Thursday, January 19, 2012

2011 {in review}

Here is a little taste of what I have done in 2011. Enjoy!
{January}
Turned 21 and got a ukulele for my birthdaySigned-up for a triathlon and started training for a marathon.

{February}
Had one of the best Valentine's Days with my three other single roommates!
And...more fun with my dear roommates!

{March}
Did the Rex Lee Run.
Went skiing with the family. I also learned to snowboard. I don't have any pictures of that though.
Signed-up for the Utah Valley Marathon.

{April}
Went to conference with my sisters.
Decided to live with Abi next year. (Best. Decision. Ever!!)

{May}
Had a great weekend home with my family and partied with my mother on Mother's day.

{June}
Decided to give a recital.
Changed my major because of said recital. (Read this post for details)
Went to dear Colorado Springs to visit one of my favorite people J-Hart!!!!!!!

{July}
I did the Spudman Triathlon in Burley, Idaho with my sister Rebekah. I'll admit I was extremely afraid of drowning, and crashing my bike. When I finally got to the run, I was SO happy.


{August}
My roommate Lindsey got married. Her reception was beautiful. I was glad that she included me in all the festivities! Her and her new hubby are probably one of the cutest couples ever.
I went to the famed Cassia County Fair & Rodeo. It was a party! I also bought a pair of cowboy boots (necessary attire for watching the rodeo o' course).
School started! New major, new apartment (with my sister, YAY!), new ward and a completely different ball game.

{September}
I RAN A MARATHON!!!! Probably the biggest thing of the year. It was quite the experience. You can read a little about it here. I liked it so much, I'm signed up to do another one next June. (I think I may be crazy!)
I am BYU Concert Choir's president for 2011-2012.

{October}
BYU homecoming fun!
Went to my first opera at the Capitol Theatre in Salt Lake City. It was fantastic!

{November}
Had Thanksgiving with the family in Idaho. We all ran the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning,
shot shotguns
and ate SOOO much pie!

{December}
Barley lived through the end of finals week. It was a pretty challenging semester.
I had Christmas up in Idaho!
While home, Abi and I held our annual Christensen Christmas Ball.

Overall it has been a pretty productive year, and this next one is gearing up to be even better!! :D

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Expect the Unexpected

<— So, you know how I have that motto under my picture. That's right the one right over there <—

Well, today is a perfect example of how life happens when you are planning for something else. Let's start at the beginning.

It was a rainy day in early October. Chilly, wet and cold, but all together lovely. My sister, Abi, and I had just finished our last class and were headed home. We were excited to change into our p.j.s and make the drive, over the river and through the woods of course, to my grandma's house in Woods Cross. The purpose for this excursion was to get a much needed hair cut from my Aunt. Well, it didn't happen and here is why...

Abi and I arrived to our cute little apartment, changed and then loaded up our stuff. Only problem, was that I realized that the really annoying beeping sound, that always goes off in our car (when the door is open, whether the key is in the ignition or not) wasn't happening. I then realized that the automatic unlock for our car wasn't working either...very odd. We both eventually got in the car, I put the key in the ignition and....nothing. It was dead! Abi killed it. It was all her fault. ;) She left the lights on and consequently drained the life from Roger's poor little battery.

We called for backup, which consisted of a list of about everyone I know. Thank you Bryan Tagge, for saving the day. He came to our rescue, with his brand new car and a jumper cable. We were saved, or so we thought. Well, Bryan and I are both intelligent people, and we both have jumped cars before...but this unfortunately doesn't make us fool proof. Bryan looked at me and told me which side he was hooking to the positive and which one he was hooking to the negative, only I wasn't paying as close of attention as I should have been because I had the colors swapped in my mind. Consequently, we got our positives and negatives mixed up, my fault entirely. I hopped in our car and Abi told me to wait a bit before starting up the ignition. I did, and then...our car started smoking. Not a good sign. Quickly, I jumped out and waved at Bryan to have him turn off his car. We got the engine stopped, unhooked the cables, and then realized our mistake. How silly am I? It was one of those, "Oh no! I can't believe I am so stupid." moments. You know, when you wish you could turn back time and just keep praying that you didn't destroy anything.

Bryan got back in his car and started his engine, only it wouldn't start. At this point, I was thinking, "Great, not only is our car smoking, but now I have ruined Bryan's car as well." Needless to say, I got a little distressed. Thankfully Bryan kept his composure and just kept reassuring me that it was a learning experience. We checked spark plugs, called parents and friends, and read the owner's manual, but nothing was working. (Note: all of this was done in the rain that was mentioned in the first sentence of this story.) Eventually, we decided that a tow would be the best option. While Bryan was on the phone with the tow people, this really nice guy, all dressed up for a church meeting, came over to the car and asked if we needed help. I told him we sure did and he kindly replied by saying that he was a car guy, whatever that means. He looked under the hood of Bryan's car and then had me try to start it again. He told us that all that was wrong was that the battery was dead and that he would be willing to give us a jump. So, we hooked the two together, correctly this time. Much to my relief, the car roared to life. The kind man explained to us what happened, and then told us to drive the car around for about 20 minutes before parking it for the night.

