school's out so i'm blogging again.

// bye white house. i love you // last night with my roommates/lovers //

// and just like that, all of my dollars turned into euros // pretty trees. not-so-pretty smell //

// last day of work, kickin it in my private bathroom // no more early morning editing. at least for the next 6 weeks //

// our blood, sweat, and tears went into those wings for the film. literally all of those fluids // oh, hi mason //

//sam let me be his coach for the day // that movie is in my top 20 //

endings and beginnings

me and two of my best friends from film school being happy at the bon jovi concert. sam and martha.

I'm taking an 18 month break from school. And chances are, most all of my friends will be graduated and will have moved on to new things when I finally make it back to school. This is really disheartening, and it's a sacrifice for me.

But remember how I felt this same wistful feeling at the end of last semester? And at the end of last school year? And a little teeny bit at the end of high school? It's a pattern. A pattern that applies to most everyone I think, but I've just now pinpointed it for me. 

Everything ends. All these good, amazing, fun, awesome things I get to do start out as a sometimes uncomfortable adjustment, but by the time it ends I realize how much it has meant to me and how much I love it. I grow really close to people easily. Sometimes I think my heart is too big because I get attached to people and things (and books and songs and movies and sandwiches) so easily. Then the great thing has to come to an end and we have to leave, and I feel like something is missing for a while. Then I meet new people that get to fill in those voids. 

I'm sad about it now, but I know that the emptiness that is left after this semester will be filled eventually. I'll go through the same cycle of adjustment, being comfortable, being happy, and then sadness upon the inevitable end. It's going to happen with my study abroad, and then happen again (probably times 100) with my mission.

I'm learning not to be sad when it's time for another ending. Isn't it great that we all get to be characters in each other's stories? Going through this cycle of loving people and leaving people just makes us warmer and more human, I think. And things will always come back into our lives to help fill in the gaps again. And I'm going to be happy. I am happy.

the christmas times

{christmas eve is a really good day for the guy in charge of the pajama industry. and, just noticed kirsten attempting to strangle kaity. cool.}

it's been such a fun christmas break so far, and yesterday was really rad. i can tell you that there's nothing better than hanging out with my family 24/7, playing games, eating so much crazy delicious food (and also slow-clapping for my mom when she pulls off the freeway to take us to in-n-out), singing to t-swift in the car, and finding out my dad is a BIG spiderman fan. and how about utah's blizzard, huh? all good things.

yesterday, i was transferring all my contacts from my old phone to my new christmas phone (holla), and i was reminded that i'm most grateful for all of the people in my life. i have the most stellar family and friends. it was weird to see that a large portion of the contacts in my phone are all my guy friends out on missions right now. that was a little sad, but i'm also so incredibly happy they're all out there helping people and serving the lord. it was also fun to add in all of my old friends from high school, and then to add my new friends i've met since being in college. i've been so blessed to be able to know so many amazing people.

i'm also so thankful for my heavenly father and jesus christ, which is the whole point of this holiday! i know they live and love us.

hope you all had a kool kristmas. thanks for reading!
xoxo -jess

idk my bff elder keetch

i got a saweet swedish map in the mail. what a cool guy.

that reminds me, i need to write like 1000 missionaries today.

and here's a thing that is on repeat. newsflash: brandon flowers is still hot.

our magical friendship

i mentioned that this has been my favorite semester ever. i learned so much about myself, the world, art, people, and of course films and media in general. i loved going to every single class and looked forward to doing my homework. i grew so much and had amazing professors and watched and read cool things and made cool movies and great friends and never fell asleep in class.. guys, film school is awesome.

i have to attribute some of the awesome-ness to those two guys, hunter and kelyn. unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures together, which is weird because we spent hours and hours and hours and hours together. in class, outside class, on set, etc. we are harry, ron, and hermione in my own universe.

these guys are hilarious and nice and geniuses and they really made my semester neat.  hunter is leaving us for a semester for a fancy pants internship in L.A. (like a REALLY fancy pants internship) and we're going to miss him like crazy. but i'm so happy i'll still get to spend every day next semester hanging out with kelyn. these guys, these guys. they're the best. film school is the best.

