It's A Beautiful Life

Today marks 4 years since I graduated from BYU, which means I've now been out of college as long as I was in it. Time passes by so quickly.


Just a 21-year-old (read: baby) Katelyn.

As I was looking back through some of my old pictures and getting a little teary-eyed as I thought about all the people I miss, I also got a little angry with myself. See, when I truly consider it, I am in awe at all I was able to experience in my short time there. The friendships! The temple visits! The pool parties! The hiking! The dancing! The travel! The mud kickball! The picnics! The Alias, Toy Story, Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter marathons! The colorful paint and chalk fights! The donut shenanigans and Mustache Mondays and dinner group and midnight bike rides and dollar movies and ice skating and ice blocking and two-story-tall snowmen and roller-coasters and at least a hundred times when I got to laugh till I cried. And oh, for heaven's sake, THE NACHO PARTIES! And to think that, between all that, I even found time to get a degree? Amazing. 

So I really do have countless beautiful memories of those years. Yet (here's where the anger comes in) there were still days I wasted by feeling sorry for myself, thinking I was nothing more than stupid, lazy, and ugly, and therefore doomed for educational, financial, and romantic failure. I see now how utterly and ridiculously dumb that was. My only real failure was giving power to those thoughts and neglecting to see how incredibly full and blessed my life was. I hope to never repeat that same mistake.

When I was checking out those old pictures, I couldn't help but think that I like the way I looked back then. I weighed significantly less than I do now, I had a more defined jaw line, I liked the haircuts I had, and though I didn't necessarily have clothes that were any prettier than those I currently have, I feel like I wore them well since they fit better. I could probably keep going on and on about other external markers of "pretty" that were present before and have been changed since then, but still, as I mentioned before, I was spending a lot of my time feeling ugly and inadequate. Though I'm not immune to such feelings now, I am certain they are less frequent, despite all the changes my body has endured. Why? Because I've finally learned and internalized a little something that I wish I'd have known much sooner, and that is this:

Beautiful is as Beautiful does.

That is to say, when going about the business of increasing your personal beauty, you will find the greatest success in the doing--as opposed to the donning--of beautiful things. 

So now, after all that exposition, let's get down to the nitty-gritty. If you are reading this, chances are that you fall into one of two categories:

1. A Russian spambot that deceptively increases my page views by 200%, or 
2. One of those folks to whom I owe great thanks, as you have shared beautiful moments with me, thus building my beauty, one wonderful memory at a time.

Barring your being the former, I sincerely thank you for helping me during what I consider the formative years of my life. Though I didn't always feel it then, I can see it now when I reminisce. My  brand of beauty is woven from the fabric of life's joyful times, its challenges, both failed and surmounted, and its neverending supply of scary and fun adventures. It is virtually weatherproof, fireproof, age-proof and devil-proof, and it has become a rather cozy home for my soul. 

So, should you ever need help building your own beauty, don't hesitate to call me. You need someone to dance, sing, laugh, cry, shout, whisper, or just be with you? I'll be there. Stretchy pants and all.