One last post.

Well friends, tomorrow's the day. I'm hopping on the wedding wagon! Which means that as a result, this blog is going to become obsolete. It's been a great three and a half years of sharing my college experiences with you, and now I am headed off onto a whole new stage of life! But the good news is: I'm also going to have a new blog! So don't just sit there crying, head over to www.lifethehallway.com and give me a follow there! I don't want to lose you!

I won't be posting anything there until I get back from my honeymoon (shocker) but you have to make sure you're ready when I do. You can also follow @lifethehallway on Twitter and Instagram for updates. Thanks for sticking with me through the years! You're the best!

Graduated.

I've been putting off writing this post for a while because I knew how hard it would be for me to write. My time in Cedar City and in my undergrad has come to an end. Graduation was May 2nd and it was all over so fast.

The night before, Colby and I went to an Ellie Goulding concert in Salt Lake and we didn't get back until 3 am (so worth it). So when I woke up at 6:15 on graduation day everything was kind of a blur. I got to school and found my friends and took pictures, and then we were walking under the bell tower like I've said in all my tours for the past two years and wow, I was finally doing it. And then we were passing all our professors who were cheering us on and hugging us and I was holding back tears for some reason and then I was in the Centrum and it hit me that this was it. All the essays and late nights and tubs of ice cream and karaoke parties and panic attacks and bad dates and best friends and math problems and crappy apartments and summer hikes and everything else was all summed up in that one moment. Every single amazing experience and all the hard times that made up college were coming to an end. I sat in my seat between some of my best friends and listened to Ann Romney but really, it was all too much.

We went to Centro after the first session and then the bookstore and the communication department open house and then it was time for me to receive my diploma. I found some of my communication department friends and we sat together and watched to see if our classmates caps would fall off when they hugged their professors. When it was my turn, I tried to take everything in and I remember hearing my name whispered to me from my favorite French professor and hugging my mentors that have made such a difference in the past three years of my life. I took a picture in front of the American flag, which was an interesting choice, and then I was whisked off to see my great grandma and then to pack up my house and leave Cedar City.

Everything went so fast but on the drive down to my new temporary home in St. George, I couldn't believe that I would never again go back to those little apartments I've lived in the past three years and shared with some of my absolute best friends. I'd never again trudge into the computer labs last minute before class started. I'd never again don a red polo and show a nervous high schooler around the place that has been my home and helped shape me into who I am today. I'd never again play intramural soccer outside the PE building with barely a full team. I'd never again pose for a picture with 80 of my closest friends.

I know I have a lot of exciting things ahead of me but I truly am going to miss Cedar City and especially Southern Utah University. I'm so thankful for all the lessons I learned during my time there and all the incredible friends I made. I can't wait to keep in touch with all of you and share my life with you for many, many years to come.

All I can say is... I loved college.

On being the Easter bunny.

Over the past few weeks in my PR class, we have been planning and promoting an event called Glow in the Park: a glow-in-the-dark Easter egg hunt for high school aged kids, featuring carnival games, a blowdart arena, a DJ, and of course a massive Easter egg hunt after it got dark. As part of this event, we had to recruit sponsors, plan all the games, and work with the city to pull it off. Originally, I was part of the sponsorship team, which meant I just had to go talk to a bunch of businesses and ask for money/coupons/pizza.

One day, the city representatives came to our class with a huge box. Out of the box they pulled two things: a gorilla costume and a bunny costume. "We want you guys to be in charge of the mascots," they said. "Who wants to be on the mascot team?" asked my professor. No one volunteered. Suddenly my hand was in the air and I was on the mascot team (along with a few other hesitant classmates).

A few days later, I got a phone call. "Hey Shannon, are you on campus?" I was. "Can you come to the comm office? We need help with some promotion stuff." Sure. I showed up to find a few of my fellow PR students and a girl already dressed as a gorilla. (Why there was a gorilla involved, I still don't know.) "Will you put on the bunny costume? We just need to take a few pictures so we can promote the event on Instagram." Next thing I knew, I was walking all over campus as the Easter bunny during lunchtime: chasing the gorilla outside the student center, arm wrestling in the rotunda, and sunbathing on the quad. Kids were excited, Snapchats were flying, and my cheeks were turning more red than a pomegranate (mostly from how hot that costume was).

