My collection

I've never really collected anything. When I was little I remember Josh Stansfield (who carved my name is Rollerblades) collected basketball cards. Taryn collected spoons. My sister collected dolls I think. I have heard my mom say that she has collected junk. But I, up until the last couple years, haven't collected anything (except for maybe some junk here and there).

My itch for traveling started when I learned how to walk. I've always had the desire and the first time I got to leave this country is when I was 16. I went to Peru for a couple weeks on a humanitarian mission. While I was there we visited an underprivledge school and we were all given a gift. I was given an awesome ceramic sun that was made and painted by a student who was 8 at that school.

The sun went home to Utah with me and I've spent a lot of time with that sun. I love it! I love it for a lot of reasons and that sun started my sun collection-which I didn't realize until a few years ago.

Suns are my symbol. If I were to ever get something tattooed on my body, it would be a sun. As I have thought more about the sun, there isn't anything else I would want to pattern my life after. The sun provides light and warmth and gives the opportunity of life. Since I have been in Washington I have heard about seasonal depression-an actual condition people experience because they don't see the sun.

This sun came from Peach Days. I got this sun in Hawaii! I feel like it smiles at me most of the time.

It is proven that the sun provides our bodies and minds with nutrients they need. My friends Lenna (90) and Beulah (85), who both live in Logan and who are both heroes of mine, have HUGE gardens-they have both told me about years where the sun didn't come out as often...their gardens didn't produce nearly the amount of food. I went to Denver about a month ago-one of the sunniest places in the United States and it seemed everyone was happy. It was such a different feeling there compared to Washington. People are nice here-but it was so different! When I asked people in Denver about this noticiable difference, they responded the sun was the reason.

I love the sun.

It is surprising to wake up this time of year and see sunshine in Washington but when I woke up this morning sunshine was blaring through the window and happiness was beaming from inside me! Have you ever felt like your insides can smile? That's how I felt this morning.

I will go play in it.