"I Hate Mold" Rant

I hate mold. I just hate it so much. I hate mold. Guys, I hate mold. I HATE MOLD! I hate it. I really do. It's creepy, it's everywhere. It comes like a rapist--open the cupboard and BAM IT'S THERE! I hate hate hate hate hate double-exclamation-point-HATE mold!!

I hate mold.

Mold gets on my bread, mold grows on my cheese, I had to check everything twice to make sure there wasn't any mold but that's the thing about it, it'll always show up when you THINK you've found it all. Mold grows on my hogies, my biscuits, my dinner rolls, and my freaking croissants. What does the mold want with my freaking croissants?

Mold hates me. It hates me very much. It's following me.

Mold could be anywhere. It could be on my poptart or in my popcorn or my crackers or in my cereal or baking soda or vegetables or the back of my refrigerator and guess what ELSE!? My hoooooonnneeeeyyyyy. What if mold could grow on my honey!??!?!?!?!? My life would be over. Ruined. Rejected by the good graces of the mold king, who i'm pretty sure lives in my cupboard because mold gets in everything after a few days. I HATE MOLD. I hate it I hate it I hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate times infinity hate mold!

I hate mold. And do you wanna know WHY I hate it so much!? Because it's everywhere and I can't defrost more than half a loaf of bread at a time because the mold will start to grow and that means I have to cut out parts of the bread or just throw the whole thing away and if I do that then I won't be able to have my breakfast that ALWAYS consists of two pieces of toast with honey so if I don't have bread I don't have toast and if I don't have toast I don't have breakfast and if I don't have breakfast I might starve to death and die.

I don't want to die.

So there's the story. I just hate mold. I triple dog dare you to hate mold more than I hate it but that's not possible because I'm the hatiest. I just hate mold.

The End.

Tears Are Good for the Soul

I believe tears are the essence of all the impurity within my soul. They represent the bitterness, the anger, the stress, the anxiety, the doubt, the self-pity, the sorrow, and the weakness. And with each tear I shed, my soul becomes a little emptier.

But this emptiness then makes room for me to fill the extra space with the things that make me stronger:
Family. Love. The gospel. Hope. Peace. Confidence. Encouragement. The will to try. The will to succeed. Endurance. Patience. Peace. Understanding. Acceptance.

The only challenge is when, in the moment after tears are shed, deciding to act and fill the space with good things instead of putting all the weakness back inside. It's a little scary to think that all the good the tears did for you can be undone with just one thought or one failure to act. Which is why today I decided something:

Thinking doesn't make it any better, 

Doing does.

One and The Same (But Unlike Any Other)

I have lived in Happy Valley practically my whole life. I moved to Orem when I was six, and went through all of my primary, secondary, and post-secondary education within a 10 mile radius. I fell in love with this place, this community, this very Mormon way of life. Some could say I'm trapped in the happy valley "bubble," but I don't perceive it as something to feel ashamed of or suffocated by. That said, the entire time I was growing up, I struggled with feeling unique and authentic. It took me several years to realize my divine individuality, but once I did, I stood fast to it. I know who I am. I feel unique and authentic and genuine and different and REAL. I am unlike any other girl anywhere, and nothing anyone says could shake that confidence.

But not everyone knows that. Since coming to BYU, I have heard several people say how the thing they don't like about this place is that everyone is the same. I even have a few friends who think that all the girls have the same styles of clothes, of hair, the same ideas and outlooks on life, the same desires and the same attitudes. No one is interesting and everyone is a clone of everyone else.

Every time I hear this, I am really offended by their shallow-mindedness. Because despite popular belief, girls here are not the same. But there is a reason people sometimes think that.

Here, in Provo, UT, we are completely surrounded by members of the church. Faithful, testimony-building people who constantly try to do the right things and become better and better people. In the scriptures, Christ commands us to "be like me." Christ wants everyone to become like Him. Everyone. JUST like him. In word, in deed, in attitude, in bravery, courage, love, light, strength, mercy, forgiveness, dignity, grace, beauty. He wants all of us to be able to "see [His] image" in our countenances. And this is what faithful Latter-day Saints strive for. This is what righteous girls at BYU seek after.

When we try to align our lives to live like Christ, we become one and the same. We have the same goals, the same desires, and the same light and attitude and strength and many other things. It's no wonder outsiders think we're all alike; it's because we are. In one sense. But in another, we are also all different. We have different personalities, different quirks and struggles and ideas and philosophies. We have different interests, different styles. Every girl at BYU is unlike any other, anywhere.

And I think that anyone who is too narrow-minded to see that is missing something.

***Post-Edit:
I just wanted to say that I am not in any way angry or annoyed at the people who have this "Provo girls are all the same" mentality. It's the mentality itself that bothers me, not the people. I believe that we are not a pure product of our ideas alone, and that ideas can be changed. I realize I tend to make a really big deal out of this issue, and that may be due to the fact that I'm still insecure about it. Honestly, I don't know if I'm really that unique, but I sure hope I am. I write so much about this topic because it's one that I have thought a lot on, that I have racked my brain over, and despite that, I still don't have all the answers. Maybe I am totally wrong. Maybe I'm just trying to defend my dreams of individuality. Maybe I just need to let this idea go and put it to rest. Either way, this is all that I am going to say about it. I'm sorry if I make anyone mad by how worked up I get. I'm just like you, trying to make sense of this crazy world of people and ideas and things and to survive the process. That's all. :)******

These FREAKING Retards!

................totally make my day. Like every day. :-)

Seriously, gooood times in Synthesis and Sectionals and serendipitous encounters in the HFAC and gigs with Alex Boye and facebook wars and just everything! The list goes on.

So.
Ben and Jory,
the "freaking retards"
(but really quite amazing)
keep on rocking.
:-)

Quirky Things, Episode 1

I washed my hands in the testing center bathroom the other day. And when I went to grab a towel, I found this:

I just started laughing. :D

Seriously, I think they should put googly eyes on ALL the paper towel dispensers. Especially the testing center ones. just saying.