Penrose 89

Ah, what a glorious place to live. 

This is the story of how I lucked out. 

Originally when I got my housing date, I was for sure thinking I could get into New Heritage. It was new, fancy, functioning....you know- the perfect place to live. I mean, just look at it. Big/new kitchens, big/new living rooms, big/new everything. What's not to love?

But only when my housing date got closer did I actually come to the realization that living there wasn't going to happen and I probably wasn't even going to get into Old Heritage. Now people, this was a heartbreaking moment of Nicole's life. My grandma and my mom both lived there. I went to EFY and stayed in those dorms for 3 years. I had grown up 18 years set on the fact that I would GO to BYU and GO to live in the Old Heritage dorms. There was NO second option.

I remember very distinctly that on April 4th, 2012, I was on a bus driving to Payson High School for Symphonic's Band region performance to conclude our spring tour. Right after we warmed up and right before we performed, I was outside in the hallway, on the phone with my mom, trying to talk things out with her. I gave her our best case scenario, Plan B's, last resorts, EVERYTHING. She would click on a room in Wyview (the only housing left I would even think of living at), read the roommate descriptions, and I would yea or nay it. I nay'ed most of them. It was getting so frustrating that I remember saying, "Mom, I just don't care anymore. Pick the one you think is the best. I have to go perform now." 

Well, I performed, I got home, looked at my room, stalked my roommates, and nothing felt right. I always hate when people say that something just doesn't feel right, because what does "not feeling right" feel like? But let me tell you people, that was one of the only times that I have experienced that "feeling". I was not going to live in Wyview. That's the only thing I knew. I don't know how many room swap requests I placed, but eventually I got to a room in Wyview that seemed doable. One Sunday, my mom and I went driving past the apartments and went into the parking to map it all out and check it out. She was being really encouraging and hopeful and I refused to smile. This wasn't just some "other plan" that Heavenly Father had for me. I knew I wasn't supposed to live there. 

Then one day, my mom texted me at work and told me I had gotten into Old Heritage. Every Monday and Wednesday they released the rooms that people dropped out of for whatever reason and we had both been trying to get into a room for a couple weeks. I was in disbelief. My BYU experience was about to be complete. Then I got home and the first thing I did was stalk the future roommates (obvi). It didn't look bad at all! I somehow still thought I could get into New Heritage. Case in point, my first conversation with the roommates:

[For some reason, we thought our room was in the basement and neither of us wanted that. When we found out that we were actually on the 2nd floor, our world was made]

Anyways, I ended up staying in the NOT basement room of Penrose Hall with these 5 lovely ladies. And I am oh so grateful. I found out that the girl who was originally in my room decided not to go to BYU or something like that and to that girl, I love you. Thanks for giving up your room, because I love these girls more than you ever could or would have. Ha. That was rude. Don't care. 

Why this picture describes Penrose 89.

Well, why it describes everyone's true personalities. 

Kahlie:

Kahlie was always smiling. Always happy. Always awesome. She doesn't judge you. She just smiles at you. And I love her smile. Because she is gorgeous.

Sharon:

Sharon was always laughing at us. When things got lost in translation, things got real funny real quick. All you have to do is say her name and she'll probably start laughing. 

Shannon:

Shannon has this outward appearance of niceness (which she really is) and then on the inside, she's crazy. This picture shows her face when she was probably coming up with one of her ideas. Actually, she was probably just defending herself from our constant attacks on her favorite movie The Last Unicorn.

Rachel:

I don't know what Rachel was doing. Which was pretty standard. She would just smile at us the whole time and suddenly, she would be doing something that came out of no where. 

Emma:

Emma secretly attracted all the men. This was her doing so. She could be a model if she wanted. She's that cool. As long as she looks good and has a hunky man for a husband, life will be good.

Lauren:

Couldn't make an appearance in the photo because she is currently serving the Lord. She probably would have been making some dancing pose trying to dance. 

And then there's me. Facepalming and shaking my head, secretly wondering why I'm there. 

Well it's no secret now. 

I love these girls. 

Penrose89forlyphe