Reflections of a True Millennial

I know I've written about friendship multiple times, but a post on my friend Maddie's tumblr made me think of something new. As I stated in my summer post, my summer basically started with a day at the park. We went to the park after I sent out an annoying Facebook message asking some people to go to the park. I didn't particularly know a lot of these kids, I mean we had hung out a few times, but we weren't good friends. Why did I choose to invite them? I don't really know. They seemed like good enough kids, but it's not like I was desiring new friends or anything. Maybe it was just something that had to happen. Now some of those kids that I invited to the park are my very best friends. So the moral of the story is to not be afraid to be friends with someone. Extend the effort to be friends to everyone you meet. If they deny you, who cares? It's not like your friends with them anyway. And if they become your friend, then you will be so much happier. So be a

So school is back in session. Yay... But school isn't all that bad because it's a way for us to challenge ourselves, without school you wouldn't be half as smart as you are now. A lot of things we learn in school seem (and are) pointless, but maybe we aren't learning for the actual knowledge but rather for the acquisition of learning ability. If your an engineer then the theme of Romeo & Juliet doesn't matter, but by learning the theme in 9th grade you got the ability to learn in a different way. As we go throughout school we obtain many abilities and skills that will assist us in any profession. So challenge yourself to learn the most you can and use school to it's full potential! Another way to challenge yourself is to continue the learning at home. You could read things that you actually want to read, and challenge yourself in things that you enjoy. You could also jog your memory with the quizzes on  Sporcle . They're really fun and challenging. And y

And we're back. Three months of fun and now it's done. Well technically I don't start for another week, but most of you start school tomorrow, so yeah. Anyway, as we head back to school, don't forget who you are. Don't forget that you're a child of God, and remember not to compromise your values for anyone. Always live up to your standards because if you can't even keep a promise to yourself, who can you trust? Strive to live with virtue and goodness in all that you do. Don't just try to fit in and be a cool kid, stand out and be yourself. You shouldn't care what anyone thinks about you as long as you're being the person that you want to be. Because if you're living up to what someone else then you're not really living. So as you head back to the races, be the best that you can be, learn the most that you can learn, and have the most fun that you can have. Good luck!

     Summer 2011 was definitely the best summer of my life. Most of my blog posts are inspirational, but this one is more about the amazing summer that I had. So much has happened that one blog post can't even begin to describe the best three months of my life. I've met so many new friends. I've felt the Spirit so strongly on multiple occasions. I've had amazing adventures. I've had heartbreaking lows. But through it all, I've become more of who I want to be. Maybe summer officially started on June 9th, but for me the adventure started in May. In May, I started to hang out more with these awesome kids from Church. I think it all started when we went to the park on one hot Saturday afternoon. Back then, some of them were just kids from Church. Now a lot of them have become my closest friends. We continued to do things almost every weekend before summer started. But with the start of summer brought something sad as well, a girl named Jada that I had known for all

Why do I even spend the effort to write this? Well it's turned into something that isn't really about me anymore, it's about my friends and family. Because my friends and family are a part of me. They have shaped who I really am, and without them I wouldn't be the person that I am today. So this is all really to make them happy because I'm happy when my friends and family are happy. Seeing someone close to me in pain makes me sad. So that's why I do all of this. I try to make others happy, because there is no reason to be sad. Everything happens for a reason, so find the reason and move on. I promise that if you try to help others, you will feel much better yourself. So I challenge everyone to offer a helping hand to those in need, because it'll help you too.

No matter who you are, you are a child of God. No matter what you've done, what has happened to you, or what has come into your life, you are a child of God. And that is a fact. He is your Father and will never forsake you. He is there to guide you, to protect you, to lift you up, to help you make it through. You have the best dad ever and He is looking out for you. Sometimes you're faced with trials and hardships, but it's all in His plan. You have no reason to be sad because you are a child of our Heavenly Father. And that's all that really matters.

This blog is based on my life, and friends are really important to my life, so I like to mention my awesome friends who do awesome things. So I love to compliment my friends, because they are all just that cool. And when they become happy, I'm happy also. Anyway I wrote something cheesy on this girl's wall the other day, and she sent me the sweetest message ever. And that's because love comes back. If you're ever having one of those days where you simply hate everything, go out and compliment someone. It will make life so much better, your spirits will just be lifted while you're lifting someone else. So always make an effort to compliment and help others, it makes you so much happier. I guarantee it will. Just forget about yourself and start to work towards the happiness of others. (Title from "Love Comes Back" by Stephanie Mabey Watch it here )

We are the chosen generation, brought forth to the earth in this day to spread the Gospel. We are literally stakes of Zion, and representatives of God in our schools and communities. In some places of the world, faithful youth are few and far between. As the old addage goes, "United we stand, divided we fall." So as youth of the Church we need to be united. Divisions and cracks among peers only gives Satan more power over us. Believe me, I know the drama. I have best friends that are pulled apart. And they're still all my best friends, they're just separate now. I know that everyone has their reasons for these divisions, but I challenge everyone to let them go. I know that is really hard, it really is, but just try it. We can't afford to live separately. I'm not asking you to be best friends with everyone. I'm asking you to forgive and forget, so that we don't give the adversary any more power than he has now. And I know some of you have been really em

So there's this friend of mine, and she has been asking me so much to be mentioned in my blog, and now the opportunity has finally come. That's because her blog inspired me to write this post. In a recent post she mentioned something that really stood out to me. That was for us to live worthily at all times. The one overarching purpose for us to come into this world was to live righteously enough to enter into God's Kingdom again. Nothing else even matters. Why would you steal something when it undermines your quest for your salvation? Why would you ever take a sip of beer? Or a whiff of drugs? Or cheat on a test? Or steal music online? Why would you ever do any of these things if it is putting you farther from Heavenly Father? Committing sins won't even make you happy in this life and it certainly won't make you happy in the next life. There is absolutely no reason at all that you should commit sin. It will bring you heartbreak and sorrow in this life and the next.

