"There Are No True Endings, Only Everlasting Beginnings." -President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Sherry, Jason, Caleb, Haley, and me.

Five AM. The sun is about to rise, and the bitter cold has driven us back into the building. Sherry, Haley, Caleb, Jason and I have been outside since 12:00 A.M. cuddling, chatting, laughing, singing, and creating a final memory for the last night of my freshman year. My memory filled dorm room has now been stripped of all its happy decorations, so I am now sitting on the floor of Sherry's dorm room as I reflect on this joyous night.

Opening my call

“Sister Hatch, you are hereby called to serve as missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Utah Salt Lake City, East mission. It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 18 months.”

So excited!

Tonight was the night that I waited in anticipation for with anxiety and excitement. I had been praying that where ever I get called to serve, I would feel excitement. I would have never guessed I would be called to Utah, but as soon as I read it out loud, I knew it was where I was needed. I have the feeling I always hoped I would have. Pure bliss and peace with a sure knowledge that this is the place I am meant to share the gospel with God's children.

So greatful for my dad!

I believe so strongly that The Lord knows each of us personally. He knows our wants and desires, He knows what is best for us, and He always, always provides a way. He knew that going to you BYU would be one of the best things for me in my life, so he provided a way for me to get in. . .despite my far below BYU average ACT score. This past year at BYU has blessed my life in more ways than I know how to describe. It was here that I gained the desire to go on a mission. Here that I made life long friends. Here that I made discoveries about my self, and about my hopes and dreams for the future. And here that I was able to fulfill my child hood dream of rooming with my best friend/ cousin Jessie Mariah.

The Mariah's

As I leave to go back home to Arizona, I'm leaving behind another home with a whole set of family members. Who would have thought that living somewhere for less than a year would leave such and impression on my heart? I have learned so much from all the people that have come into my life this year. My ward family, my dorm sisters, friends from classes, teachers, and co-workers. I know God knew that we would need each other. I will be posting more about our specific adventures soon but until then I wanted to say thank you to my BYU family. Thank you all for the many memories!  

Maggie, Lauren, me, Alayna, Mk after opeing my call

Sherry and I 

Haley and I

BYU 107th Ward- my family<3

 Janice Ian, Gretchen Weiners, Regina George, Karen Smith, and Cady Harring
We're best friends :')

Mark, Mariah, Maddison, me, and Caleb
Our last sunday.

The Hinckley Hotties ;) <3

My Best Friend Alayna <3

Alayn's future husband Gabriel
We're pretty tight.

My cousin Kenzie/ care giver at BYU
<3 <3 <3

My Friend Sherry Is a Gem <3

**These are just a few of my favorite captured moment from my last few days a The Y. I love you all so much!!** <3 <3 <3 

Making Memories in a New Place

Living in Arizona in the same tiny town on the same street in the same perfect house my whole life, I never thought I would ever consider anywhere else my home. But in the last 10 month I have come to find that I now consider my cozy little dorm room on the third floor of Hinckley Hall my home. Of course Holbrook will always be my home home, but so many memories have been made in my time here at BYU that I don't even know where to begin.

It was rough start. I had a place in my home town. I had friends that have known me forever. I knew everyone I went to school with. I was the nice mormon who could be seen in all the school and town performances and dressed with a unique style. Here? Here I go to school with 33,000 people, am one of many, many, mannnny “nice mormon girls”, all of which can either sing, dance, act, or play some sort of musical instrument exceptionally, and I have probably seen of total of 5 girls not dressed in trendy clothes with perfect hair and full make up, regardless of how early in the morning it is.

When I got here in June I didn't get along with my roommate, I didn't have a single person I considered my friend, and I had a case of home sicknesses I didn't think was curable. Long story short, it took some self discovery, lots of phone calls home, and long nights of prayer. Now here I am, thinking back on my year, a new girl in a new place, with new friends, new ideas about the world, new and improved talents, and new plans. I have memories and more memories and I want to share them all. But for tonight i'll start with a messy memory.