The second time I was recruited to wear the bunny costume was a few days later, when the mascots were set to make appearances at a few of the local businesses as a way to promote the event. This entailed another walk across campus, a car ride, and traipsing up and down Main Street as people stared. We tried on clothes, took pictures, and made a few children cry (whether from excitement or fright, it's still a toss up). An hour later I was dripping sweat and when someone gave me a bottle of water on the way back to the school, I had to ask her to open it because I couldn't hold anything with my bunny paws.

Luckily, I was not involved in the bunny's third appearance: the two high schools in Cedar City. However, the night of the event came, and guess who was the adorable mascot? You got it - yours truly.

I came prepared this time. For the heat of the fluffy costume, I wore a work out tank top and shorts. Because of how big the costume was, I tied a pillow around my stomach and brought safety pins to help hold the back together. I brought rubber bands to help hold the huge gloves on. I put my hair in a bun, pinned it back with a headband for good measure, and I was off: Shannon, the Easter Bunny for the next hour and a half.

At first, it was easy. Kids wanted to take pictures with me, moms were pumped, the pizza and bird mascots from Pizza Hut were excited (?), and everyone wanted to hug me. But then, Emily (my "handler" - they need a more demeaning term) told me I was going to be in a a dance-off with the gorilla. A what? *NSYNC started blasting from the DJ's speakers and then there I was, trying to dance in a mascot costume. If you have ever seen me dance, you know that all my moves are in my hips, which is not easy to portray when you have a pillow strapped to your tummy under rolls of fake fur. I did my best but the gorilla definitely won that competition. Talk to Colby for the video.

Next up was my trip through the blowdart arena, but this time, no one told me what to do. I was on my own in the inflatable maze, so I stole some girl's gun but considering they were blowguns (emphasis on the "blow") (lol), I couldn't do anything with it through that bunny head, so I gave it back and just took some of the darts to throw at people. However, as I already mentioned, the mittens were huge and I could barely hold the darts. When I tried to throw them, they went straight to the ground. The struggle is real, people.

I followed the gorilla over to the carnival games where he did the ring toss and I tried to swat down all the rings (due to my jealousy that the gorilla could actually hold and throw objects). I did the bottle toss through and knocked down a few bottles. I'll take my wins where I can get them.

Finally, it was time for the egg hunt. I followed Emily onto the playground where she had me sit in a swing and hold an egg as all the kids ran through to look for over 2000 eggs that we hid earlier in the day. It was dark by then and I couldn't see anything other than silhouettes and flashing lights through the mesh eyes of the costume. I felt pretty helpless: huge feet making me walk super slow and carefully, no use of my hands, and barely any sight. When the egg hunt was over we went back to the pavilion and I held up a sign for one of the high schools so they could return their empty eggs. One kid walked by and made fun of me so I chased him and tried to steal his candy (heh heh).

Then, it was all over and the bunny head finally came off. Luckily, since the whole thing was at night this time, I wasn't too hot. My debut as the Easter bunny was successful and actually way fun, despite my limited mobility.

However, the story doesn't end there. Until this Easter, I had no idea that people thought the Easter bunny was creepy. But then I saw this Buzzfeed article. Apparently, Easter bunnies all over the world are literally terrifying and more frequently cause tears of sadness in children than tears of joy. Luckily, my bunny costume was adorable... or was it? Note the comments in the following picture:

I was shocked! How could a cute and cuddly bunny be "soooo creepy?" But then another comment followed, this time from my own mother.

How rude. I refused to be brought down by the haters. I was an adorable Easter bunny and that was the end of it. (Although I did think the comments were funny.) And then, today on Instagram, I saw this:

So yeah. That's all.

Hashtag questival.

24 hours. 183 challenges. Over 300 teams. Winner gets a trip to Machu Picchu. This is what I spent this past weekend doing in a crazy event called the Cotopaxi Questival.

