Changing Wards...

So, our singles ward is about to change (for any non-LDS folk, a ward is like your church community/neighborhood/people you see and interact with on Sundays and in church-related assignments). We don't know very many details yet, but one thing is for sure - the Lakeridge 11th singles ward as I now know it will soon be gone. After a very touching, reminiscence-and-testimony packed Sunday yesterday, I've been feeling nostalgic. I haven't been a member of very many wards in my life, which I consider a good thing since I hate change.

First there was the Gainesville Georgia ward where I grew up, went to nursery, was baptized, and became a young woman (that means "turned 12."). I considered this ward "home" for a very long time. At this ward, I learned all the Primary songs, went to General Conference at church, saw President Hinckley become the prophet, met my first best friend, Emily, experienced the awesomeness of Achievement Day activities (I still remember the very first one - a pool party), and got my Beehive necklace (the only one I got before the Young Women's program reorganized). I was heartbroken when we moved away from the ward when I was 13.

My next ward was the Sunset Heights 11th Ward in Orem, Utah. We stayed here only a year, but I still have a ton of memories and friendships from that one year. Here I went to Shalom Camp for the very first time (I had never canoed before, and I thought the obstacle course was just the most awesome thing ever), I learned to LOVE volleyball while playing Young Women sports, I started ballet, I got my first crush (Nope, won't tell who...), and I started seminary. The Young Women program changed and I got my Young Women medallion (silver rather than gold, for the very simple reason that my favorite Young Women advisor, Molli, had also just gotten hers in silver). I still keep in touch with my best friend Lisa and Molli, and enjoy seeing what everyone is up to on Facebook as well. I've driven through the neighborhood once or twice even - the land has been developed and there's even a new church. I enjoy stalking my past :)

We moved in 2003 to our current home in Orem, Utah (the OTHER side of the Interstate...whoooo), and I attended my family ward, the Lakeridge 8th ward, for four years. The bulk of my Young Women experience took place in this ward. I went to camp (Shalom. Every. Year. Sooooo. Sick. Of. It.), I participated in all the weekly activities, I babysat kids, I flirted with boys (but only the smart, gentlemanly, witty ones), and I watched the older girls grow up and leave to get married, serve missions, and go to college. And then, suddenly, I was one of them. While I had my back turned, my Young Women group had been invaded by a million tiny little girls who seemed barely be old enough to be out of Primary. Older women were suddenly asking me if I would be showing up at Relief Society or accepting a calling to serve in the nursery soon. Aaaaaaah! Surely this couldn't be happening to me already!!?!?!?? I was just a kid!!!!! I don't wanna go to Enrichment meetings to learn about canning and sewing and house decorating!!!!

I had taken one year of college at this point, and was very slowly and cautiously advancing into the phase of life known as young single adulthood. I remember feeling very alone. One of my brothers had just left on a mission. My other brother and sister were about to graduate from college. I didn't have very many close friends of my own age in the Lakeridge 8th ward, and the people I did know all seemed to be leaving on missions or moving away to go to college. I didn't want to move away to go to school (I was still very much attached to my home and my parents at this point), but I didn't want to stay in the 8th ward by myself. So I joined the singles ward.

Duh-duh-duh.....

For the past five/six-ish years (one four-month break when I did an internship in Washington D.C. and went to the Chevy Chase ward - yup, it's really called that), I've been in that same singles ward, good ol' Lakeridge 11th. And for the most part, I've LOVED it. The years I've spent in this ward have been, without question, the most definitive and influential years of my (albeit short) life. I went on to complete four more years of college and get a degree, learn how to communicate with people and be more outgoing, find a career path, make new friends, go on (a scanty few, measly) dates, and figure out just what it was I believed and why about this life. I've been the Relief Society pianist, the ward choir accompanist, the ward organist (without a question, my longest-standing calling EVER; there have only been three ward organists in our ward in the past six years, and I've been it for a good four of them), Relief Society secretary, and a Relief Society teacher.

I remember each Relief Society president vividly: Rachel Skousen, who impressed me with her quiet, firm testimony and musical abilities; Emily Templeman, who had more positive energy and enthusiasm in her little finger than most people have in their entire bodies; Nikki Shields, who wowed me with her action-packed social life and uncompromising zeal for the gospel; Tammy Billings, who managed to turn anything into something positive and reached out to absolutely everyone; and finally, Bree Toone, one of the smartest, most mature, witty, fun-loving girls I know. I admire and look up to each of these women - they are absolutely incredible daughters of God and deserve the happiest of lives. Each of them has moved on with her life in a way that takes her further from me: Rachel, Emily, and Tammy all left via marriage; Nikki went on to serve a mission in Iowa and then get married; and Bree is leaving the singles wards to make her own way in the world of family wards. Now it's almost my turn to follow in their footsteps and leave the singles ward.

And this is where the difference kicks in. I hated leaving Georgia. In Utah, I feared growing up and leaving Young Women's. I missed my old friends, my old wards, my old leaders, my old life.

But I am not at all sad about leaving my single status behind.

That's right.

I CAN'T WAIT to marry my true love and follow him to whatever ward we live in, whether it be in Orem, Provo, or Timbuktu. Our singles ward is going to change before we get married, but it seems almost irrelevant when I know that he and I are going to stay together forever. I think I've finally learned that being happy is all about the people you're with, and so long as I have my Matthew, it doesn't matter where I am - I'm home.