Reflections of a True Millennial

Birthdays are celebrated in many different ways. First birthdays are usually celebrated with close friends and family, but the only thing you want is cake. Of course, you don't remember. By the time you're eight or ten, you might upgrade to a bounce house, water slide, or any sort of the thing. Once you're about twelve or thirteen you become too "cool" for birthday parties. You'd rather just go the mall with your friends, because that's "cool." Spanish girls will celebrate their fifteenth birthday with a glorious Quince! Other girls will have a glamorous Sweet 16 instead. Well my big 16th birthday was this Friday. I'm not a girl, so no Sweet 16. Thankfully. But, my birthday was pretty atypical. The day was spent hiking to the summit of Mount Timpanogos, elevation of 11,753 feet. The question is, what's the point of that? We hiked and hiked for hours on end, slurping larges amount of water, and munching on obligatory trail mix. Once yo...

     For many South Floridians who frequent I-75, a new construction site has popped up between Post Road and Griffin. It's kind of a peculiar design. The construction site was even featured in a contest of a local magazine asking reader's what was being built on this site. Photo Credit: Derek Hernandez 6.23.12      Behind the gray Ford and white crane is the said construction site. Well the site is one for a Mormon Temple. Now why would I be writing about a new Church building, like who cares? There's Jewish Temples on every other street corner, so what's the big deal about a new Mormon one? Well our Temples aren't exactly the same as standard meetinghouses. Perhaps you've heard of Mormon Temples and their personification as places of mystery where only Mormons are allowed and secret activities take place. Well the cloud of mystery surrounding these buildings is often misguided. Let me explain.       In the Temple, only faithfu...

Wow, I haven't blogged in almost a month! So by now, almost exactly a month of summer has gone by. And for me, it hasn't been a bad month, but it hasn't been the month I would've wanted. This past Wednesday was the 4th of July, which of course means a big fireworks show. While sitting through the overly-long, 40 minute fireworks show on Wednesday, it all reminded me of New Year's. The beginning of a year is also a time of celebration with fireworks and fun. And New Year's is a time of new beginnings and fresh starts, accompanied by resolutions of how you'll make your life better in the coming year. These resolutions often are invigorating for a few weeks, but then expectations fall flat and the high hopes of the year are not realized, when the year has barely even started.      While contemplating this New Year's activity in July, I thought of how my life is now compared to where I want it to be. Of course, I'm not a bad person or anything, but so...