Basically, there's this new brand of outdoor gear named Cotopaxi (also the name of a volcano in Ecuador, so they say). For their brand launch, they created this event called the Questival. They explain it better on their website, but pretty much you make a team of two to four people (we had four: me, Colby, Gab, and Bri), check in at a location (ours was a Provo apartment complex), and then try to complete as many of the challenges as a team that you can in 24 hours, which are all worth varying amounts of points from one to 30. You had to post to social media to prove that you were doing the challenges, and all of your team's backpacks had to be pictured in each post. Challenges could be anything from hiking the Y (10 points), to eating a bug (3 points), to doing an hour of service (12 points), to "clocking" in a public place for 15 seconds (5 points). We had to Google that last one.

Upon arriving in Provo, we started out with a bang, immediately heading to a film festival at BYU for a cultural event (3 points) and to visit a museum (2 points). In the car on the way there we ate a few chocolate covered bugs, supplied by Bri, since we could eat up to three for up to nine points. I ate a cricket and it was gross. We then practically ran to the top of the Y which I definitely would not recommend. Thirteen switchbacks is twelve switchbacks too many. At the top we did some yoga and some yodeling for a few more points. Clearly Colby does not understand yoga.

From there we booked it to a Peruvian restaurant and ordered an appetizer for four more points. It was amazing and I need more Peruvian food. Unfortunately, this adventure set us back on time more than we had planned, so we rushed to the top of Provo Canyon with two longboards, a scooter, and a pair of rollerblades in tow. The challenge was to ride any human powered vehicle for 30 minutes, and we did that in style with phone flashlights and glowsticks on the Provo Canyon Trail. We even managed to warn strangers of a broken bridge (random act of kindness: 5 points) and climb to the top of an avalanche to get a picture of a waterfall (3 points).

We were planning on hiking the G in Pleasant Grove that night as well, but circumstances led to us ditching that plan and going straight to my parents' house to camp, where we started a fire without matches or lighter fluid and Colby made some pretty bomb tin foil dinners (reason number 242 to marry a chef). We set up a hammock and some sleeping bags and by the time we woke up, we had obtained about 150 points and had nine and a half hours left to go.

The first thing we did on Saturday was hike the G, also at record speeds which I double don't recommend. Seriously, that hike is straight uphill and it doesn't help at all when you have sore glutes and calves from riding a scooter for an hour. Plus, I'm pretty sure the G itself is made of recycled lawn furniture. We were all pretty happy when we finished that hike.

After the G we went to Thanksgiving Point to join a "service flash mob." This new challenge was posted on the app by Cotopaxi while we were on the hike - to spend half an hour picking up trash along the Jordan River Trail between the hours of 11:00 and 12:00, and it would earn us ten points. While in Lehi we also made a quick stop for a picture of Colby and Gab making the letter "L" with their bodies.

Next was Cotopaxi Headquarters in Cottonwood Heights. They had ski lift chairs and a bouldering wall in their office, which was pretty cool. We also got to look at some of their gear that they released on their website that day. Proceeds from every purchase go to help people in some part of the world. For example, every Cambodia water bottle sold helps provide someone in Cambodia with clean water for six months.

From there we went to hike the U. Thankfully, the U barely qualifies as an actual hike, which was good because all of our legs were screaming for rest. We hiked over to the letter in spandex to earn more points, and we were pretty pumped when we got there because it also meant we had spelled UGLY: the U in Salt Lake, the G in PG, making an L in Lehi, and the Y in Provo. A bonus of 20 whole points! (See what I mean about lawn chairs? Top right in the picture below.)

The State Capitol Building was next up on our plans, also known as the perfect place to do handstands, as well as plank and clock on top of beehives. Okay, doing it on top of the beehives wasn't a requirement but it was still cool. We saw a few teams there picketing for llama rights even though that wasn't a challenge (it was on the original released list, but then got removed for unknown reasons). Llamas are people too, obviously.

Following all this hiking and running around we were literally starving. Cotopaxi had been posting the top ten teams every two hours or so and we were not part of that list, and then after some social media stalking of the teams that were in the top ten, we determined we weren't really close to being on that list, so we decided to take a lunch break. We went to City Creek and devoured Chick-fil-a, and may or may not have stopped at Vans and H&M as well. When in Rome...

