Birthday Recap

Yesterday I turned eighteen and a whole bunch of different things happened!

Helped clean up a park // I did not have the luxury of sleeping in on my birthday. Instead, I had a fabulous time cleaning up a local park with my pledge class! Ideally I could have done without having to get up early part, but I still had a blast. A group of us raked up enough leaves to fill two large garbage bags! We really wanted to dump them all out into a huge pile and jump straight into them like in one of those cheesy movies, but alas, we couldn't. On top of having such a fun-filled morning, one of my wonderful pledge brothers brought me cookies and a card, how sweet!

Spent time with my family // My family surprised me by coming down to visit for the weekend! We spent almost the entirety of Saturday at the fabulous Scottsdale Fashion Square. It was so nice to walk around a mall and see some of my favorite stores again! We had lunch on Sunday (between my pledge events) at one of my favorite restaurants before they left. Because of the magnitude of my celebration last year, I told my parents that I didn't want to make a huge event of my birthday. Somehow I was still surprised that the waiter brought out my favorite dessert with a candle!

Had my last official pledge meeting // The past seven weeks have been absolutely amazing. To quote many of the actives from my chapter, this experience has been "the most fun you will never want to have again." My pledge brothers and I have all grown immensely in such a short amount of time, both personally and professionally. We have come together as a close-knit family and bonded over homework, interviews, and studying for our quizzes. The national exam is coming up this next weekend and I know we are all going to ace it with flying colors!

Was reminded of how beyond amazing my friends are // This weekend, my suitemate flew to Portland to visit one of her best friends from high school. I came home from my last pledge meeting to find my room decorated with balloons and plenty of cuteness! I hadn't had much of a chance to spend time with my friends the whole day, but the fact that they were willing to do this for me nearly drove me to tears. I am beyond blessed and lucky to have such wonderful people in my life.

Watched my friends' intramural basketball teams // Because I didn't know when my last pledge meeting would end, I wasn't able to go to the Suns vs. Warriors basketball game last night in downtown Phoenix. Although I was a little bummed about not going to the game (it turned out that I missed the "free transportation" group by half an hour), I still got to watch some basketball! A few of my friends are on two different intramural teams, so some of the girls (all three of who were involved in my birthday decoration surprise) and I went and cheered them on. We had the best seats - we literally sat on the bench! Both teams lost their games (BOO!), but they played well, had fun, and I can't wait to go to their next games. Our little cheering section is planning on making some very cute *but still manly* signs, so it will definitely be a fun time.

xx
Catch you next time