It was combined Family Home Evening night, we were going to have a paint war in the dorm court yard. In the “family group” that my family combined with was a fun, spunky girl named Lauren. Lauren was in my Hall but I had only met her once before in the freshman cafeteria on the 4^th of July. When I sat with her that day she was dressed in full on red white and blue, with a big red bow in her hair and she the first thing she noticed about me was how many sparkles I had all over me. She went on for a couple minuets about how she really needed more sparkles. She had a crazy personality similar to the personality I had when I was back home with my regular friends. The personality that I felt escaped me since I left home and became weirdly shy.

I was excited too see she was there at the paint war, even thought it wasn't exactly a social event. Everyone just sorta closed their eyes, squeezed the paint bottles in their hands, and flung their arms around. But afterward Lauren and I talked a little more and took pictures of how cool we looked covered in paint. That turned out to be something we both enjoy. . . doing weird/ fun/ crazy things and getting great documentation of it. Since then, Lauren has become one of my best friends at BYU. We have had countless adventures together and I think we will stay friends for a very long time.

Cosmo Cougar

Lauren is one of many examples that has showed me that God does look out for us. I wanted friends right away and I wanted to fit it. I felt I was the only person in my whole dorm building who didn't have a distinguished group of friends. But after finding Lauren and a few other girls in my hall, I found they all the same way. College can be scary. Really, starting anything new is scary. However, if we put our trust in our Savior, Jesus Christ, he will make known his love for us. He wanted me to have friends and make the best of my college experience, but first He needed me to learn patience, to come closer to him, and build my relationship with Him. Because of my faith and trust in the lord I was blessed. Not only blessed to find my friend Lauren but to find my self.

meal plan probs

 So from me to you: Life is short so don't be shy. And if you are shy, find a friend in Christ, he's the only friend you need, and when you learn that, you'll find you have more friends than you realized. Reach out and be a friend too. Its very possible there is someone around you who really needs one. And make a memory today.  

Wheat Grass Shots XD

Provo Chalk-Fest

Never Grow Up

"Laughter is timeless, imagination has no age, dreams are forever." -Walt Disney

Graduation was nearly nearly a month ago, my days as a Holbrook High School-er have come and gone, and in about an hour I will drive out of the drive way of my life long home and start the next chapter in my life. In honor of this whole "moving on in my life" stage, I wanted to share my graduation speech that we were asked to write for Mrs. Caffey's class for the last week of school. So here it is. . .

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Never Land, second star to the right and straight on till morning. This is my favorite place. This is where I have lived the majority of my life for the past eighteen years. When I was three I would go to Never Land in my best dress up clothes to have tea parties with princes and princesses. I took my cousins a lot too. We would go on adventures and explore. Sometimes we would have to explore jumping from rock to rock because the ground beneath us was lava. Later I even took some of my friends with me. We would take our swing set horses there during recess and journey on for miles. 

Now, I'm sure your wondering, what is Never Land? You may be thinking that my Never Land is a lot different the the mermaid lagoon, and pirate's cove in Peter Pan's Never Land. I believe Never Land is different for all of us. As described in Steven Spielberg's movie, Hook, "Never Land is the place between sleep and awake, the place where you can still remember dreaming," Never Land is the child with in us.

I still love to go to Never Land. I go to Never Land almost every weekend with my little sister when we snuggle on the couch and giggle at our favorite Disney Channel shows. I went to Never Land about a month ago when i lied on a grassy hill holding hands with my two best friends, Cierra and Kylie, and laughed about absolutely nothing. I went again last week with my entire choir family when we decided, without speaking a word, to forget about our school work, our responsibilities, and even the show we were about to perform, to play in the Park Elementary School cafeteria. We played basket ball, jump roped, and hula hooped like five-year-old's without a care in the world. But as my days slip into years, i hear more and more about "growing up". It is not acceptable any more to just simply forget about school work and responsibilities. I have to worry about more than just the imaginary boiling hot lava beneath my feet. My worries are now about paying for college and deciding on an education that will ultimately decide my future. These big responsibilities make me question if I will ever be allowed to return to Never Land.

