The Brooklyn Bridge

Me, Teagan, Alyssa. Two of my best friends, the day Teag got her mission call. This weekend I was doing a show at a seven-year-old's birthday party, and as I was setting up, I noticed the middle of a scene. Two of the party guests seem to have a minor quarrel, which ended in "Fine!" from the first girl and "FINE!" from the one talking with her. I'm not sure what happened, but that second grade drama is serious stuff, as many of you know. As the show went on, they laughed and had a good time but did not sit by or talk to one another. At the end, all the kids sit in a circle to meet and pet the rabbit. Bitter Girl tried picking up the rabbit and stumbled with how to hold it. Ex-friend immediately (out of habit, I infer)  helped her and showed her how. They paused and (no longer) Bitter Girl said "Do you want to be friends again?" And Helper/Healer Girl said, "Yeah, let's do it." And bam. Besties again. How easy was it for these ...

This was a very, very fortunate random grab off the "Featured" shelf at my library. Sentence-Synopsis:  An explanation of common autistic behaviors through an extensive interview with a thirteen-year-old autistic boy. At only 193 pages, this was a two-hour read, which became two important hours of my life. Naoki answers the questions about autism honestly and fully, providing unexpected understanding for an outsider. The active effort to understand and love each other is essential, and this book provides another opportunity for that. It reminded me that as I go on my mission, it isn't "my" mission. My mission is for others, for the people in Japan. To love them, understand them, and render service to them the best I can.  The Reason I Jump  is a gentle, wonderful reminder to simply follow a commandment: Love One Another. Overall Grade:  A Disclaimers: No controversial or adult material.

(so far) 1. Tears 2. Hugs 3. Extreme Overeating 4. Loss of desire to go to work 5. Premature feelings of missing your job 6. Random hymn solos 7. Tears 8. Extreme Happiness 9. Scripture Hunger 10. Insomnia 11. Oversleeping 12. Tons of Exciting Mail 13. Desire to kiss and cuddle always 14. Desire to never look at a boy ever 15. More eating 16. Getting up early to exercise and eating Lucky Charms instead 17. Writing every missionary you know daily 18. Loss of proper grammar usage 19. Making lists 20. Losing keys 21. Sudden need to enroll in every Institute class 22. Happy tears 23.  Loss of motivation to do anything that requires opening of the eyes or moving of the limbs. 24. Surges of Satan eating your brain 25. Surges of the Spirit hugging your heart 26. Constant itch to move out 27. Extreme rage and hatred for anything that dares to stub your toe 28. Elongating of bucket list 29. Inability to let go of your mother whilst hugging 30. Crying over simpl...

This book was strongly recommended to me, and the title snatched me for sure. Unfortunately, I was overall disappointed. Sentence-Synopsis:   Fangirl is about a girl who is obsessed with Harry Potter and doesn't want to move on to college but she has to anyway and has personal growth. First of all, I really enjoyed Rowell's writing style. Her sentences were crisp and her vocabulary was good enough to keep me interested. She had excellent flow and easily painted a picture of each scene for her readers. She often includes details that may seem unnecessary, but really end up complementing the piece nicely. Having just finished my freshman year of college myself, the story was very relatable. Cather has all the same apprehensions we do, and same dry humor we love to use in ventilation on Twitter. I can see how readers easily connect with her story. We root for her as we would ourselves in her relationships and accomplishments. I was simply disappointed that the story didn't ...

Sometimes I go lovely places and marvel at a geographically different portion of the sky we live under. The trees are majestic and the mountains are big show offs and the air feels lighter. When the environment changes sometimes the thoughts get cleaner and deeper and extremely analytical. So I feel like I've learned another tiny piece about something  I want to be good at and am a long way from doing so. But I forgot my journal, so here's another 212 words into the sea of internet oblivion. It's not about loving each other despite our weaknesses, it's about loving each other because of them. When they have a weakness and they're willing to show it to you, that is a rather high level of trust. They don't want the weakness, maybe they haven't even recognized it yet. But there is a good chance they are trying their best. With the trust, you have the opportunity to help them improve their character and yours by demonstrating patience, understanding, suppor...

So there's that moment. When you have to use the bathroom at your guy friends' apartment, and you're like ew. Just ewwww.*Shiver* No Brooklyn, it's okay, they're boys. Boys just do, they don't analyze spaces. Boys are messy. No big deal. But then you realize, oh my goodness. I'm marrying one of these someday. And that means live in the same proximity thereof. So conclusion: Boys (or messy people): ask your mother if you're rather messy, and if so, enhance your bonus points enormously by working on it in the name of love. Girls (or fellow anxiously OCD people): take a deep breath and calculate priorities. Messy rooms are not rebellious backlashes of evil laughter. They are humane occurences. Wishing you peaceful, strong, responsible and passionate love, Brooklyn

A Reflection of my Religion 101 Class, with a rather pretentious but honest-as-possible ending. As soon as I started registration for college, I asked the counselor if there was a Religions of the World class. I was eager to take it because I plan on serving an LDS mission in the fall. I wanted to know as much as I possibly could about what other people were thinking before I went out and told them my way was better. The two most memorable phrases Dr. Anderson has ever said to me came on the first day of class. First, “What the hell is Religion?” I thought it was witty and ironic, and I liked to think I understood witty humor and was cool enough to nod in comprehensive laughter.  Religion is a system comprised of people with similar belief, with rituals to enact those beliefs. Religion is a community, a therapist, and an inspiration. Religion is controlling, violent, and destructive. These are all things Religion can be, and have been. Learning about all these denominati...