Stereotypical...

So this week in class we've been looking at our own lives from the outside. At one point my professor had us turn to a person next to us and say what "class" you are. So if you really think about it, it isn't just how much money you have or the clothes you where. It is also where you live and how you live, it's also what the color of your skin (sadly enough) or which family you were born into. So where do you rank?
For me this is hard, I am a white girl that grew up with food on the table, parents that worked hard, I go to college and I'm not fighting my way through, my parents are helping (THANKFULLY!), so I would say I am well off... however I would never pay $100 for a pair of pants and I think I have only ever owned 2 things from Hollister and one of those things was perfume. I know once I get married I won't be able to live the same lifestyle I grew up living. I guess the point I am getting to is my family is upper-middle class. Sounds weird putting it out there.

Another description that my professor had me throw out there is the definition of my culture and it needed to be more than a one word description. Here is my rough sketch of what I feel my culture is. My culture is very family oriented, that would be because that is were it was born. In my home kind words are rarely said, but when they are you know that they are truthful. I see how my culture is changing now that my life is joining another, I say kind words more often, I tease less often. I see things in a more positive light and less of a pessimistic light. The values I have are because of how I was raised. I grew up going to church learning of Christ, because of that I think about Him often and when I make decisions I turn to the Lord for His help. My culture the people I surround myself with and the holidays I celebrate are all there because of how I was raised. We get to choose which aspects to take from what we had growing up to continue with that tradition or to change to make it better for yourself.

So people what is your culture? What is your status?

One door closes and another one opens

So you never expect it but it always happens the rug gets pulled out from under you and man that fall hurts. For me it was the ending of a chapter in my life. Of course I am sad to see a relationship end but I am excited to see what doors have been opened for me.

In light of the crazy events of last week my classes suffered greatly, that may be because the only time I wasn't crying was when I was in class or on my way to class. I wish I had super human powers and could over come those moments and concentrate on the bigger picture. Because so much of "the event" last week involved my family, I thought a lot about the mapping assignment we were given. I leaned a lot on the relationships that involved a dashed line or "permeable boundaries." These would be the healthy relationships where the boundaries aren't crossed, when I can be open but it doesn't cross the line of being too open. It was good for me to be able to look at it in that light seeing that I still have healthy relationships. Where one story ends another begins. Now I see the benefits of all these different subsystems in life, even when they aren't healthy this way I can move toward improvement. It definitely can be difficult trying to find that boundaries.

Don't worry I wasn't talking about Nick, he and I are all good.

My insights from the week... Jan9-15

This week we talked a lot about research. We discussed how we know if the research is valid or not. It was interesting one of our assignments was to research bad research. It is amazing how much there is out there. One guy shared his example and I think most people can relate to it... the National Inquirer. It is the prime example, it knows how to take something and blow it completely out of proportion. Next time you are in the line at the grocery store take a gander at the bad research. We had a short discussion on Monday but Wednesday sparked a lot of questions of my own.

We talked more about research. We talked about the difference between a law, a theory, and a hypothesis. And somehow we ended up on the discussion of Organic Evolution. So freaking interesting. BYU came out with a booklet talking about it. I was so interested that... get this... I looked it up! Here is the link if you are interested. I haven't made it all the way through but it does spark some interesting ideas that as a Latter Day Saint you don't think of right off the bat. Some other things people pointed out was that we don't need to understand evolution. It isn't essential to salvation, so spend time doing the things that will take us closer to Christ. Which if you are me makes sense but the man that spends his whole life researching it probably doesn't appreciate that comment. Then someone else made the comment that in the booklet it takes about Adam and Eve are the first humans to be born on the earth. So that means that Lucy could in fact be part of evolution. Things change for the better and for the worse all the time. That is what we talked about on Friday.

We talked about the different trends that are being made in families today. There were multiple trends we talked about, the one that really got me thinking was the living alone one. So I am not going to be one of those people that lives alone, specially cause I am getting married and all but before I met Nick it crossed my mind often. I was actually looking forward to it. I can defiantly see why people live alone. Something take really made me think about it more was when someone made the comment that life is harder when you aren't responsible to someone. When you don't have to report to someone, how it can be destructive. It makes sense. I am glad that I am not going to end up being alone. I am just like everyone else and I crave personal relationships. I need to talk and be able people or I'll go crazy and start talking to walls or something.

Well those are my insights from the week in my family relations course. I hope something as perked your curiosity and you can now use google to your advantage.... Please leave comments, that is the whole point of this blog so you can give me feed back

Family Relations Course

I have an assignment for Family Relations Course to start a blog... good news I already have one. For the first assignment when needed to set up some objectives for myself. So here they are...

• For I would really like to become comfortable with all the different stages of family. There is a different manner in which to hold a conversation with newlyweds, first time parts, families that have been together for 10, 25 and 50 years.
• I would also like to prepare myself for marriage being newly engaged there is a lot of unknown ahead of me and becoming comfortable with different aspects of marriage will be beneficial to me.
• Another aspect that I would like to be introduced to is the more secular look on marriage. I have grown up in the church and have always understand that this is an eternal commitment. I would like to understand more of my in-law-to-be's perspectives, they are members now but they have some different views on how long we should date and be engaged. I want to be prepared in case my child ends up marrying someone that isn't from an LDS family.