"Welcome Home" by Radical Head

Kinda my favorite song for the day.

dear magic 8 ball,

i wished you actually worked.

"See ya in 2"

I’m so proud that teenage boys are willing and wanting to sacrifice two years of their life’s to fulfill a church mission. I’m so grateful that I know SO many boys that are looking forward to wearing church clothes for a solid 720 days. Seventeen thousand two hundred and eighty hours of nonstop church… and you thought 3 hours a week was bad!

This week I said “See ya in 2” to yet another one of my friends. I went to his farewell on Sunday, and holy crap. He made everybody laugh SO hard! Nothing compares to when a 19 year old boy stands up and says… “Last time I introduced myself on this pulpit I was an S.O.B., but this time, I’m not an S.O.B., frankly because I’m not the Son of a Bishop- since my dad was recently released.”

He pulled so many funny jokes throughout his 25 minute talk. He thanked his two-year-old niece for teaching him “Swiper no swiping!” and told his little brother, “maybe you’ll grow up to be half the man I am.” Not to mention he bore his testimony in “my native mission language”- English. Maybe you just have to know him, but this kid is hilarious. In fact, he use to do standup comedy at the school talent shows. haha!

My friend had gone through a lot of hardships, and I truly believe he will be one of the best missionaries in the world!

After his “final speech to the masses,” I walked up to him and gave him a hug. While he was still being “the funny guy,” I said my goodbyes.

On Tuesday night, I was taking a well needed nap, since I had been at Seven Peaks all day. Apparently while I was snoozing away, my friend had stopped by. My mom pulled into the driveway right as he was walking away from my un-answered door. My mom let him in the house, and he woke me up by coming into my room. “Ciera! I’ve got a half hour until I’m set apart!”

We talked and talked- about all missionary stuff. I’m glad he’s going to serve the people is California! I can tell he already has SUCH a special place in his heart for them.

Levi: you are one my very best friends. Thank you for your testimony and for staying strong in the gospel through all of your hardships. You are one of the people I can talk to about anything- and I’m sure you’ll hear all about it on the postcards you will soon he getting in the mail. Have fun, and see you in two. (but really it’s one million, thirty six thousand, and eight hundred minutes til I actually see you again.)

april 5th, 2011

april 5, 2011.

if there has ever been a day- out of my 17 years of life- that I could go back and erase…. it would be April 5th, 2011.

Homecoming dance of my sophomore year, Garrett asked me to the dance. I wasn’t 16 yet, but I figured if his mom was my YW president… and my mom was the 1st counselor… I’ll break the rules. I didn’t personally know anybody that was to be in the group, but I had most certainly heard of them. (they were the “popular seniors” of WX.) Saturday morning we were scheduled to go laser tagging. Garrett comes to my front door, picks me up.. and I get in the car. in the back seat was the very well known Katie and gates- a “cheerleader/ football” dating couple. trust me… every single girl at wx… knew who gates was. little did I know.. but gates would end up becoming one of my very true friends. swim season started before football season stopped, so he was late joining our team. did I mention… he was both the star of the football team… AND OF THE SWIM TEAM?

once he started coming to swim practice… we got to know each other a lot better.

the first day of second semester of my sophomore year, was like any other first day of a second semester. I walked into my math class and took a seat. five minutes after the tardy bell rang… gates walks in looking like a Abercrombie model. feeling like an idiot, I look around… all the seats are empty next to me. “well…. if he didn’t think I was a loser already… take a look at how many empty desks are around me..” I thought. without another thought I say “gates! come sit over here!” I’m SO grateful for that day and the fact that he was in my math class. from that point on.. every math day was unforgettably fun. - notes passed back and forth with knock knock jokes on them -COUNTLESS times of throwing goldfish in the air and then catching it in our mouths. J - little drawings of stupid and funny things -so much talking that I’m surprised I didn’t get a U in that class. in fact, if you have ever met me, you know that I wear a silver locket around my neck..EVERYDAY! there was never anything in it… so gates decided to draw a TINY picture of me and him. it’s two stick figures that says gates + Ciera = forever. and on the back he had wrote to never take it out of the locket. it had all just been a joke. we were flirtatiously just friends. nothing more. the fun didn’t just stay at the school though. every other night I was up at gates’s mansion of a house. math nights. I took my notebooks, calculator.. and pencil every time. I averaged being up there for about 4 hours every other night. roughly 17 hours a week? out of those 17 hours… probably 1 hour was spent doing math. the rest consisted of talking and laughing and… ping pong. I became familiar with his parents- Brian and Cheri. and his little sisters and brother- Gentry, Reese, and Avery. they were the perfect family. His dad was a retired NFL player from the Seattle Seahawks. his mom was a retired employee from Delta. (just like my mom! me and gates planned on traveling together but never ended up doing anything about it.) his little sister was a cheerleader, and gates basically had EVERYTHING going for him.