Relieved, we headed out for a '20 minute' excursion. Abi had the brilliant idea to go get Cheerwine from a store in the Riverwoods. Can I just say, it was the best decision ever! The store was a toy store/candy store called Blickenstaff's. We played with toys, road the mechanical horse, and drank our Cheerwine to our heart's content.

Then we went to a giant surf/beach store—thing...aka. Provo Beach Resort. We explored, wide-eyed and bushy-tailed. In this particular Provo Beach Resort, since there is obviously more than one, there is an ice cream shop called "I Like Ike's". It was in the Daily Universe last week. I read the article. It talked about how it just barely opened, it is currently the only ice cream shop in Provo that sells Bluebell ice cream, and the honorary 'opening' scooping was done by Lavel Edwards and Jimmer. In my excitement at recognizing the shop, I turned to Abi and Bryan and explained what I had read. Bryan looked at me and said timidly, while pointing over my shoulder, "That is Jimmer." I looked over my shoulder and lo and behold there was Jimmer, staring at me like I was crazy...haha...ya it was a little embarrassing. Abi, Bryan and I looked awkwardly at each other, laughed nervously, and then shuffled out of the door quickly only to burst into laughter once we were out of Jimmer and his fiance's earshot. We headed home in high spirits, visited and ate apple pie.


Now for the moral(s) of the story. Number one: life never ends up how you expect, number two: negatives can be positives—it all depends on your attitude (thank you Bryan) and number three: be spontaneous, it's fun sometimes.

The End! :D


Sunday, October 2, 2011

26.2

I am pleased to announce that I, Eliza Christensen, completed my goal of running a marathon without stopping and I survived to tell the tale! YAY! I did the Top of Utah Marathon this year up in Logan Utah. What an adventure it was. The night before the race, I met up with my parents in Logan. It rained all night and didn't stop at all the next day. A little hail even visited around mile 13. No biggie though... :D Here are the pictures. Enjoy!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

The Bend in the Road


I'm reminded of a quote that I read in Anne of Green Gables a few years ago. Anne is talking to Marilla about how her plans are changing. In this part of the book, she has reached a point where it has become important for her to stay and take care of her caregiver and give up her education for a while.

"When I left Queen's my future seemed to stretch out before me like a straight road. I thought I could see along it for many a milestone. Now there is a bend in it. I don't know what lies around the bend, but I'm going to believe that the best does. It has a fascination of its own, that bend, Marilla. I wonder how the road beyond it goes--what there is of green glory and soft, checkered light and shadows--what new landscapes--what new beauties--what curves and hills and valleys further on."

I'm reminded of this quote because I have reached a bend in my own road. I'm not sure what exactly lies beyond, but like Anne, I prefer to think of it as a path with checkered light and shadows, new landscapes, beauties and curves, hills valleys and much more. Though change isn't always as splendid as one would like to think, it still has a "fascination of its own."

The Journey

When I was a freshman at BYU, I came to school with rose colored glasses. I was going to conquer the world, choose the perfect major and everything would fall right at my feet. Well, I decided on the perfect major, I wanted to do music, specifically vocal performance. So, I auditioned in December and lo and behold I did not make it. That was a bump in the road for sure, but I was determined to continue. I did a little research and heard that Music Education did an audition for the School of Music during Summer term. I didn't really have any passion for music education at this point and thought that I would be sneaky and try to make it in under music education and then eventually switch to performance, because once you were in, you were in.

Then another bump hit, I took the introductory course and fell in love with music education. Just the whole concept of helping to mold the next generation of musicians was magical to me. At the end of this course, I auditioned again. I made it into the School of Music this time, but with a new objective. I was going to become the best music teacher out there and change the world (since that is the goal of every person, right?).

I continued on this path for two years, things were going great. Occasionally I would hear of a friend, or peer in the music education program switching to performance. I would entertain the idea for a moment and then quickly decide I liked where I was, plus music education was more stable and I would have a career once I graduated. It just made sense.


The Bend

This current spring semester was my last semester of voice lessons (as a music education major you take only two years of voice lessons vs. the four performance majors take). So, I decided to do a recital. Why not finish with a bang? Well, I had my recital (read previous post), it went as well as I could have hoped for and graduation was just around the corner (3 semesters away).

Then one day, last Thursday, I got this crazy idea. Like most conclusions, or decisions we make in life, there are things that sort of unravel the idea before us. This then leads to the big 'ah-ha' moment where everything changes. These little nudges alter our path ever so slightly, and like a turn in the road, they don't happen all at once. It's a gradual process. These, for me, were the compliments received from family and friends after my performance, the compliments from the head of the vocal department and his encouragement to not give up because my voice was getting 'there', and my overall desire to continue my own vocal development. I could feel that although I had come a long way, I still wasn't as grounded as I wanted to be in my technique and my desire to continue lessons just kept growing. I was afraid though. I really wanted to ask my teacher, Dr. Reich, if I could continue studying with her, but I knew she had a very busy studio and that she was in high demand. I just didn't know if she would consider taking a student on for another year who was done with their vocal requirement and who just wanted to take lessons for their own personal benefit.

