Cultural Diorama - Travelling Runner who Bakes and Reads

So for my Multicultural Education class, we need to create a Cultural Diorama, a presentation of artifacts that represents me socially, culturally, and ethnically. So I've decided to post pictures of these "artifacts" on my blog (as part of the assignment.) 

This first picture shows a few of my Jerusalem souvenirs, which are very special to me. These represent my love of traveling and seeing the world. Though I have done a lot of traveling, the semester I spent at the BYU Jerusalem Center taught more than I have ever learned before! I not only learned about different cultures, but I also grew spiritually. So this picture also represents the importance of the Church and the gospel in my life. That semester shaped me in more ways than I can describe, it had a HUGE impact on my life! Jerusalem (and therefore the gospel) will always be part of me.

This next picture represents my love of running, sports, and the outdoors. I just ran in the Red Rock Relay for the 3rd time (last weekend!) and I so much fun! Our bodies are so incredible to be able to run, jump, and be pushed to the limit. By participating in these things we also get to enjoy the beautiful outdoors and creations of our Heavenly Father. How lucky! I have never had to push myself, physically and mentally, as I have when I run in this relay. The first year I did it taught me that I really can do hard things and accomplish what seems impossible. Ever since then I have make the Red Rock a goal at the beginning of every school year and I continue to absolutely love it! (Even though running 187 miles between 12 people, in 2 days seems a little insane!)

What fun is life without food?! It's not. And it's even more fun when you get to cook it! I am a Family and Consumer Science Education major, which means I love to bake, cook, and do anything else with food. Food is a huge part of any culture, especially mine! It is one of my great loves and many facets of my life revolve around it; my professional and academic, as well as social! Food brings people together, especially family, and my family is very important to me. Growing up with family meals every night taught me a lot about what was important in life, therefore I will continue cook, eat, and share that talent with family and friends.

Books are wonderful, don't you think? Learning is so important and reading is such a huge part of that! We learn from the textbooks we read (sometimes :) and we also learn from the wonderful pleasure reading we can do in all of our spare time (what spare time?!:) It is so exciting that we can just escape from our regular hum-drum lives and let our imagination take us into other worlds, lives, and experiences. They also represent the importance of education and academia. That's why we're all here in college right? Education is important to us, and learning can be so fun! The things we learn in these few short years will stay with us forever (hopefully.) I don't know what kind of person I would be today if I didn't have the opportunity to let my imagination soar over summer break, or get an amazing education at BYU for the rest of the year.