Gates was 18 his entire senior year. technically, he should have been the first one of his friends to leave on a mission. his parents were avid Utah state fans and convinced him to stay home from a mission until he had completed a semester at Utah state. no big deal! right? he put in his papers as soon as the semester was over and got called to baton rouge Louisiana – Spanish speaking mission. the Saturday before his farewell, gates went skydiving.

on march 27th, was gates’s farewell. luckily I got there early with a row of the WX swim team. there were probably 60-70 of his fellow friends there. so many- that some were required to sit up in the stands and stand in the back. It was incredible to see how so many people cared for this kid. garret was asked to sing a solo to gates’s favorite hymn “if you could hike to kolob.” it brought the spirit very strongly. then gates got up, with tears streaming down his face.. and thanked his best friend for singing that hymn for him.

gates’s bore his testimony of the church, and it was very tenderhearted. after sacrament meeting, I walked up to gates- gave him a huh- told him I loved him- and said “make the next two years memorable.” how I wish that that was the ending of my story. missionaries always leave on a Wednesday to enter the MTC. the Wednesday directly after that Sunday- was not his departure date. instead, he was to leave the Wednesday after the general conference Sunday.

the Tuesday before he were to leave, him and his best friend headed up the mountain to snowboard for gates’s last time for two years. they had figured “go big..or go home.” they built a jump over a river awaiting bellow. gates went first. he didn’t make it and ended up landing on his head in the river below.

garrett became a hero that day. getting off the cliff an into the river, garrett grabbed gates carefully and tried gently to get him out of the river. luckily garrett has had many experiences in lifeguarding to know that a spinal injury was possible. suffering from hypothermia, rescue came quickly. a miracle occurred by gates’s phone not being touched by the river of water they were just in. garret called 911 and requested for life flight. his unconscious best friends fait was in his hands.

with my busy life, I of course was on a airplane while this story had made breaking news to the local news casting stations. Margaret called my mom as soon as we had landed for our trip to California. we were still on the plane, and my mom answered the phone. my mom grabbed her chest and I could immediately tell something was wrong. gates had been in a life changing accident- the day before he was to go to the mtc!

unbelief. upset. confused. frustration. sadness. love. helplessness. = just a few of my emotions.

gates had been paralyzed.

after letting the news settle in for about an hour. (which it STILL hasn’t settled in, fyi.) I called a few of my close friends- who I had doubted heard the news. when I explained what happened- the other side of the line went blank. I never want to give bad news like that again. the next day, thanks to facebook- everybody fasted and prayed. many people didn’t have the intense amount of information that I had- given that it was told to us by the mother of the son that had saved gates’s life… that night I didn’t sleep. tossing and turning and thinking back on all the memories.

about this time- last year- gates and garrett were going to a basketball game. garrett was driving- with a suspended license. something happened had they ended up getting in a car crash- although it was not their fault. garrett was knocked unconscious and gates pulled garrett out of the drivers seat and into the passenger seat. it might not have been the legal thing to do- but gates took blame for driving that night.

I can earnestly say that I have never fasted and prayed so hard in one day. back in bountiful (I was in California) there was a mass prayer at a friend’s house- which nearly 60 people had participated in. his name was entered into the temple- so complete strangers could pray for him. my aunt and uncle- who live in Iowa- entered his name into the temple. and they don’t even know gates! they just know that he was a friend of mine- and I’m so grateful for my families support through this all.

this is about as much as I can manage to write today. please read the blog posted below- it’ll make you cry. there lies the absolute miracles of the whole ordeal. http://gateshopeandmiracles.blogspot.com/

gates: stay strong. I love you! you can pull through this and the whole world is confident in you. every single one of your friends hasn’t stopped thinking of you. we’re all here for you and will stay here for the rest of your life.

it's ok... you can feel bad for me too. (i'm a sore loser.)

I have ran for SBO officer since 6th grade. ok, I haven’t ran EVERY year, just the years that would be significant. (I don’t know how to explain it.)
Next year, I will be a senior.
I ran for VP of Productions two weeks ago. What the VP of Productions does… is plan out and carry through with assemblies. They organize EVERYTHING and all of the responsibility goes to them. In order to win this office, you had to be elected. I had posters and tshirts- the whole shebang. I also had to write an essay explaining why I would be an excellent officer, and I had to have an interview with 10 of this year’s senior class officers. In addition, I had to have each teacher of mine feel out a teacher recommendation sheet. (There were 4 possible offices you could run for: President, VP Productions, VP Activities, and VP service.)

