ACCORDING TO ZAC

I’ve been overcome this weekend by the significance of people in my life and all they have done and continue to do for me. This isn’t new, given my reflections on Shaley , my two best friends , and how much a ward family can mean in recent times. But I feel it in my bones yet again, and it feels important to pay attention to. A lot of this started at a White Coat Ceremony for my second year PT students on Saturday. I loved hearing families and friends cheer as their loved one’s name was read. There was a really dapper older guy a few rows away from me (the rare occurrence where a fedora really worked; he looked great!). He was sitting alone, and when his person’s name was called he stood and clapped, not making much of an audible or visual statement in such a big space. Yet his act of showing up as one person in a busy room to support someone he cared about that was deeply touching to see. To be one in a sea of many can feel like it’s not much impact, but this guy knew that somet...

It’s so interesting how memories will surface after being tucked away so long, and how they can almost knock you over. That happened to me last week while I was reading a book called Warlight (3 out of 5 stars, FYI). There was a scene about packing a trunk and an impending separation between parent and child that was probably incredibly typical of WWII-era Britain. But what it jogged in my brain was packing for my mission almost 10 years ago. In the three months between opening my mission call and leaving for the MTC, everything that we bought for my time away got piled onto the bed in our guest bedroom. Periodically my mom and I would go in there and count out how many shirts I had, check the list again to see what else I might need, etc. Then the day before we flew out, we stacked it all on the living room floor, alongside the two big suitcases I would be packing my life in for the next two years. As I rushed around that day, packing somehow got away from me. And when I say “someho...

They say that if you've charted a course for a particular destination but you're off by even just one degree, you'll travel the requisite time or distance but end up many miles from your intended location. Human error can account for a lot of those moments in our lives—we make wrong career choices, a relationship goes bad, we ignore sound advice from those who know more than we do—and we learn from that. But what I'm consistently finding out is that sometimes Heavenly Father sets the bearings for our journeys, even though we think we're in control. Putting this into words is only hitting me now, but I see how this all started a number of weeks ago when an acquaintance from high school sent me a message on Facebook. This girl was three years younger than me and quite shy. A number of months ago she sent me a message thanking me for having been kind to her years ago. I was shocked she even remembered that I had spoken to her then. I'm just glad I was helpful...

I told you all once about how I went to Kentucky . I told you about how my entire life was changed because of those two years that I dedicated to serving others. I can't believe that it has been (almost) 9 months since I returned home from that remarkable adventure. Life has presented me with challenges, but lots and lots of blessings, too. Not a day goes by that I don't think about my friends in Kentucky or something that I experienced there, but today the reality of that time of my life being over was so potent. Today I decided to clean out my closet. I removed tons of white shirts from hangers -- shirts that I wore everyday for two years as I represented Jesus Christ as a missionary. I cried thinking about how I will never have the chance to live that again, and what an intense, life altering time that was for me. My heart was full of thanks for the special blessings God saw fit to grant me -- the blessing of sending me to Kentucky, where he knew I needed those people as m...

A long time ago I wrote a post about the way my life had changed in a short period of time. I talked about how six months previously I had faced a trial that scared me a lot, but that I conquered it. I mentioned how before that trial I faced something else a few months previously and managed to take care of it and learn a lot in the process. It was cool to chart my growth. Well, dear blogging world, I took a two year hiatus. I missed blogging and writing a lot. Seriously, writing is just good for the soul, even if no one reads what you put down on paper. So, here I am, ready for a little recap of life and what I've learned. Unfortunately, there just isn't time (and I don't have the energy) to tell you about all of my adventures in the last two years. I would, however, like to tell you a little about what I've learned. I hope you enjoy it: On September 7, 2011, I entered the Missionary Training Center in Provo, UT. It was a weird day to say the very, very least....

There isn't much time left before I report to the MTC. Less than two weeks, actually... Panicking, for sure. But so exciting too! Anyway, just like I used to do with homework, I'm blogging now to avoid writing my farewell talk I'm giving in church this weekend. My bishop asked me to talk about the restoration of the church. Not necessarily about the who, what, when, where, and why, but the blessings that it brings me in my life on more than just a fact-based level. It's really made me think about how fortunate I am to have the LDS church, to have been raised in it, and to have had the confirmation that it is true. I do really like having that knowledge, however, that makes writing this talk a little bit tricky, just because I'm not really positive where to take it. I'll get it figured out, I guess. Just for the sake of recapping my life in the last few weeks, here's a quick list of what I've been up to: we went to Seattle, I've been working a lot...

Here is last night in photos: This envelope stared me down for 6 hours. Friends waiting for the big reveal. Writing down one US and one foreign guess. Kelsey and Austin kinda tied for being closest, Kels with Ohio and Austin with West Virginia. Here we go! I love the pouting face. I swear, they were tears of joy! :) I'm going to Kentucky! (And Illinois and Indiana) Everyone is happy for me. I'm sad I didn't get a picture with my parents, but there will be plenty of those when I get dropped off in September. I have the coolest friends ever. :)   :: Here are some photos of other happy things:

I got my call. Kentucky Louisville . Spanish speaking . It's nothing like what I expected, but altogether where I am meant to go. I've only known for a few hours at this point, but here are a few handy things I've learned about the area so far (thanks to Wikipedia): Louisville sits on the Ohio River Tornadoes exist there Average snowfall in a winter is about 14-15 inches The rainfall average is 44-45 inches annually (almost 4x more than Tucson!!!) It was an active city in the slave trade Summertime is hot and humid It ranks in the top ten safest large cities The mayor is a Democrat About 3% of the population is Hispanic There's a temple there! :) The area has pioneered some important medical procedures, including heart transplants The area code there is 502. I'm going to have a seriously hard time not mixing that up with my home area code of 520 I know that when you Google a place you're always going to get the prettiest stuff first, but man is it c...