Have you ever hoped so much for something, and then end up not getting it? Like maybe there was that one toy you really wanted on Christmas, and then you didn't get it when you woke up in the morning. Well, today was basically one of those days. Let me give you some background information. One of my best friends lives in Nebraska. I've never set one foot in Nebraska, but he's my best friend. We all had high hopes of him moving out here because of a job his dad was going after. But today the news broke, that wasn't going to happen. But oddly, I'm okay with this. Somehow, I'm not too sad. Because I have no reason to be sad. What if I never even met this friend? I'm happy because I had the chance to meet him and become such good friends with him. Even if he's not moving here, I'm still glad that he can be valued as one of my best friends. So even if things don't end up in the right destination, don't be sad. Be glad that you had the journey, and

June 21st, 2011. I received a frantic call from a dear friend that her best friend was involved in a car accident during her family's cross country trek to Nevada. I rushed home, and minutes later Facebook confirmed that our friend had died. Tomorrow is her funeral. At first all anyone could feel was despair and anguish for the first few days. Was it real life, did that actually happen?  But since then, the sadness has been replaced with joy. Not joy for the end, but joy for the beginning. Joy for the beginning of an era of remembrance and joy for life in general. Because she is gone from us, it has become easier to look in retrospect at the past with her. I've known her my whole life, but never became really good friends with her until the months that I knew her. I'm glad I had those months, because I'm glad that I could even value her as one of my best friends. And also our loss brings about a joy for the lives we still have. Everyone else is still here, we still have

That’s right, I’m writing about swag. At the insistence of a friend, I’m actually writing about this. Recently in my group of friends everyone has become obsessed with the word swag. For example, the other day I had to pick out my locker at school. I walked in, saw the perfect locker, and exclaimed “Swag!” Example two, a group of my friends recently made a cake that had swag spelled out on top with chocolate chips. So what is swag? While the dictionary defines it as “an ornamental festoon of fruit,” the world describes it as something similar to “coolness.” It’s almost like being yourself. So it doesn’t matter if you’re wearing the cool clothes, or hanging out with the cool kids, because everyone is their own type of cool. And that’s the thing. You can’t try to copy someone else just because they appear to be cool. You have to be you, because being someone else just isn’t worth it. So live your life and be yourself. That’s right, I just wrote about swag.

Check out my friend's blogs!! http://j-lax.blogspot.com/ http://briannahales.blogspot.com/

You've probably heard the saying "Life isn't fair" countless times in your life. But I'm here to say that life IS fair. Before you stop reading and report me to a mental asylum, read on. Obviously, we all get trials in life. Some people get greater trials than others. But no matter what the trial, it is fair. Because if Heavenly Father places a trial before you, it's because He knows that you will be able to overcome it. And it's up to you to make the effort and overcome it. You can't just hope for the problem to be solved, or for the tribulation to go away. You actually have to make the effort to overcome that trial. How so? Fight. Not literally, but center your will around the idea to never give up. There are great things in store in the future, if you live the way you should today. So never give up, no matter how daunting a task may seem. Because an amount of pain now will be worth it in the long run. And that is why life is fair, because we actuall

So since the EFY soundtrack is amazing, I decided to take a line from each of the songs and write about it. I already did this for the song "What Faith can Do" and now I'm writing about "We Believe". Everyone has those days, where it seems like the whole world is against you and everything bad decided to happen within one 24-hour period. But those are just days, merely 24 hours. Think about it, you have eternity to live. So what does one bad day really matter? 24 hours, or 1440 minutes,  or 86,400 seconds vs. eternity. So really, if today gets you down, it's not the end of the world. Because tomorrow is a new day. The sun will rise and spread it's bright rays across the earth. And that's a guarantee. Because even if it was cloudy today, the sun will rise. So even if you had the worst day of your life, tomorrow can be better. Because we don't believe that life is shaped by one day, it's shaped by a lifetime of decisions and actions. You didn

Hey hey! Check out my friend's blog! It is actually really inspirational, so check it out and follow it. Thanks!   j laxpro1.blogspot.com

According to dictionary.com a Wunderkind is "a wonder child or child prodigy." Somebody today remarked that I was such a person, but I think that can apply to everyone. We're all wonders at what we set our minds to. Anyone can do anything they want and become the best at it, all it takes is work. You're not born a master at anything, you might have the abilities to excel at that, but it still requires work. You are what you strive to become. So don't ever go through life on the assumption that you're a beast and have everything made for you. And don't go through life thinking that you're a loser and have no future. To anyone, the way your life turns out is all based on work. So never give up on your dreams and on who you are, because it can all change based on your effort. That's my two cents for today.

Okay, so I know that I have a lot of people to mention in my blog, but I'm procrastinating that. Oh the irony. One of the most important things we will ever have is time. But the only time you really have is right now. So what are you going to do with it? You could squander it doing something unimportant such as going on Facebook, or you could use it to develop your God given talents. Now of course, it's okay to participate in things such as Facebook or video games. They're not very important, but in moderation they are fun. But the use of our time should be focused on developing our talents and finding your purpose in life. The first part of this isn't too hard to tackle. To do this, you have to find out what you like to do. Try a variety of things such as writing ( :D ), drawing, singing, playing an instrument, playing sports, or anything else. Find one or two things that you are good at and passionate about, then follow these things. Work hard to become better and de