all in all, I thought I had a great job with how everything had gone. we had primary elections on Monday through Wednesday. Then on Wednesday afternoon we each got called out of class to find out if we had made it to final elections. Out of the 6 candidates running for Productions, there would be 2 chosen. I wasn’t chosen.
so… when I get pushed down I stand up and move onto the next thing. which was to run for appointed office. There were a total of 6 offices that were appointed: Artist, Promotions, Publicity, Historian, spirit and photographer. you could run for more than one office- so I ran for promotions, publicity and spirit. I was required to have teacher recommendations, and essay, a portfolio for each office, and another essay for each office. plus: another interview.
everything was going smoothly. I turned in my essay and portfolio in on time, and I scheduled a great time for my interview. the interview went very well! they asked a lot of the same questions from my elected office interview, and I had come up with even better answers. There was a very real connection I had with the officers.

many of my friends had run for appointed offices as well. one was running for historian- which she had a different person make up her portfolio. how does that count for honesty?
there was another girl who was running for office because “she wanted in on her college resume… and might as well get the officer jacket with it as well! But in all seriousness, all of the offices did not look interesting AT ALL!”

I also had one of my best friends running for spirit- she had told me she was too scared to run for elected because she “couldn’t face her student body.”

well.. as Friday rolled around, we each got called out of class once again. Senior officers had been talking to me all day and informing me that I had such a great chance- they had put down really good scores for me- and they believed I would be such a great officer for next year. my confidence increased, and I was ready to find out. although I was confident- I WAS NOT COCKY, AND I DID NOT LET IT SHOW.
each of the offers read off the names for who would be officers and for what position next year. my name was never read. it was upsetting though, because, without saying names, these are who made office:
artist: a kid who cheats on every single math test. (he’s a great artist, but completely not honest.)

photographer: A GREAT GIRL! she is one of the best people I know! although, she has been an officer for twice in past years.

spirit: the girl who “was too scared to face her student body.” how can you be a spirit officer while being too scared to face your student body? you have to be outgoing and be able to put yourself out there!

promotions: another great kid, who has been an officer twice before since 6th grade.

publicity: another great girl who has also been an officer since 6th grade.

historian: the girl who had somebody else make her portfolio for her. Completely dishonest.

I was upset. it is going to be a really hard year next year to look at these people as my senior class officers. They have either cheated their way into it, or have been an officer several of times before. I, on the other hand, had been completely honest about my work. I was excited to face my student body. I had new ideas that our school has never seen before! I have ran since 6th grade!

Next week is the meeting to run for senior class officers. There are three people there who will make it. Unfortunately, all those people are in charge of is seniors week, and planning the high school reunions for the rest of your life. I am not running to be an officer “just to be an officer.” I’m not there “just because you get the jacket.” and personally, I do not want the life sentence to be in charge of class reunions. I will not be running for senior class officers- because from my point of view- that’s all they are.

it has been an hurtful week. I know- that I could’ve committed myself to be such a great officer, and this was my last chance. I have planned my senior year schedule around me being an officer. I had such great ideas! I’ve tried for 6 years! I just wish I could’ve known where I went wrong, and what I could’ve improved on.

well. that’s it. I’m a sore loser I guess. but this is just one of those days where my feelings have overtaken the keyboard.
to anybody who read this: thanks for letting me vent.

WX dance company

Last year, during the month of May, I auditioned for my high school dance company. WX has the cheerleaders, and a drill team. But none of them add up to the dance company.

My older sister had been both a cheerleader and a member of the dance company, so that is literally what gave me the courage. If it hadn’t been for her example, I’d have been wayy too scared to addition.

Long story short, I auditioned. This was a really big deal to me, and I was fortunate enough to have made the team. It has been a long year, as me +18 other girls + 1 boy, have prepared for our March Concert.

We work hard, everyday, to become better dancers and to showcase our hard work at this March Concert. Well, today is March 6th. When is the concert, you ask? March 21 and 22. it all comes down to those two days! I’m getting so nervous, and so excited to show our hard work.

This year, our concert will be called DANCEOLOGY. To sum up what we have been working on, we have taken subjects, and STUDIED them. For instance, hands. There is a whole dance committed to the study of hands- handology. We have a dance about, Hearts (cardiology), birds, kids (genealogy), dreams & nightmares, monsters & demons, time, dolls, animals (zoology), language, and finally, a dance about dance. There has been so much hard work put in!
I will be dancing in a total of nine dances.

If you know me, and want to support me, I’d really appreciate it. Please buy concert tickets from me.

Students: $5
Adults: $6
Family Pass: $20

The concert is on March 21 and 22 (Monday and Tuesday) at the high school auditorium. The show starts at 7:00 both nights.

thank you thank you!

REGION CHAMPIONS. 'nough said.

On August 23, in my 4th period swim conditioning class- we made goals. “Drop a second on my 50, be able to do a bucket turn, get my 100 back down to a 1:15, etc.” But a goal that every single girl said was to “become region champions. We want a banner!”

