usu. snow hall. freshman year.

a little over eight months ago, on august 21st, i packed up all my belongings and moved into snow hall to start my college career. i remember how crazy moving in was, i felt excited, sad, nervous, exhausted. and now here i am on the other end of the spectrum thinking, "where the heck did freshman year go?" in a flash im sitting back in my room in bountiful with boxes waiting to be unpacked. right back where i started, but nothing is the same now. this past school year and all of the crazy experiences that came with it made me grow, learn, and change a ton. i am completely different, my outlook and attitude are completely changed, and my life will never be the same again.

of course i am going to miss snow hall, utah state university, and all of my logan friends dearly. so now im going to take the time for myself and all of my logan buds to reminissce on my favorite memories we had this year.

connections week and week of welcome: so much was going on and so many things happened these first two weeks that there is no way i would be able to recount all of it. but these two weeks are definitely packed with some of my favorite memories. it was during this time that my roommates and i all started to get to know each other and beome comfortable with each other. we also met room 201 and room 306, and it was the start of some beautiful friendships. i remember sunday night, the night after we first moved in, a few of us girls and most of 201- hayden, jake, tay, mike, and preston - played games. we played "things" and ended up laughing so hard most of the night that my stomach hurt. after the emotional weekend of moving in, it was so great to automatically click with these guys and have the time of my life. that was when i realized a couple of things. first of all, these boys were going to become a significant part of my life and i was going to be very good friends with them. and second, this school year was going to be amazing. then there's the first night we hung out with 306. me, becca, samantha, alecc, justin, steve, and riley. making toaster struedels, watching a movie, and steve's and riley's scary story. another absolutely incredible night was the night of the 80's dance. kim, becca, samantha, and i were the ones there for the weekend and we dressed crazy in 80's clothes then took a bajillion pictures before heading to the dance on the quad. we went with the 306 boys: alecc, justin, kyle, and eric. i remember walking there and i kept telling eric i would race him through the sprinklers and then fake him out. this was the first night that i really got to know him. at the dance all of us went absolutely crazy and we were able to see a lot of people there. afterward, we had a big sleepover in the 206 and watched the notebook. we were up all night and this was the night i got the nickname "mamacita kandyland" and alecc got "papa enchilada".

 

steve's cabin. getting lost in the canyon in eric's van. roasting marshmallows. star tripping. sitting by the river and talking to eric until i couldn't feel my hands because they were so cold. mini dance party. alecc: "that's my grandma!". preston taking pictures. swinging. just a great night.

 

campout on the quad and the byu game. fitting twelve people into a three man tent and actually kind of sleeping that way...sticking it through the whole night freezing was totally worth it cuz the byu football game rocked! winning byu and going crazy throughout the whole entire game, along with rushing the field afterwards is something that will be hard for me to forget.

rapelling. this was just a crazy night. first of all riley, steve, eric, preston, and i were bored and wanted some excitement so decided to go geocaching and it was quite the adventure. we got back to snow hall close to 2:00 and riley decided he wanted to try rapelling out of his window and immediately put this into action. the boys put the couch against the doorframe to riley's and steve's room and tied the rope to it. me and each of the boys were able to take our turn rapelling out the window. i was super scared but i knew i had to do it. it made it easier that i trusted riley, and that justin, alecc, and preston waited for me down below. after this, samantha and i were both locked out of our room and ended up spending the night in the boys' room (alecc slept on the couch and let us sleep in his bed).

 

the paint dance.

the howl.