Growing up is expected. We are expected to graduate this Friday, expected to go on to college. Expected to start a career. Most of us are expected to eventually get married and star a family of our own. It is expected for us to take on all of these responsibilities. And it should be! Growing up is a part of life, and it does have value. I have learned so much throughout my years, and if I were to trade my age for youth, I would loose far too much valuable knowledge. But just because we have to grow up, does not mean Never Land has to cease to exist. In the wise words of Walt Disney, "Adults are just grown up kids anyway!" Never Land lives in all of our hearts. Yes, on Friday we will march to the field in our caps and gowns and we will graduate from high school. We will each be expected to take on huge responsibilities. But I hope that as you continue on your journey, you can sometimes forget about that deadline and remember to help someone in need. Forget about being on time and remember to fall in love. Forget about finances and remember to spend time with your family. Just every once in a while, forget about reality and fly to Never Land. Class of 2013, I invite you to "come with me, where dreams are born, and time is never planned, think of happy things and your heart will fly on wings, forever, in Never Never Land." 

Graduation 2013

Graduation party- my best friend Cierra (:

"party on the roof top, top of the world"
Last night in town <3

Molotov Cocktails- It’s a Good Memory

 Okay, it’s time. Time to share one of my favorite memories. One that I have been waiting for the perfect occasion to share. And the occasion is …I don’t want to wait anymore because I miss my two best guy friends!

It was like any other normal night with James and Drew. Except this time, the reason for hanging out with them was because all my cute Hatch cousins were in town. I texted James letting him know that the four older girls, Mariah (Tanner), Jocee, Taylor, and Jasmine, were coming with us. Their crowd included: James, Drew, Cierra, Kevin, and their brand new foreign exchange student, Magnus.  I asked what we were planning on doing, and at the time, the word “Molotov Cocktails” meant nothing to me. Cierra and I never knew what those two crazy boys had in store for us, we just went with it . . . and always had a blast!  So after reassuring my parents, my grandparents, and allll of my aunts and uncles that we would be safe, and nothing bad would happen, the ten of us jam-packed into a single car.

Just past the tracks heading to Mclaws road, we piled out of the vehicle and watched the boys as they gathered up cases of empty glass soda bottles, old t-shirts, lots of gasoline, and a lighter. My city girl cousins began to grow a little weary, but it was fine because James and Drew always knew exactly what they were doing. . . Anyway, we gathered round as they filled the bottles with the gas and stuck the t-shirt in the top. We entered a round metal tunnel and stood back as the boys lit the t-shirt and smashed the bottle inside the tunnel. My cousins screamed as we enjoyed a beautiful explosion of bright fire engulf the area around us. We soon became addicted to the sight. We hiked all around the desert, climbing the rocks, making sure there was nothing that would burn. With each bottle we found a new spot to throw them into, making the fire explosions look like works of art! We got so caught up in all the fun that we forgot to acknowledge the feeling we all sort of had that maybe we should stop… haha, oops.  

The feeling grew stronger as we saw one, then two, then, ummm, ten cop cars all driving towards us with their lights on. We gathered at the top of the little plateau we were on, trying to convince one another that it wasn’t us they were coming for. It couldn’t be the huge explosions we were setting off, high enough for the whole city to see, because James and Drew always knew exactly what they were doing-remember? When the police cars stopped near our car, still out of sight to see us, we thought it would be like any other time we do crazy things, they’ll check the place out for a bit, realize nothing is seriously wrong, and be on their way. But to be safe, we sent James and Drew down to talk to them. At the very most, they would realize its just the same ol’ group of crazy Mormons, and send us home with calls to our parents, no big deal.

About ten minutes later I get a call from Drew. “Just bring everyone down here…now”. Cierra and Kevin and I gathered Magnus and my cousins and tried to explain that things like this happen a lot. “We know the cops in Holbrook and they like us and our parents because we never get in to any real trouble . . . everything is going to be fiiine!”