By this time it was about 3:30 pm and we had to be back to Thanksgiving Point by 6:00 so we decided to make one last stop in downtown and get a few more challenges done, starting with taking a picture in the elevator at the Salt Lake Library and donating a dollar to the Leonardo. When we came out of the museum we saw a guy planting seeds in a little planter box. Since planting a flower or tree was one of the challenges, we asked if we could help him plant a few. He was pretty pumped and proceeded to give us some seeds, let us choose where to put them, and tell us all about the yellow olendorf beets we were planting. So, if you're in downtown SLC in the next few weeks, check on my beets for me, eh?

For one of the last few challenges, we had to observe nature silently for 30 minutes. Being in the city, this wasn't easy, so we observed human nature as well. We also silently set up a slackline and did that for a while for a few points, and then made a rope swing out of it too. I ate a dandelion (horrible) and we took a picture on Trax. It was time to head to Thanksgiving Point and check back in for the end of the Questival.

When we got there, we realized there were still a few more challenges we had time to do. One was to take a picture in front of the waterfall at Thanksgiving Point Gardens. When we got there, we saw the perfect opportunity to complete the challenge to jump into a body of water with all your clothes on (10 points). We were at 290 points so it was the perfect way to end with 300! What we didn't know is that one of the best Vines ever created would emerge from it. If you haven't seen it, look it up on my Vine feed by clicking here. (You can also watch a few of our other Questival videos... Entertainment at its finest.)

We got to the finish line just before six and did one final challenge - take a selfie with a llama for 5 points - before checking in and submitting our score. Come to find out, we only got half the amount of points that the winning team got (I blame our lunch at Chick-fil-a... worth it) so we let ourselves relax and enjoy a few of the bands that Cotopaxi brought in for that night. And of course, to take a few more pictures with llamas, which are the company's mascot and symbol.

Even though we didn't even come close to winning, it was one of the most fun weekends I've had in a while and definitely the perfect way to end my college days with a bang. I would do it again in a heartbeat. Long live team #gethitched.

On being in an LDR.

LDR: long distance relationship. Usually an intimate relationship in which the two partners are separated by a considerable distance (for example, 54.9 miles). LDRs are most common among college students and "continue to be an understudied phenomenon," according to Wikipedia.

When Colby and I met, I lived in Cedar City, UT and he lived in Lehi, UT, a distance of 224 miles. However, soon after we started dating, he moved to St. George in order to decrease the L part of LDR. Honestly, it hasn't been too bad. During the summer we hung out all the time, and once school started for me we continued to see each other every weekend, switching off between St. George and Cedar. It also helps that we both work at the same place and get to see each other for like, 10 minutes every Tuesday and Thursday. It's even kind of fun getting to Skype on weeknights and sometimes communicate solely through Snapchat.

Since getting engaged, though, the distance has become much more of a nuisance. According to Wikipedia (don't ask me why I researched this), some of the most prominent difficulties for LDR couples include: increased financial burdens to maintain relationship, difficultly maintaining geographically close relationships, difficulty judging the state of the relationship from a distance, and high expectations from both partners for the quality of time they spend together.

I don't think Colby and I have much trouble with the last two seeing as how we're getting married, but I do know my gas expenses are through the roof. Also I'm currently writing this at like 10 pm on a Wednesday alone in my dark bedroom so it might be safe to say I don't have many "geographically close" interactions. But that's not really the point. The point of this post was for me to complain about being in an LDR while being engaged.

Cons:
• I want to be with Colby all the time and I can't.
• Texting, Snapchatting, and Skyping are just not the same as being face-to-face, no matter how fun the advertisements for Google Hangouts make it look.
• Wedding planning is just that more complicated and stressful.
• During the week I have nothing to distract me from doing homework other than daydreaming about the upcoming weekend.
• If a weekend happens when one of us is busy and can't go see the other, it's pretty much the worst thing that can happen.
• Constantly weighing the pros and cons of driving to St. George and back on a Wednesday night.
• Gas prices are literally my biggest enemy.
• Not having someone to cuddle with while I watch Netflix and eat Oreos.