The woods cross girls have never won region before. Boys have, back in the 80s and 90s- but girls have NEVER had won. This year, we had the best team that woods cross ever had! There was another high school, Olympus, who was also EXTREMELY good. These people have been our rivalrys all year. (when we swam them- we actually tied. ha! besides that- wx girls were undeafeated.) We all dropped times, and we all worked super hard. On Friday, 21st, was the region champion meet.

side note. We had an assembly on Thursday, and all of the officers talked about the WX vs. BOUNTIFUL basketball game that was on Friday. but since we were going to be at the meet all day on Friday, all of the swimmers dressed in their Sunday best for Thursday. get it? well- the officers didn’t even announce that we had region the next day. when we asked them why they didn’t- they replied that swimming was “a stupid sport.” that shows how much recognition the swim team gets at our high school. (hahah, and then at the basketball game.. wx lost. ironic.)

On Thursday night- we all got together for our traditional swim dinner at the Millwards house. Boys- who were daring enough (considering that the Prom is today) - shaved their heads. (It’s been custom FOREVER to shave heads the night before region.) We all ate a bunch of pasta, and we got a motivational speech from our coach- Dale. He pulled all of the girls aside and gave us a piece of paper and told us he wanted us to write down our goal times for tomorrows meet. We each did, then put the papers in our sweat pockets. We were to sleep with these papers and to think about our times consistently until the meet was over.

The next morning we woke up at meet at the rec center by 8am. Tension was high. I literally had shaky hands from the second I woke up. IT ALL COMES DOWN TO TODAY! we got in the pool and did our 1,300 yard warm-up in the pool. When time was up, we got out- put on our deck coats- and walked upstairs to stretch. Dale walked in and required that it be completely silent for the next half hour as we stretched and visualized. he turned off the lights and we all got mentally prepared for this meet. it was a big deal- trust me. Then gave us another motivational speech, and I’ve never been more excited/nervous to swim before in my whole life. The pressure was on!!

we walked down to the competition pool and I got ready for the 200 medley relay. my next event was the 200 Individual medley.
during the 50 free, one of my best friends, Kaitie Jowers, broke the school record. She had broken it last year at the state meet, by .01 of a second. last year the record hadn’t been broken for 13 years. she hadn’t been able to get her time down to a 26.01 for awhile- but lo and behold- she broke her own record again! 25.55 seconds! I’m sure the fast skin technical suit worked in her favor though as well. What was her goal time- you ask? 25.83. she blew it out of the water! Then we had the 100 Backstroke record broke for the second time this year by my Coaches daughter-
Alexis Ralph. Did I mention Alexis is a freshman and she broke a record that hasn’t been touched for 16 years? That’s longer than she’s even been alive!
We also broke the 200 Freestyle relay. Congrats to Avery Hansen, Lexi Stader, Alexis Ralph, and Kaitie Jowers. it was broken by nearly 2 seconds. which is a lot when you in the “competitive swimming” word.

Between Olympus and Woods Cross- our points were about even the whole time. but towards the end- they weren’t telling us who was in the lead. All we knew, was that we had to swim hard and fast. I had the pressure on my 200 free relay and in my 100 breast. I had a good 100 breast and I got us some points.

After the meet ended, everybody was crazy estatic! we had to of won! we still didn’t know what the points ended up being- but how could we have lost to Olympus? We had just won every single on of the last 7 events! all of the girls went down on the deck- waiting with anticipation. we told dale to take out his phone from his pocket, and we all got ready for a victory lap if we ended up winning.
the announcer came on and started announcing points. (out of 7 high schools) 2nd place: olympus high school girls with 396 points. 1st place: woods cross high school girls wth 492 points. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we hadn’t just won- but we won my almost 100 points!!!!!!!

all of the girls jumped in the water, dragging Coach Dale in with us. it was amazing. and pretty emotional. our hard work had finally paid off! the number one goal that all of the girls had worked for all year long- was completed. woods cross high school girls swim team was region champions. for the first time. ever.

Now, we finally get a banners! not just one, but two. One in the rec center hanging in the compition pool right above the woods cross record board. and one in the woods cross gym with all of the other sports that have become region champions. 2 brand new- never been hung- banners.

finally. some recognition from our school.

Mr. Park-our new principal this year, who has come to every single meet, came over and congradualted us. we thanked him with a group hug and he was soon covered in chlorine water. we received our trophy, and Mr. Park asked if it would be ok if he presented it to us at the wx/bountiful basketball game that night. YAYY!! that also brought emotions flairing. we would get some limelight for our hard work at the biggest basketball game in the state!

after a victory celebration at Chuck-a-rama, (it’s tradition) and an eventful basketball game- all of the girls gathered over at Kaitie Jowers house for a sleepover.

overall- a very successful swim season. I didn’t qualify for state in any of my events, even though I was very close in my 100 back and my 100 breast.

I love woods cross swim team.

especially the girls