My parents had been married for about four years when I was born. I do not remember anything about that day but I have heard stories told by my parents and grandparents. Of course it was a beautiful and scary day for my parents. Things became more alarming with the news that I was sick. I had a condition, while not very serious, that was new and scary to my first time parents. My mom tells me that my dad has tears in his eyes as he returned to her room after accompanying me to the infant care unit. He was scared for his baby girl. As it turns out I was fine and able to go home after less than a week in the hospital. The love in the hospital room and the care and devotion my parents showed me has been unchanging through the eighteen years that have followed. The first couple years of my life were fairly uneventful. We moved around a lot in the Pocatello area of eastern Idaho. When I was two years and four months old my sister was born. On August 5, 1992 Taylor Preston came into our family. She was a precious little doll and my mom tells me that I was an excited and a helpful big sister, maybe a little too helpful.
Following her arrival, my family of four moved to Boise, Idaho. My memory of our time in Boise is still very vague until I entered kindergarten. I started kindergarten in August of 1995 at Eagle Elementary. I remember going school-clothes shopping with my mom and picking out these cute sweater and skirt sets. Why I thought I liked them I am not sure. I was a tomboy. I did not want to wear a skirt and as soon as the first day of school arrived and my mom tried to make me wear one of these cute outfits I did not like them anymore. But, she had bought them for me and so I was required to wear one of these outfits once a week for my entire time as a kindergartener. I was never at all happy about having to dress up. Another memory of my childhood that sticks out in my mind is a present that my parents got for me and my sister. About the time of Taylor’s forth birthday my parents built a big sandbox and swing set in our backyard. I remember Taylor running into the backyard and yelling, “A park!!” She was so excited about our personal park and we spent a lot of time the next few summers digging in the sand and sliding down the big yellow slide.
About half way through my kindergarten year, when I was almost six years old, my brother, Beau Michael, was born on January 23, 1996. I have a few memories about his birth. I remember going to the hospital with my aunt and cousins and being able to hold him for a second. He was an adorable little boy and I remember being so proud of my cute little brother and being jealous when everyone else got to hold him even though he was mine, not theirs.
The summer following his birth I was signed up for my very first soccer team. No one could have imagined how big of an influence soccer would have on our family. My first team was called Big Green. I fell in love with the sport during my very first game. I was, and still am, a very competitive person and love to compete in and win soccer games. Soccer was a big part of my entire life and I played on a team every season until I graduated from high school. I have played between 400-500 soccer games in my life. Each of my siblings has played on soccer teams as well and soccer has always been, and probably will always be a core part of our lives. A lot of time, money and effort goes into soccer but we get a lot out of it as well. It brings us together; spending hours in the care driving to tournaments and even more time camped out at various soccer complexes watching hundreds of games, gives us a lot of time to spend together. It also gives us an opportunity to appreciate and encourage each other’s skills and abilities.
Three years after Beau was born my parents were blessed with another baby girl, Emma Marie. She was born on February 25, 1999. She had curly red hair and was the funniest little girl. A few years after Emma was born my dad’s company moved us to Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He broke the news to us when I was in fourth grade. At first I did not believe him. He had been going on a lot of trips to Calgary and even took my mom with him once but I still had a hard time believing that we were all moving once again. As it turned out it was true and we started on the process of obtaining visas and passports for the family. We moved to Calgary the summer before my fifth grade year. We moved into a nice house in a new development; it was a cute house and I can still remember living towards the top of a big hill that was torture to ride our bikes up. We had a tiny yard that was smaller than our garden in Boise. We met some really nice neighbors, lived in a great ward, and we started school that fall at Marion Carson Elementary. Of course I was very nervous that first day: it was a new school, a new city and even a new country. I was not familiar with the customs and schedules of the Canadian school system. It is not very different but there are subtle differences that I became accustomed to before too long. I soon made some very good friends that included me in their activities.
My best friend at Marion Carson was a girl named Bryn Nicholson. She opened up to me and we were soon inseparable. She did not live very far from the school and nearly every day we would walk to her house and play with her dogs and braid each other’s hair. She had two white puppies that I fell in love with immediately. We walked them and played catch with them and ran with them in the park. Her family was not members of the church, and there was only one other LDS family in my school. This did not seem like such a big deal to me as an eleven year old and I did not feel like my values were being tested or manipulated. My family only lived in Calgary for about 18 months but during that time my family was completed with the birth of my baby sister, Brooklyn Jennie. I remember being so excited about her. I was then 11 years old and able to fully comprehend what was happening. I wanted to hold her all the time and tried to be very helpful for my mom. I also remember being very annoyed by her crying and getting really tired of listening to her scream all the time. But, in the end I was always happy to have her and am, to this day, very grateful for her in my life. She is a great little sister and we have developed a deep bond of love. About six months after her arrival my family moved back to the United States- Kaysville, Utah to be exact.
It was kind of traumatic for me. We moved half way through my sixth grade year and it is hard to come into an established classroom. Everyone already has their friends and it is rough being new and trying to make new friends. The experience of moving to a new place is something I have done multiple times in my life. I am shy person in general and it was always very difficult for me to make new friends. Eventually, in every new school, there were one or two people who decided to open up to me and include me in their circle. I have made some very good friends that shaped my life then and helped me to become the person I am now. Friends are a huge influence on daily life and decisions and I have had some very great friends throughout my life. Some are only around for a short time and some have stayed in my life for many years. Regardless of the amount of time I have known them, every one of my friends has had an effect on me and I am grateful to each of them for opening up to me and including me in their lives.
In Kaysville I met some good friends, had some good times and had some bad times. After I finished sixth grade at Kaysville Elementary School I moved on to Fairfield Jr. High. There I became involved in the drama program. I took introductory speech and drama during 8th grade and started to fall in love with performing. By nature I am not a very outgoing person but being in drama class gave me an opportunity to release a little bit of my fun side and show the other half of my personality, besides the quiet girl everyone knew. I also tried out for the junior high basketball team both my seventh and eighth grade years. Unfortunately, I did not make the team either time. For me, it was discouraging to try for something that I really loved and not be made a member of the team. Even though I was upset and embarrassed about not making the team, it taught me a lesson. I learned that it is still possible to have fun playing a sport and doing something you love even if you are not the best at it. Playing basketball was a lot of fun for me and when we played basketball in gym my friend and I, who also had been cut from the team, had a lot of fun and did very well. There is a lesson to be learned in every unfortunate situation.
In the fall of my ninth grade year at Fairfield my family moved, once again, to Idaho Falls, Idaho. This was by far the most difficult move for me socially. I was finally comfortable in Kaysville; I had good friend and had found a place where I fit in, and this is often difficult for teenagers who are struggling with self image and acceptance. Moving to a different city and transferring from a Jr. high, were I was one of the oldest in the school, to a high school, where I was now a lowly freshman, was a big jump for me. I didn’t think I would make any friends and was very worried about fitting in. Going to Hillcrest High School for the first time I was so nervous. My mom had to come with me and walk me through everything and be my security blanket. Of course, as before, I met some really great people and made some very good friends, friends that will be in my life for a long time to come. High school was not my favorite stage of life. I struggled with some aspects of social life and did not really enjoy going to school. As I had always done, I got good grades and worked hard to be a top student. I learned a lot and because of that hard work was accepted into Brigham Young University.
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