simply grateful

a few days ago i had lunch with a wonderful friend who i hold near and dear to my heart, christina. this 70 year old friend of mine is so wise and joyful i am so grateful to have met her :) christina and i met during my first semester here as a freshman back in the fall of 2009. we were in the same acting class, which i took with another one of my good friends lala also so this class was just absolutely hilarious with them both in it. christina and i hit it off since then, we aren't the closest of friends, but we try to eat lunch weekly have recently started a book club just the two of us. i don't know what it is about me, but i tend to make a variety of friends who are so different then me, call me weird but i just 'click' with all sorts of people. anywho, christina is a friend whom i seek alot of advise from and love to just sit and listen to because she is just so full of good stuff, shes so sweet and understands me for who i am. the # 1 thing i love about her and all my friends is that they never judge, unrighteously. i make it a goal not to either. christina isn't just like any other 70 year old woman out there. she is single and is surely mingling, hadn't had any children, and is living all by herself and is the most independent 70 year old i know out there. oh and did i mention has a passion for fashion and is always stylin?lol yup she is super cute, i still need to raid her closet for some cute outfits! anywho, we have always talked about our lives and each time we have lunch i learn more and more about her life and hers about my boring life, hows this 70 year old gonna have a more exciting love life than me?lol. sad i know, im workin on it sheesh!lol, gotta wait till my penpals are back ;) she is going back for her third degree, she is very passionate about theatre now and i admire that she is going back to school on a scholarship and i admire her strenght. no matter her age she is still going after her dreams, she is a living example that it is never too late to go back to school!

 this particular lunch was quite sad because the night before (following the opening football game, which i went too, so much fun woot woot!we won) i had just found out about the death of a wonderful person who i had known and considered a wonderful person, Janelle Tongaonevai, (RIL) wife of Ron Tongaonevai who is also a student at the UfoU, Hilarious & likable guy, whom i KNOW just loved & adored his newly wedded wife. It was a devastating reality, and i had just seen Janelle at a BBQ at Kalo & Ulysses house that Sunday. She was hit by a drunk driver and killed instantly. Her sister was in her vehicle and is currently fighting for her life! I could not even imagine loosing a loved one, yet alone a spouse or MY SISTER! my heart goes out to Ron & The Davidson family, their whole world is just crushed :( drunk drivers don't even know how much damage they can do. (im not even gonna go there though, that'll be a whole other blog). Janelle was such a beautiful soul and although ive only hung out with her a couple times, i could see the light of christ in her eyes. Her and Ron were sealed for all time & eternity in the SLC temple just last Juy, so i have no worries that she and her love & her family will be reunited once again. Ive learned from that incident, that honestly life is to short. you just NEVER KNOW. im still in shock and find myself crying just thinking of how sad it is. i am truly grateful to be living, and grateful to have known Janelle. you don't know it Janelle but you were such a wonderful example and your legacy of love will live on :)


As christina and i continued talking over lunch about the whole accident and how tragic it was, we started talking about family. FAMILY <3. boy am i so grateful for mine :). christina has told me about her family, but not like this. christina has 2 sisters and 3 brothers. all of whom she is no longer close to. her and her father had a falling out just months before his passing and he took her off his will, wrote her off and the entire family turned on her, when he died of course she was sad it was her dad, you always fight with family but in the end you still are family and have love for each other. her family didn't forgive her, she was not welcomed to the funeral and since then the family had been very stand-offish towards her. she spends holidays alone, and truly misses her family :(. i cannot even fathom the feeling of being separated from MY family. i know my family has issues, whose doesn't?and that we fight and have drama, but in the end it always comes down to forgiveness and loving each others annoying habits once again. christina's family, although devout LDS members doesn't choose to become christ-like?i mean whats the whole purpose of going to church?hypocracy is what i see. when i heard christina tell me of how she called her sister to see if she could come to her nieces wedding and her sister say NO, that made me so sad:(. i bet it was some crazy drama, but believe me if in my family some crazy drama always goes down, with time it always seems to heal, and my heart hurts for christina. i realized this weekend that i have so much to be grateful for. not only for my wonderful family, and friends who are so amazing that i consider family such as my two best friends: Mele Finau Poteki & Sayeh Golafshani, who like christina continue to make me want to become a better person, but for MY LIFE overall. for being blessed with the knowledge of the gospel of jesus christ, for my education, for the air that i breathe, and for meeting wonderful people like christina who i know i can be there for, because i know that she needs me, needs family :) i make it a goal to be there for christina even more, to invite her to activities and to even spend a holiday or two with her because sometimes i may get sick of my family and may wanna break from them lol jp. it made me think of death, who would be there for christina when she dies?who is going to take care of her funeral arrangements, her finances? i am so grateful to have  a humoungously enormous family who will be there for me to support me through any occasion. i just can't stop thinking of how fortunate i am, and have no room to be ungrateful or complain. if nobody offers id be more than willing to be there for my christina because she was placed in my life for a reason and i know that everything happens for a reason, i am christina's family now and am so grateful i met her, she has helped me in more ways than she knows.