I know what you're thinking. "I can't believe Shannon is complaining about her love life when she is engaged and almost married. It must be So Hard." (Capital S and H for sarcastic effect.) You're right. My life is actually pretty good. Which is why I also have a Pros section about being in an LDR while engaged.

Pros:
• Getting to spend all of every weekend with my favorite person in the world.
• Never having to make Friday night plans.
• Having a good reason to spend 10 days in St. George for spring break and just go hiking the whole time.
• Going on trips to Salt Lake for wedding planning and engagement pictures.
• Finding reasons to stay on Skype way after we should have gone to bed even though we aren't even talking about anything.
• Getting way too excited when Colby got a new phone because we can now send emojis and his camera is way better. Aka our text and Snapchat game went up to the next level.
• Going on trips to Flagstaff and LA to try to plan our future... which deserves a whole separate blog post.
• Knowing that we are both going through the same things and that we are there to support each other through it all.

I know what you're thinking this time too. "Awwww. Shannon really turned this one around." I didn't, though, really. Life is full of lots of pros and cons which is what makes it so flawed and perfect at the same time. I know I'll find the strength to survive through the last nine weeks of being in an LDR until I finally make it the amazing day where 54.9 miles turns into zero.

Engaged.

On the day I got engaged, I took three showers.

The day before I got engaged, I didn't shower at all. Which posed a problem because I have class at 9:00 am on Friday mornings and I was not about to get up early to shower even if I hadn't bathed for the previous 48 hours. So instead, I took half a shower (read: didn't wash my hair) and headed off to class at 8:45 on Friday, January 24.

When I got home from school around 11:00, I was greeted by frantic texts from Colby that said, "Make sure you're in St. George right at 4:30. Gab and Bri want to go hiking in Snow Canyon and then go to Benja for dinner." Man, Gab and Bri sure were on a tight schedule.

I worked out, took a real shower, packed, and messed around on Facebook for a while or something (this part of the day is all a blur really). I was starving but I waited to eat since we were apparently going hiking and you know how mad I can become if I'm in nature with no food. Around 2:45 I went to the kitchen and heated up some ratatouille that Colby had brought me the weekend before (reason number 241 to marry a chef) and talked to my roommate Marissa until I realized I had no idea what time it was and oh no I need to go and what if I'm late for this hiking trip which seems to be extremely important. So I threw all my stuff in the car and headed to St. George.

At this point I was pretty sure I knew what was going to happen so all the way to St. George I was freaking out. One minute I was super happy, the next I was a nervous wreck. It was like a mini Utah weather forecast in that Honda. "The high for today is 74 degrees and it's currently sunny, with a very strong chance you will be snowed into your home by this afternoon." You get the point. On the way there I got a text from Colby saying "I'm leaving work!" and another one two minutes later that said "Tell me when you're here and I will help you bring your stuff in!" Since he has a thirty minute drive home from work and had apparently just made it home in two minutes this whole thing was seeming a little weird, but who am I to judge. Maybe my concept of time was way off due to the hurricane going on inside my heart.

Anyway, I got to Colby's house and texted him "I'm here!" but after waiting patiently for around 20 seconds he was nowhere to be seen so I grabbed my stuff and proceeded to the front door, where he ushered me in. Gab and Bri arrived out of nowhere and we were off to Snow Canyon.

We went to the petrified sand dunes and chose one with a simple walk to the top to behold gorgeous, almost extra-terrestrial views of the canyon. It was a little cloudy and windy but we took some pictures and started heading down.

Then Colby was like "Let's go climb that one," gesturing to an even bigger sand dune that was going to lead to the exact same view but we all humored him and started climbing. This time, instead of a nice stroll to the top, our adventures included scaling a wall and hiking up an incredibly steep incline that left us all with burning calves and out of breath. Like I said, I had already worked out that day so I was pretty much done at this point. Then Colby: "Let's go up there." "There" being a slightly higher point across a little ravine. "No, no, I'm okay." - me. "Please? Come on?" - Colby. "Fine." - me (bitterly).

