I n t e r [n ] v i e w

Looking through summer internship opportunities, I decided I have an experiential gap that I would like to fill.

I needed to do an internship to prepare for an internship.

So I headed to the Southern Virginia Communications Department.

(Because I'm really good at blogging, right? Right.)

It was definitely one of the more interactive and interesting interviews that I have been in.

To get a feel for my vibe, I fielded some creative questions:

What is your favorite youtube video? 
Easy.

[PSA: That's not her mom]

What did you eat for breakfast?

Unfortunately, half of a grapefruit. My yogurt was MIA.

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

#Embarrassing 

In kindergarten I wrote that, one day, "I really hope to make the cut as a secretary." (I don't think that's how I spelled "secretary," though)

80's music--cool or not?

Uh oh. I knew I'd run into trouble with this one.

"Um. I'm actually not really sure what 80's music is?"

"The Smiths, David Bowie?"

"Umm..."

"Well, it's not a big deal; we just listen to a lot of music while we work. It can be a source of contention and I'm a 80's/90's guy."

"Oh, 90's? (feeling a combination of relief and trepidation) I know Backstreet Boys and N'Sync!"

"...Not that kind of 90's music..."

Pretty cringe-worthy, right? But I keep going...

"Well, if it's the kind of music that my mom listens to, I like it!"

World, you should know that this guy is in his late 20s/ early 30s. He is **not** in the same demographic as my mother.

But we THANKFULLY moved on from there to discuss the pros/cons of Chipotle and Cafe Rio.

(The pork salad and tomatillo sauce put me solidly in league with Cafe Rio, but I do prefer the rice and tortillas at Chipotle. In case you were curious.)

Moral of the story:

Never pick me for your trivia team.

I am White

I'm currently enrolled in a class called "Gender in Modern Europe." I expect I'll learn a lot.

On the first day we defined "Sex," "Gender," and "Sexuality," and wrote down one thing that would be better and one that would be worse if we woke up as the opposite sex the next day.

I wrote:

Worse:

1. Being bad at sports would be really embarrassing

2. The pressure to currently have plans for a lucrative career

Better:

1. Knowing what to wear to a job interview

2. People taking me more seriously

There are a million other things I can think of, retrospectively. If I woke up as a guy, maybe I wouldn't have paranoia about the intentions of the man strolling down his driveway as I walk past his house after dark. And I wouldn't menstruate. That would be cool.

But it's the next exercise we did that I actually wanted to write about.

We wrote "I am...." and then listed ten things about ourselves. The first few were easy.

Daughter

Fiancee

Student

Friend

It got harder

Faithful

22

Millennial

The word "white" came to mind, and I mulled it over, discarding it. Because, I've been taught, we don't define ourselves or one another by the color of our skin. If you're not colorblind, you're racist. Or something like that. As this person explained, "'After many years of being told we should all be colorblind, as if that was possible, a lot of people don’t know how to enter' a conversation about race."

I kept brainstorming and writing:

Returned Missionary
Aunt
Sister

We talked about what we'd written, and the different things a person could be defined by. No one in the class had written their race. One had written her ethnicity.

And I left regretting that I hadn't.

Because I am white. And that matters. It matters not because it makes me more important, but because if I recognize that I'm white, I can recognize that I have been sorted into a privileged social caste. In today's society, I am often, even if subconsciously, devalued because I am a woman. But I am given an advantage in being white. I have to recognize that if I'm going to fight against a prejudiced system. Refusing to recognize that being white makes a difference is refusing to acknowledge the unique hardships faced by so many because their skin is black. If you think something is being treated equally in the status quo, you're not going to try to iron out the inequalities-- because in your mind, they don't exist.

I'm still learning and figuring these real social issues out, but here's a video that explains it all better than I have:

Found this here

A little bit of love

I've been keeping this tab open on my browser because it's full of adorable cartoons.

You're welcome.

2016 Resolutions

I'm morally opposed to resolutions.
Or at least I used to be.
Or at least that's what I used to tell people to express the enormity of how much I dislike(d) goal-setting, already anticipating the painful follow-up.

But I am a new woman, and actually have some things that I want to work on, so I'm taking the start of a new year as the moment to start my streak of successes and get back into good habits that I've been slacking on.

I, Lauren, am going to read in the scriptures EVERY DAY. I already did it today, and I am set on not missing a single day. So there it is, published online, for all three of you who will ready this to see! And I've already recruited mah boo-thang to do it with me, so I've got some back-up.

I also want to blog more (and write in my journal more). I haven't know what to write-- it's tough, figuring out what is or isn't too personal to share and just lance* into cyberspace. But I want to do it!

I want to do family history on Sundays.

I want to find (or organize) a regular service opportunity that I can participate in-- regularly!

And my last goal is to, every day, write down something I'm grateful for about that guy (the "boo-thang") that I mentioned earlier. Because I want to be a more grateful person, and to see the good things in my relationships with others, rather than taking people and the nice things that they do for granted.

Doing those few things will make me a better person. So here goes!

The Beat of My Heart

They say you can tell a lot about a person from the music they listen to.
I had a $10 iTunes gift card to spend, and my iTunes "Wishlist" was about $30 more than that. So here's what I narrowed it down to... (and I admit to a practically negligible pre-existing balance and spending an extra 13 cents of my own...) I'm too lazy to post the music videos, so look up what sounds good! In the order I purchased them:

1. I Found Myself in You- The Harmaleighs

2. Where We Are Today- Festive People

3. Classy Girls- The Lumineers

4. Fire and Rain- Birdy

5. Don't Wanna Die Anymore- Ivan & Alyosha

6. Skinny Love- Birdy

7. Lost in My Mind- The Head and the Heart

8. Half Moon- Blind Pilot

9. Fight Song- Rachel Platten

I'd tell you what runner-up just barely missed the cut, but there are 20.

Bucket List: Aerial Ribbons

Sara convinced me to try aerial ribbons. I put it on my bucket list so I could check it off. It was hard! But I'm like the weakest person ever, so the good news is that you can probably do it, too! 

We did it here: http://playatagora.com/

Maybe belly dancing will be next? ;)

Texts with Sara: Just Say How You Feel