"homework" with eric.

date nights.

my first kiss in logan on the roof of snow hall.

lava hot springs and a freeze out in sam metz's car.

card games.

card games.

card games.

movie nights and sleepovers.

adventures in bountiful with zach.

my birthday. definitely the best birthday i've ever had! first of all, justin---who had moved to orem after fall semester---came to visit and it was great to see him! then the murray boys--allie's brother and his friends, one of whom is now tay's fiance--came up and i was able to meet them. they took us out to dinner at firehouse pizza and we got the monster sized pizza! we definitely didn't finish it all haha. we all got butterfly tattoos and went back to our apartment and put them on as tramp stamps. my two best friends from high school, paige and alyssa, came up with a group  of my favorite cousins! it was the most random group thrown together from logan, murray, bountiful, and provo but it quickly turned into a party. we played "wink" and the "bunny, bunny" game in the second floor foyer for a while and a good group of people from snow hall joined in. then someone blasted some tunes from our room and everyone migrated in there and it turned into a dance party in our apartment! the bridgehouse boys came over and some other random people we didn't even know. my roommates and i agreed that it was one of the funnest nights we had had in logan, and the greatest part about it was that it was so spontaneous. after the little dance party i went to village inn with my cousins before they headed out. when i got back to snow hall i ended up sitting in the middle of the hall talking to hayden for quite a while. i remember before going to bed that night thinking what a great birthday i had had and how blessed i was to have so many amazing friends who all came together for it.

crystal hot springs. with hayden, mike, devin, and ashley. hayden almost killed us on the way there...we almost all died together. and we had oh so many hilarious quotes from that night!

 

vegas. what a crazzzzzy week! i went with becca feller, taylor jones, and laura jenkins and i absolutely love these girls with all my heart. swimming, laying out, walking the strip, basketball games, hot tubbing, driving around and rocking out, being followed by a car full of brazilians, some lady getting nakie in the hot tub, late night at dee's. we had some good times with the san juan boys and some other groups of guys from utah state. this was definitely the best and the craziest spring break i have ever had and i am so lucky that i was able to spend it with these awesome girls! and be able to see so much of the usu crew. oh...not to mention utah state won the wac tourney :).

dumpster diving for bagels. my roommate and hero, allie lundberg, who is obsessed with einstein's bagels, came up with the brilliant idea to dumpster dive at einstein's at night. they usually put the bagels in plastic bags, and put those plastic bags in a big paper bag, and then put them in the dumpster. so on a good night you can easily find bagels that are completely decontaminated from other trash. one of the funniest nights of my life is when allie, heidi, reilly, david, samantha, nate, and i went dumpster diving in the middle of the night. there weren't any bagels at einstein's and so we went to like six other dumpsters to see if we could find anything worthwhile. heck, we were just a bunch of bored kids who didn't want to go to bed. we ended up walking through some allyway and having some cop scare the heck out of us. good times.

cowboys and indians dance/staying up with my favorite boys. im not way into dance parties but the cowboys and indians dance at sigep was pretty fun! and afterward becca and i hung out with the famous 201 boys along with their high school friends, danger and christian who were visitng, and blotter, who goes to usu but i had never met before. that night i also got to know the new kid, tony, tons better. no more of that "hey there's some kid sitting on your couch" business. we played "horse" billiards style, talked and hung out, watched the grudge, and stayed up some more doing a whole lot of nothing. it was kind of just a typical night. staying up late, being with some of my favorite people in the whole entire world, laughing hard all night.

 burn nights.

pranks. oh so many pranks.

western swing dancing.

taco tuesdays.

valentine's day with my girls.

sitting on reilly's bed in the middle of the night talking.

american idol.

"glee"zza

 preston and mike.

adventures with the bridgehouse boys: pajama party and dare night, spinny park, etc.

good times in 308. especially with george checkton. he's so hot.

poetry and a beverage.

juice pong.

all nighters.

exploring.

sean kingston in concert.

playing volleyball and basketball.

having your closest friends right upstairs, or right down the hall. climbing in bed with one of my roommates at any time. staying up late for no reason at all other than to just be with each other. coming up with the most spontaneous things to do. dormcest. being sleep deprived. knowing each other so well. changing and growing together. knowing that even though things are changing, these people have impacted my life for the best, and will always be important to me.

 

my freshman year of college was the best thing that has ever happened to me.

love you guys! thanks for the fantastic times.

-kandi