Today I got the chance to go to the Relief Society Broadcast at the conference center in Salt Lake. It was pretty awesome. I've only been the the conference center once before when I was about 9, but it was only for a tour. This was the first time that I've been there for an actual meeting. We had pretty great seats too. We were right in the middle on the ground floor, right above the VIP section. The broadcast itself was really good as well.

So as usual, nothing real exciting going on here. Last night I went to a football game. We dominated 47-0. It's kind of weird, so far we've won all of our home games but lost all of our away games.

For one of my classes I have to write a portrait about someone and I decided to write about my Grandma Till. I chose to write about her for a few reasons, the biggest one being that it would fit best with my theme, but it got me thinking that it was a year ago today that she passed away. So I'd just like to talk about that for a minute.

I guess that I don't have one particular memory of her that stands out as my favorite, she was just in our lives a lot so I never really thought about it. It's kind of like asking you what your favorite memory of your parents is. I don't know about you, but I don't really have one. I remember one of the missionaries in my ward this last summer asked me what my parents were like and I didn't know what to say or how to describe them. Because they're you know... your parents. You just know what they're like, you don't have to explain it.

If I had to choose something though, it would probably be how that at least in my eyes, my grandma was always striving to be the very best person that she could, and she wanted other people to become all that they were capable of as well. She was always it seemed interested in learning new things and trying new things, although sometimes it did take a little coaxing. I remember one time I showed her how to play guitar hero. It took a little convincing but she finally gave it a shot.

She's the kind of person who would actively seek out correction and wouldn't hesitate to correct you if you were doing something wrong. Not because she wanted to chastise you, but because it was important to her that you learn to do things the correct way, because that's how you go about becoming a stronger and more refined person. I think that aside from when I was learning to talk, my grandma corrected my English (and other things) just as much if not more than my parents did. But never in a mean way, always because she cared about and wanted to make sure that you did things the right way.

I love that she was always really interested in you and what you had to say. It seems that whatever someone was talking about, be it Grant's swimming, Brandi's horse back riding, Austin plays, my whatever, she was always interested in it because it was important to you. Even if it was some dumb thing like, I don't know, you really like strawberries, she would listen, and really listen, to you talk about them for however long you would ramble. I remember once when she went with me to my high school parent, meet the teacher, beginning of school year blah blah and was taking copious notes of what they had to say, asking a lot of questions, and was genuinely disappointed when a teacher didn't show up. It was just a little thing, I don't think I was even really that interested in what my teachers had to say, but it was a part of my life, and a small part of my future and so she was all ears.

I love how she would always it seemed try to find the positive in everything and she would always have us singing while we were doing anything, particularly if it was some chore or something we didn't want to do. My grandma put the music in life, both figuratively and literally. On our way last year up to her funeral, my cousins and I kept my cousin's baby daughter happy by singing her songs my grandma had taught us.

Most memorable recently though, I enjoyed reading some of the letter that she wrote to my grandpa before they were married when she was here at BYU. I remember when I told her that I had decided to go to BYU she was so glad. While it was of course a different time, some of the things that she was talking about seeing or doing are the same types of things that I'm seeing and doing right now. It's cool for me to think that we're having somewhat similar experiences at the same place.  It kind of makes me hope that someday, with a little bit of luck, I'll be able to live up to the greatest namesake a person could ever ask for.