So long story short(er), people in town thought houses were burning down and stuff, and we committed two felonies and “several” misdemeanors, and after phone calls to all of our parents, we were headed down to the Holbrook Police Department. We arrived to find both Drew and Cierra’s parents and also my entire family. Awesome. It was quite the party.

I didn’t even know where the police department was until this particular night and the only thing stopping me from bursting into tears, was bursting into laughter. IT WAS HORRIBLE! The two police officers gathered all of us, and our parents into a tiny room to lecture us more and then to take “documentation photos”. Yes, I, Mariah Hatch, have a mug shot. And all the while, my cousins and I are laughing… OUT LOUD. So hard that we were crying, I don’t know why, but we could not stop. I was so scared. I felt like we were there an eternity! But luckily, because we NEVER get into trouble like that, they let us off with a warning and we got to go home.

James was about a month away from going on his mission and he was grounded until then. Magnus had been in America for a total of four days and was completely freaked out that he might be sent home. Drew and Cierra’s parents just never mentioned it at all.

Oh and how did my family react? My family was having a party. Yep. My cousins texted all there friends, my aunt Holly did a reenactment of how ridiculous our “laughing mug shots” looked, and everyone was practically peeing their pants from laughing. It’s like they were proud of us. We didn’t really complain.

It was definitely an adventure. It was a mixture of emotions: fun, scary, exciting, and kind of weird. Most of all it’s a great memory to look back on and I still giggle and reminisce about it often.

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-I usually have a picture with my post but I am sorry to say that we don't have any documentation (our selves) of this night. We really should :( sorry. But it is 100% true and if you really want to see some pictures just check down at the Holbrook PD ;)

  A Rainy Day Memory

"Anyone Who Thinks Sunshine is Pure Happiness, Has Never Danced in the Rain."

 On Saturday, I plop in a seat on the bus, tug on my drenched shoes, peal off my sopping wet socks and dry off my soaked feet thinking I have hypothermia. This weekend was the regional choir auditions and my choir and I spent it in the rain. Being a sunshine loving, Arizona girl, I was not so much in favor of the wet, winter air we had to trudge around in all day. But, wanting to make my blogs happy and positive memories, I reflected to warm summer evenings when rainy days were my absolute favorite thing.

There was one summer day in particular that still brings a smile to my face whenever I think back to it. My Aunt AnneMarie and her three girls were here in Holbrook for their annual summer visit from California. Any day with them is always a treat. To top it off, my good friend Chelsea Thomas had surprised me with a visit the night before, and was going to be staying the weekend at my house. Four of my favorite girls together, it's just one of those little moments reminding you that life is good. 

We had spent a long day of fun together and where chatting on the couch when we heard the first crash of thunder. The noise that sends chills of excitement all through my body. The chatting stopped and we all looked at each other with bright faces. The first rain fall of the summer monsoon season. We ran out side in our bare feet, giggling, as we witnessed the first rain drops sprinkle the side walk. Before we knew it, my big drive way beside the front yard of my house, had transformed in to a beautiful stage. The same side walk that just ten minuets previous had been harshly beat upon with sunshine, was now coated with a gleaming layer of twinkling water. It was just enough water to twirl around on pointed toes with ease. The "pit, pat" noise that our feet made as we pranced around leaping, and spinning, and splashing, was music to our ears. It’s like each drop of rain was a little splash of magic and I wanted to stay in that moment forever.

Like all rain storms in Holbrook, it stopped coming down after about ten minuets, but the moment continued. We stayed out side enjoying the clean earth, the fresh smell, and each other. Eventually we came inside to dry off and warm up and sooner or later the moment was over. Reading this “moment” back might seem so meaningless, but

Chelsea and I and my cousins talked about how fun this meaningless moment was for the rest of the night. I think filling our lives with “meaningless” moments is what gives our lives so much meaning. Allowing our selves these moments fill our hearts with happiness. Loved ones return home and move on, live goes on, and moments fade to memories. So I just say thank you. Thank you, God. Thank you for the memory.

Summer 2011
Jasmine, Jillianna, Mariah, Chelsea

Marina