memories that will be made!

BOSTON!!!

I'm going to Boston!! Wahoo!!

I have so much to do before then! Just thought I'd write a little update.

Graduate School Acceptance!!

I got into the University of Utah and the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions in Boston, MA! Where do you all think I should go?

Life has been so much fun lately! I have been seeing all of the rewards of my hard work in the graduate school admissions process coming together in a most enjoyable fashion! I had such a great time in Boston over this last weekend and I was able to see quite a bit of the city, while spending some time with Diane and Jacob Child. We saw a few museums, ate some fantastic food, and saw two symphony concerts! Mozart's requiem was absolutely incredible, as well as the Sibelius and Shostakovich concert that we went to on Saturday evening. Shostakovich was a very emotional concert, as the symphony performed was written to express some of the turmoil Shostakovich felt during his life as a Russian citizen in the early 1900s. He did not have the symphony released while he was alive in fear that he would be killed for such a publicly visible artistic expression. Very interesting! It wasn't the most enjoyable, but it was definitely moving!

I made a friend from Beijing, China on Monday morning! He was also taking the water shuttle from Long Wharf to Boston Proper and I had the opportunity to speak with him a bit. He is majoring in mechanical engineering at the University of Beijing and he came to the US to participate in a model United Nations at Harvard University. His English was very good and he is planning on coming to the United States for graduate school at Carnegie Mellon University in the Fall. He also hit on me, he said I was a very beautiful lady, he gave me his card, and asked that I email him to maintain contact! I am not sure if I will, but it was a nice compliment!

The next couple of days will be stressful as I figure out where I want to go to school and live for the next three years, at least! I also have to dive back into my schoolwork to make sure that I do not get behind too much!

Hope everyone is well! Much love!

Happy Holidays!

Well, the holidays are over and it's back to Provo for me! I had such a blast at home, especially the last two days when Guinevere, Clark, Evan, Hannah, Ben, and Lena came down! We went to sushi last night and had some great food! The rest of the break I was pretty out of it because I was recovering from knee surgery that I got on December 21. In all, the break was just enough relaxation and fun to tide me over for a little while. I am excited to have a fresh new start with school and for all the exciting decisions that I am going to be making in the next semester, like where I am going to go for grad school, and therefore live for the next 3 years, at least!

The Lord continues to bless me with so many small miracles and I pray that I will continue to deserve all of the blessings that I receive on a daily basis!

Love you all!

Claire

Across the Continent

Greetings all!

How is everyone? I am fantastic! I just got back from a most amazing trip to the East Coast. A vacation of the utmost experience! Maelyn and I were busy seeing just about everything! In the space of 8 days, we visited two cities, saw four plays, went to one comedy show, 3 museums, did the freedom trail, saw many various types of bodies of water, crossed many bridges, saw many landmarks, stayed with friends and family, and mingled with all sorts of diverse peoples and cultures! At the end of each day, it was a most amazing feeling to feel genuinely exhausted!

Thanks to Guinevere, Clark, and Sarah, who provided us a place to stay and had knowledge about and advice for the things we definitely should see in Boston and New York. Thanks to Mom and Dad for teaching me and allowing me to love history and to learn how to make things happen when it seems like progress and completion are impossible. It's been a great trip!

After Guinevere, Maelyn, and I went to Walden Pond, I resolved to reread Thoreau's book about his experiences and contemplations on the peaceful lake in Massachusetts. I found a most incredible quote from Thoreau's book, that really puts into great perspective some of the thoughts about my life I have been having lately. He gives great insight into human recollections of the past, present and future:

"I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them."

Rarely does such a redefinition of perspective occur as it has on this trip. I am so grateful for it.

Life is Good

I'm in Boston!! Can you believe it?!

After a redeye and some resultant red eyes (I now see why they call it that), I arrived safely and I am so ready for a fun little vacation before reality begins again! The plan is to split 8 days between the Boston, Massachusetts area and New York City. Maelyn will come out and join me tonight at 11. Meanwhile, Guinevere and I get to play today and I get to see Ben! Wahoo!!

Life is so good. I think all the time about the t-shirt company that has "life is good" as their simple slogan. I love it! I love that such a simple phrase can encompass so much about life! I want to get one of their shirts, but I have yet to find the best deal on them.

I have had an amazing summer in San Diego, I have worked some awesome jobs, I have been able to hang out with Lincoln and show him a lot about my hometown and childhood, and I got to go on some very fun trips! I am actually looking forward to school starting! This next semester will be so much fun because all of us Thomas kids will be in one location for the first time in a really long time. Also, Spencer Pickett and some other extended family relatives will be up in Provo! I am so excited! I will be able to also keep close tabs on Lena and Ben so they don't grow up too fast and forget their Auntie Claire!

Well, I'll make sure to post pictures from the Boston trip! Meanwhile, I love you all and I hope "life is good" for you too!

I'm finished with my psychology class!!! Well, almost. I have to take the final and then I will be finished!!

I have been really busy lately, but it seems like there is light on the horizon! I have been researching information for school and admission to PT school a lot recently and things are looking more and more probable. I am just about finished up with both of my jobs that I have had this summer and I am looking forward to cracking down on school!

This last weekend was one of the best weekends I have had in San Diego. Friday Mom and Dad and Lincoln and I went over to the Picketts for a fun night of yummy food and reunion. Then on Saturday, Lincoln and I went downtown to Balboa Park and looked at some of the museums down there. We went into the San Diego Hall of Champions and got to see my name in the database down there for high school prep athlete. Kinda cool. We also checked out the automotive museum and then most of the museums were closed after that. We were thinking of going to the zoo for a couple of hours, but instead we ended up stopping by to see Evan and Hannah for a few hours.

Dinner with Evan and Hannah was so much fun! Hannah made some great food and we had a great time talking and catching up! One of my favorite things is seeing Evan just melt into a big teddybear with Lena and Hannah just caring for every little detail with Lena. They have the perfect little family! I'm looking forward to being up in Provo with all the Thomas kids together again! We are going to have so much fun!

Boston/New York countdown: 1 week!!