The other worry that was weighing on my mind at this point was graduate school. I had been looking into schools and I had started to realize that I didn't feel prepared to apply to graduate school with the training I would get from music education. So, as is characteristic with everything I do, I tried to find a solution. First, I needed to further my vocal skills. The above fear of asking my previous teacher to take me on was the conclusion of that thought. I also needed to have a basic reading comprehension in all of the Romantic languages (French, Italian, and German). I definitely could do this goal, but my graduation plan was set, and I didn't have any room for three more four credit classes before graduation.

Then the crazy idea hit. What if I changed my major to vocal performance? This idea had never seemed like a possibility to me, but for the first time it sounded like it might actually work. So, I figured out a graduation plan. Good news I would only need to extend my graduation by one semester. Then I talked to my academic adviser, who I happen to work for. Everything would work out there as well. Now I just needed approval from the head of the vocal department. I sent him an e-mail. A couple hours later I received this response:

d
"I would be glad to speak to you about this topic. You know that I am a fan of your voice. You meet the VPS standards for entry into 360, so the decision rests with you. Dr. Reich has a tight load in the fall, but I am sure she would make room for you. If, for some reason, she cannot, I would be pleased to help, as I know several other teachers would, too."

*VPS standards refers to how your voice is scored at juries on a 5.0 scale. To pass onto the next level of voice lessons, in vocal performance (360), a student has to receive a VPS of 3.0 out of 5.0.

This is the point in our story that I started to get really excited. I just stared at the screen and thought, "You mean it is a possibility for me to switch? I can be the major that I originally wanted to be?" Crazy stuff, that's for sure. Well, I didn't want to be impulsive or anything. After all, this was pretty life changing. However, after much contemplation and advice I decided to switch. Two comments that particularly swayed my vote were:

"You might as well reach farther than you think you can and then even if you fall, you will have grown in the process." Said to me by my friend in the music education program, Sarah Hunsaker Machado.

(Interestingly, this comment reminds me of another quote from the Anne of Green Gables saga.)

"It's a no brainer to me, you can take education classes any time, what you can't get back is the talent development that you will have the opportunity to pursue." Said to me by my dear father.

So, there you have it. I am now a Vocal Performance major at BYU with two more years ahead of me. The turn has been taken. I am now rounding the bend. What lays before me is very hard to see at this point. And sometimes, like Anne, "I wonder how the road beyond it goes--what there is of green glory and soft, checkered light and shadows--what new landscapes--what new beauties--what curves and hills and valleys further on."

I guess I'll get to find out.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Amen!

This is incredibly accurate. My sister posted these lyrics from a Josh Turner song and so, being the copy cat I am, I am posting them again.

Well, I grew up wild and free,
Walkin' these fields in my bare feet.
There wasn't no place I couldn't go,
With a .22 rifle and a fishin' pole.

Well, I live in the city, but don't fit in,
You know it's a pity the shape I'm in.
Well, I got no home and I got no choice.
Oh, Lord, have mercy on a country boy.

My sister posted this along with a dead-on description of life as a 'country girl' in Idaho. Since I can't even compete, I thought I would just re-post for all of those folks who are interested in a great read. Country Girl by Abi

(except minus the running part, because that's one thing I do LOVE!!! Love you Abs!)

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

In Recital...


Well, I did it. I had my Senior recital. The culmination of my entire vocal collegiate work, summed up in one evening. The following is a list of my program:

Eliza Christensen’s Recital Program

Saper vorreste from Un Ballo in Maschera-Giuseppe Verdi (b. 1813-1901)

Voi, che sapete from Le Nozze di Figaro-Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (b. 1756-1791)

Beau soir-Claude Debussy (b. 1862-1918)

Clair de Lune-Gabriel Fauré (b. 1845-1924)

Morgen-Richard Strauss (b. 1864-1949)

Der Gärtner-Hugo Wolf (b. 1860-1903)

The Metropolitan Tower-Lori Laitman (b. 1955)

Meadowlark from The Baker’s Wife-Stephen Schwartz (b. 1948)

The entire recital was about 55 minutes. I did the recital with another girl name, Gretchen Davidson. My portion of the program was about 24 minutes.

It really was great to get to perform what I had been working on so hard. I received many compliments and tons of feedback afterwards. One of the best comments of the evening was from my friend, Laura Turner (who is also a Music Ed. Major). She said, "Eliza's finally found her voice!" I just thought that was great, that a peer could see the progress and hear the difference.


I am extremely grateful for all of the family and friends who took time out of their busy schedules to come and see me. My Christensen grandparents and my Rodabough grandma came. All of my siblings and both parents (my dad giving up a bike race to be there) were also in attendance. My Aunt Stacy and cousins, Benjamin and Jess, were also there. I am so grateful for their support. Thanks!