our white house

pre-christmas decor explosion. it's looking festive here now.

i think my hair is blonde until i stand next to olivia.

and i think my hair is brown until i stand next to the rest of them.

hair color identity crisis. who am i!?

back in march..

little did evan know that exactly 6 months later

he would be getting his appendix out in colombia...

these days

i stayed up till 4 last night talking to my roommates janae and rach (after we had already watched 3 movies and eaten gooey brownies out of the pan with a fork). it's fun living with them again.

and that picture of me is a representation of how i felt about every vending machine being out of cookies and cream milk all week.

i did a post here for a class, if you want to see some images i created in response to this song. yeah, my major is fun.

i'm loving midnight city and outro by m83. cool band. and i got letters. you know how i feel about getting letters. especially when they come from reese. yeeee!<-- (that is the sound liesl makes after rolf kisses her in sound of music.)

and the time lapse

chalk chalk chalk.

you may have already seen it on clay's blog. if not, here it is.

we're hoping to make some more of these. it was a lot of fun.

and i have to say, free-handing that "you" is one of my greatest life accomplishments thus far.

as we were making it, we were thinking it could be dedicated to people who actually read our blogs. we love you all.

and shout out to clay - it was his birthday yesterday. cool kid.

(and it's my half-birthday today. woooo!)

we did some chalking

clay and i kind of just made up the design on the fly, and it turned out pretty cool.

a timelapse is in the works.

also this weekend

went to in-n-out with my ladies and ate my first double-double.

watched this and this.

went bowling with brooke and peypey. i lost. had to buy them ice cream.

ate a lot of cadbury eggs.

listened to a lot of awolnation.

weekend in wy

this weekend, brooke and i kicked it in cokeville, wyoming.

we've been talking about taking a roadtrip there to visit our roomie olivia for a while.

then we did it.

we love her.

and we liked finally seeing the legendary town she's been telling us about!

fun fun times.

sunday night...

...is skype night

chase is in a later time zone than we are.

he fell asleep during one of our hang outs.

but we still like him.

i think i'll catch up on my correspondence

i wrote lots of letters today.

18 pages, front and back! (name it...)

actually it was like 9 pages front and back.

lots of friends who live far away right now.

i love getting mail. i love sending it too.

i love the thought that someone took the time to write on some paper just for me.

and i love that tiny feeling of doubt that you get when you drop a letter in the mailbox.

you just have to have faith that your letter will reach that person

and not get lost or forgotten on the way.

emailing and texting are good.

but there's nothing like opening the mailbox

and seeing your name handwritten on a beaten-up envelope.

i love it.

not a vlog post

once upon a sunday night, this is how brooke and i entertained ourselves.

we wanted to see what our real laughs looked like.

reading autocorrects late at night... very hilarious.

i'm really glad i had a roommate who laughs at all the same dumb things i do.

*note to self: wear your glasses. you are a champion squinter.

we made our own

we copied this. and we had a real good time.

all my peeps who are in it:

brooke, chase, mason, andrew, jackie, reese, t-barr, sophia, pey pey, kevin, dariel, christina, janae, davis, rachel, chris, brian, sheri, logan, miya, livi, jaron, tanner, emily, kyle, madison, andrea, devon, moses, jamie, jameson wallace jones, and me.

our very own GQ

brooke took some awesome and hilarious pictures of the boys after church yesterday.

i keep saying it, but i'm really going to miss all these people. after fall semester, i wasn't particularly attached to my new college lifestyle. but this semester was different. i have met some really great people and made a bunch of new best friends who basically have become like family to me.

i'll miss them.

don't forget your culture.

oh man.

i'm going to miss these people.

a lot.

houdini

you know those songs that always remind you of a certain time in your life and the certain people who were a part of it? this will probably be one of those for me.

......

one reason why i love my roommate

she'll probably punch me for posting this.

but she's really cool. see?

she pretended to be flula for her german project. that's cool in my book.

and she has freaking good taste in music, this one.

i love her and i'm so glad we lived together this year.

aww.