Gab and Bri hung back while Colby and I jumped over the ravine and hopped up to a little platform above where we just were. Well, I hopped up to the little platform while Colby got down on one knee. I was taken completely off guard, my hands flew to my face, and before he said anything I blurted out, "Wait, what?!" Colby started laughing and stood up. "Yeah, I'm just kidding," he told me. I'm just kidding. "What?" I demanded. Colby: "Yeah, I'm not going to do that right now." He could not stop laughing. This is when I became angry slash thought it was hilarious but didn't want him to know that. "You are the absolute worst!"

I believe the above picture features me trying to shove Colby off a cliff. Clearly I'm winning.

I managed to hold a grudge for at least half the walk to the car which is probably a record for me. When we got back to the house, Gab and Bri left to get ready for Benja and I reluctantly took my third shower of the day. Colby was being very mysterious until he showed up with a blindfold and told me to close my eyes. "I'm just going to take you across town. Is that okay?" he whispered in my ear while tying the blindfold. I nodded and he began to lead me out of the room.

As I walked, I began to realize that we weren't going across town and I thought he might be taking me to the backyard. This became evident when I tripped over the metal strip that separates the house from the back patio and almost face-planted. "This isn't across town," I mumbled. "I know," Colby said softly as he took off the blindfold.

And then all of a sudden, there I was. I was standing on a pathway lined with candles, twinkling Christmas lights were strung above my head, lanterns were glowing from tree branches, and the man of my dreams was kneeling in front of me with the biggest smile on his face. It was all so surreal as he pulled the ring out of his pocket and said, "Shannon, you're the best thing that has ever happened to me. I love you. I love you so much. Will you marry me?" I was so incredibly happy when I quietly said "yes" and he slid the ring on my finger. Everything was perfect as he led me to the candlelit table in the center of it all and served me the dinner that he made while I was in the shower. All my senses were full to bursting and I wanted to take it all in but all I could focus on was Colby, who couldn't stop smiling and I couldn't either and wow, I was engaged. We're engaged!

Afterward, I was pretty confused about whether Bri and Gab were at Benja or not, but they ended up coming over and taking pictures and Colby fed them too, don't worry. (Side note: amidst the whole proposal being very intimate and romantic, I'm pretty sure that when I took the first bite of the pasta Colby made I said something like "Wow, this is the best part of the night!" Classic.) I called my mom and she said "Well it's about time!" but of course she was really happy.

Finally, Colby and I got to hang out alone and we ended up watching Dan in Real Life and talking about how awesome it is that we're engaged. I told him that I imagined our proposal story to involve a helicopter. Granted, that would have been pretty cool, but I wouldn't change anything about the way January 24 went. And, since you're reading this post of your own free will, you can't even get mad at me for saying the most cliché thing there is: I can't wait to marry my best friend!

Stop the madness.

I truly believe the ultimate plague of this generation is spam email.

When I was bored between classes the other day, I decided to open up my old email on Yahoo. I made the switch to Gmail about a year ago (as everyone should) but I still have to open up the old one every few weeks just in case someone still hasn't gotten the memo. To my horror, when I finally made it to my inbox (which took a while since I forgot my password... again) there were over 300 unread emails and only, like, two of them were actual emails. The rest of them featured everything from the American Cancer Society, to iTunes, to Indoor Soccer, to The Yoga Shop. There were things in there I have never even signed up for or heard of in my life.

So, I decided to spend the next hour going through every single one of those emails and clicking "unsubscribe." Sometimes all I had to do was click one button. Sometimes I had to put in my email address. Sometimes I had to click a list of things I wanted to be unsubscribed from and explain why. Other times I had to put in a code and then do all of the above. Overall it was awful. But I did it. I refuse to be one of those people with 6204 unread emails piling up in my notification center. (On that note, if you are one of those people: How do you do it?!)

The worst part about it all is that I'm still getting spam. I unsubscribed from every single one of those blasted email but I'm still getting like three a day. Which I admit is a lot better than 20 a day but still. Why?!