The Impact of Music

This is blog #2 for my media class assignment. I just recently got a new radio in my car (thanks to my amazing husband) because my volume was broken in my sweet 1997 Honda Civic. Now, I can plug in my Spotify to the car and listen to what I want to listen to, since my radio has inadvertently stopped working with the new radio. For the last month or so, I have had my jams blasting just because I could. However, today, I found that I couldn't stand the noise and drove without my jams, and I found that I was less stressed while driving and demonstrated lower amounts of road rage. I firmly believe that music does impact one's mood, and I want to be better at choosing music that will inspire and uplift me.

How Netflix Took over My Life

This is my first post for my Media and Family Development class. I will be going back and forth between personal blogs and assignment blogs. For my media class, I am to blog regarding media-related content, what I notice about it, and how it is integrated in our lives. Yesterday, I completed a media-free day and was amazed by how much media is infused into every aspect of my life...and furthermore, how vulnerable I felt without my technology for the day.

To give a brief history of my media experiences, I have never been super up with the times when it comes to technology-I'm usually 3 years behind or so. I never have enjoyed video games, but movies are usually my guilty pleasure. However, ever since I got married and inherited a Netflix account, I have found more time sucked out of my life than I ever thought possible. Instead of the usual DVD I pop in, I have opened a world of limitless shows that have no commercials. The Flash and the Arrow have become my drug of choice. Christmas break was binge break, and I watched several seasons of both shows, which is most unlike me. I found that I became obsessed with these shows, even to the extent that I was dreaming about them at night. I just finally got caught up with the series present-time and wait on baited breath until the new episodes come out on January 20th and 21st.

"Mawwiage is What Bwings us Togetha Today"

"I couldn't be happier...he couldn't be lovelier...because happy is what happens when your dreams come true!"

 ~Wicked~

One of my New Year's resolutions is to be better at journaling. I can't say if I'll ever make it to the scrapbooking stage, but this is the first step. 2015 was the best year of my 25 years on this earth--mostly because I met and married the man of my dreams..."my heart's duet" [Enchanted]. We had a relatively short courtship. Our first date was June 2, 2015 and then we were married on November 21, 2015. We have been married barely over a month, and I am convinced that it was the best decision I could have ever made in all eternity.

"Thee lift me and I'll lift thee, and we'll ascend together."

Alex and I met in Finance class in February. It was my least favorite class and possibly his favorite. I always sat in the back, while he always sat in the front. About halfway through the semester, I noticed that my cousin Jake was in the class, sitting in the front. Being that this was a 600 student class, it was difficult to notice anyone in the large auditorium. From then on, I sat in the front next to him. 

 

FLASHBACK: After I returned home from my mission, my father counseled me to get a Business minor because all the men would be in the business classes...not the Human Development classes I was taking. 

MOVING ON: One day, near the end of February, I noticed this Clark Kent lookin' gentleman who was sitting next to me, and I made it my personal mission to snag a date with him. Finance was a bore to me, so I thought I would make the class more interesting by finding interest in those around me. We had been previously instructed by our professor to network and form study groups, and he did not fail this counsel. He asked me for my number by the end of class--I was sure that he was going to ask me on a date, but instead, he asked me to study with him at the library in a study group. 

The Study Group

When I arrived to the "study group," I discovered that HE was the study group. There was no one else there. So I went into date mode instantly. I sat down and started asking him questions about himself as one should do on the first date, but was rather taken aback when he jumped straight into reviewing Finance. I was indeed confused because usually when boys asked me for my phone number, it meant they wanted to go on a date with me and get to know me. So, I put on my Finance [dunce] cap and tried really hard to show him how smart I was. I hadn't reviewed any of the material in quite awhile, and was quite unnerved as this was my least confident subject. He proved to be a good teacher and soon had me working problems by myself. I don't think my brain had ever worked harder in it's life trying to make a good impression in that hour study group.

He then got even more confusing as the semester wore on. He would invite me to every study group prior to the exams, and I went to the next one thinking that I might have an opportunity to get to better know this mysterious stranger better. Alas, this one was a real study group with lots of people saying smart things that I couldn't even comprehend. But THEN, he would text me after every exam, asking how I did and wishing me luck.

Finally, the last exam rolled around, and he texted again asking me to study with him for the final. I had given up the ghost on this class a month or so prior and knew the study group would most likely be pointless with my bleak future in that class, and I never texted him back. To be fair, I was in the middle of moving out of my apartment and I was super sick and might have abandoned my aims of a date with him. 

A couple of weeks after the semester, I randomly thought of him and realized I had never returned his text. So I texted him back apologizing for the late reply and missing the study group, but hoping he did well in the class, and just like the popular yearbook signage, "HAGS" (Have a good summer). I wasn't really expecting a reply, but was most pleased when he texted me back from New York City, while I was at Time Out for Women with my mom. We texted back and forth for the better part of the day and I experienced this indescribable giddiness that we were talking. Sadly though...he never texted me back after that fateful day, and I moved on.

Social Media: Making Things Happen

However, he did begin to add me on social media sites over the following weeks, starting with Facebook, then Instagram, and lastly, Snapchat. I was highly confused that he was adding me on all these sites without talking to me a lot, but I added him anyway. When I Facebook stalked him initially (standard protocol), I found two pictures with him and this girl with their arms around each other in New York City and the Payson temple. I automatically assumed that he was dating this girl, and felt a moment of sadness, but then remembered that I had a plethora of options as I was dating a ton during the summer. 

Everything changed when one day at the end of May, he sent me a snapchat out of the blue. We began snapping back and forth 24/7, and I found that he was really quite hilarious, charming, good natured, and dang attractive. He asked me out on a date on June 2nd to eat dinner at Cafe Rio with him. I almost did a victory dance at that point. After all the waiting, it FINALLY happened! 

From First Date to Eternal Mate

When I saw him at the Cafe Rio, he was a lot taller than I remembered, a whopping 6'6" hunk of a burning love. He was dressed in a black dress shirt with tan dress pants and was looking mighty fine. He paid for my meal and we talked for a good couple of hours. I knew my life would never be the same after that first date. We became inseparable from that point on. All of the sudden, I lost all desire to date others and found myself totally ok with being committed to a man that I had only gone on one date with. I have dated other men for up to a year at a time without feeling that same level of commitment that he had inspired in just one date and a few snaps. I was intrigued, but I think he was mighty intrigued himself. I felt that I could inherently trust him, and I have never had a reason to doubt that feeling since.

To be Continued...