Opinions You Never Asked For

So with the excitement of the elections that happened this week, my attention has been drawn to the glaring issues that exist in our current political system. I'm not talking about the social issues that you all voted on but rather the political parties you voted for. This isn't going to be a rant about my political views, it's a rant about my views on politics in general. I grew up in Idaho, which is a Republican state. I now live in Utah, which is a Republican state. Growing up I assumed that I was a Republican because that’s what my parents were and I had the idea in my head that the Republican views were the only ones that aligned with my religion. Now that I'm older and able to think for myself I've realized that I have absolutely NO IDEA what each party stands for with the exception of like three issues. And I'm willing to bet that the same goes for a lot of you. So here's my problem(s) with political parties: nobody has any idea what they're a...

So now that I've discussed Rule 1, I'll go ahead and give my two cents about Rules 2 and 3. In case you've forgotten, I'll restate the Rules before beginning. Rule 1: Dating someone for a month (or even three or four) is not sufficient time to have decided that you're gonna marry that person and to start planning your wedding. Rule 2: Marrying the first person you date out of high school or even anyone you date before you're at least twenty is usually stupid (not always). Rule 3: Having your wedding planned before you're even "engaged" is a mockery. #oynaf So discussing Rule 2 is a little trickier because it's not as black and white to me as Rule 1 is, so let me paint you a little picture. In high school I dated a great guy for about eight or nine months; he was two years older than me, and he left on a mission half way through my junior year. We wrote back and forth, I dated other people, he came home, we went on a date, we went our sep...

Forewarning: if you got married really young or really quickly, this post might not be for you. So I'm obviously not married, but I'm obviously not an idiot either; so here's my view on marriage (particularly at BYU). I'll start by laying some of my ground rules: 1. Dating someone for a month (or even three or four) is not sufficient time to have decided that you're gonna marry that person and to start planning your wedding. 2. Marrying the first person you date out of high school or even anyone you date before you're at least twenty is usually stupid (not always). 3. Having your wedding planned before you're even engaged is a mockery. #oynaf So let's start with the first point. Here at BYU/BYU-I as well as in the Idaho/Utah culture of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, you see a lo t —A  LOT —of people getting engaged after two months, maybe even as long as four. Then they get married two months later, so I have to assume that th...

I'm just gonna say one thing about sexism, and then I'll never bring it up again. I think sexism still exists, but I wouldn't call myself a feminist--at least the kind that storm the capital demanding higher pay and a complete language reform to remove man  from every word in existence. My kind of feminism is the kind where I want men and women to be equal: have equal opportunities, have the same regard for their abilities, have the right to not be labeled based on their gender, etc. But I don't necessarily believe that that change will happen by rioting in the city square and belittling men for still wanting to open the door for you. Making a lot of noise might get the government to change laws, but it won't get people to change their attitudes; in fact, it might just make sexism even worse because now we associate all "feminist" women with being crazy man-haters. I see good in the things that the feminist movement is trying to change, but I feel that...

So I guess I'm a blogger now... Not that I have anything against bloggers, besides the fact that I generally believe that they are pretentious and seeking attention. I mean how important do you think you are to dedicate a whole website to your everyday life and assume everybody wants to know all about it? But here I am, so I guess that makes me pretentious now too.  My basic reason for doing this is that I want to practice my writing. For those of you who don't know (which is probably most everyone), I am switching my major at BYU to Editing & Publishing; this will lead me into a career in editing, which usually requires strong writing skills. While I don't think I'm a terrible writer *everyone reading scoffs*, I want to improve my abilities, so again, here I am. Now I know what everyone's thinking, "you're telling me you're a blogger who's not a 'mommy' who loves sharing all her fun cookie recipes and doing DIY projects for her tren...