Donating to a Cause

We live in a world where we depend on others. This concept became real to me while I listened to a talk at TEDxRexburg. The talk was called, "How to lose your self-esteem" and by far my favorite talk. We are taught from a young age to have a high self-esteem that we need to love ourselves. When this is not true, we need to focus on other people. We lose ourselves and then we find ourselves. When we claim to have high or low self-esteem we are basically telling the world that they are not doing a good enough job.

                I want to give back to those around me, but sometimes some of the organizations I come across, I just do not want to. I consistently pay for tithing and fast offering for the LDS church and that is really it.  This past summer we saw the ASL ice bucket challenge blow up social media. I was nominated and had no desire to dump ice water on my head, so I donated money. I knew nothing about ASL until I did that, but I still was not passionate about it because it did not have an effect on my. I donated, but I did not think twice about it. On my 101 things in 1001 days I wanted to find a cause that I believed in and donate to it.

                Recently, I have come across a couple of organizations and causes that I really believe in and I want to share them with you! The first one is becoming really popular and if you have not seen posts on Facebook, you are connected to the wrong people! The first one is Operation Underground Railroad (OUR). This organization headed by Tim Ballard, is on a mission track down child traffickers in developing nations. On average there are 2 million children are being trafficked as sex slaves in the world today. Working with the governments of these countries, OUR goes in undercover as buyers of these children and not only frees the children, but also arrests the traffickers. I knew that sex trafficking is an issue, but when it comes to children, I am extremely sensitive. Children are entitled to happiness and not to be used. There is a documentary about this work that I really want to see!  You can see a video about this cause HERE. 

                After research and looking at all I can, I decided to sign up to donate to this cause. I became an Abolitionist; you give a Lincoln to save a slave. Basically, I donate $5 a month to this cause. If that does not inspire you, OUR is teamed up with The Elizabeth Smart Foundation. Elizabeth Smart was a young girl in Utah that kidnapped and used as a slave. I read her book and it is terrible what happened to her, but she has moved on and is helping people in return. There is also a breakdown of how they spend their money, and 58% of the proceeds go to rescue missions. It costs an average of $20,000 for an operation to save 1-50 children. If my $5 can help even a tiny bit, then I know that the $5 is worth it. I encourage you all to check out this organization and join the fight in ending child slavery   

                Last Monday (3/16) I saw “The Drop Box”. This is a topic that is part of my senior project, so I will not go into too much detail here. Here is what you can find on the official website.

“The Drop Box tells the story of South Korean pastor Lee Jong-rak and his heroic efforts to embrace and protect the most vulnerable members of society. It is a heart-wrenching exploration of the physical, emotional and financial toll associated with providing refuge to orphans that would otherwise be abandoned on the streets. But The Drop Box movie is also a story of hope—a reminder that every human life is sacred and worthy of love.”

                The proceeds to this movie go to supporting Pastor Lee and the adoption and orphanage care work of Focus on the Family. This is a controversial topic because it deals with abandoning babies and children; however, there are ways we can help by just being here in the United States. Family is important and children deserve to be part of a loving family, even if it is not biological.

I hope you all do more than read about these causes and go out of your way to see what you can do to help. Or find an organization or cause that you are passionate about!

What organizations do you donate to? 

A Blog Makeover

The last few weeks I have been consumed with blog hopping. While at City Hall, in between projects, I have been looking at different blogs and being so intimated by how many talented people there are out there. I love blogs! Reading them, scanning them, clicking through them. I find it fascinating that people we are different, but we all are so similar. We all want the same things, to be happy, successful, loved. We are all just on different paths. As I have read through different blogs, I kept getting this feeling, "I can do this, too!" So here I am; officially breaking into the blogging community. I do not expect to get the same results as other people get, blogging is a full time job. Its Friday and I have spent most of the night re-doing colors and arranging things. I also know that I have a long way to go. But I am excited! With graduation less than 3 weeks away, I am ready to start a new chapter.

However, this will not be a journal. It will be a reporting. I feel like something unique as well, will be because I am studying political science, there is a high chance of me talking about about social issues and possibly the upcoming Presidential election. Pretty exciting stuff!

I also realize I will need to reach out to other bloggers, which is scary. But I am excited to try new things. Be patient with me and join me in discovering the pearls of life!

Are you a long time blogger? What advice do you have for me, or any other new blogger? 

5 TEDxTalks Lessons

This Friday,I will be attending TEDxRexburg and I am so excited! To help you understand how cool it is that I was selected, only 100 people were invited to attend. I have had a few people ask me what this event is, so I thought what a perfect blog topic, then 5 of my personal favorite TED talks. 

Taken straight from Wikipedia:
  “TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a global set of conferences run by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, under the slogan "Ideas Worth Spreading". TED was founded in 1984 as a one-off event; the annual conference series began in 1990.TED's early emphasis was technology and design, consistent with its Silicon Valley origins, but it has since broadened its focus to include talks on many scientific, cultural and academic topics.”

Some will argue that TED is a liberal point of view,  However, I am confident that anyone can find a talk that they would enjoy; each topic is unique and can open the door to the listener on a different way of think.There are talks even given to children BY children. Not every talk has caught my attention, but here are 5 that have (links will be included for your viewing pleasure, along with pictures of the speaker taken straight from the  TED website)!

    1.       “Want to be an activist? Start with your toys” - McKenna Pope
                This talk was given in 2013. At the time Mckenna was 14 years and when she was 13 she convinced Hasbro, to change the way they marketed a popular toy, the Easy Bake Oven.
You might ask “Why would this girl do this?” Well it was for her little brother! He wanted to be a chef and using the easy bake oven would be his starting point, but with the target audience being girls, this little boy was discouraged. She decided to make a change. To find out more, click the link to see the process McKenna took to have her voice heard.
                What I love about this talk is McKenna’s spunk and fearlessness.  Before T. Swift made it cool, McKenna boldly proclaims: HATERS GONNA HATE. 


2.       “If I should have a daughter…” – Sarah Kay

                If you have never heard about spoken word poetry, well look no further, here is your crash course. Sarah Kay has a passion in educating others about the importance of expressing yourself and even shares some of her work including, “B” and “Hiroshima”. I have looked her up on YouTube before and she is very talented.
                She founded Project VOICE, an organization that uses spoken word poetry as a literacy and empowerment tool. Through Project VOICE, performances and workshops are done in schools and communities around the world to encourage people to engage in creativity. She uses her experience with VOICE to give an example of how she reaches a young girl.
                Before this talk, I had never heard of Spoken Word Poetry.  I did see the popular 90's movie, “She’s All That” and that poetry performance was weird. Sarah is funny and personable, a real person, someone you would want to meet up with at a park.  After you listen to this talk, you will want to write your own poem!

    3. “Why we have too few women leaders” – Sheryl Sandberg
                Sheryl Sandberg, single handily, changed my opinion when it came to feminism and women’s issues. Before I assumed every woman who said she was a feminist was a "femi-nazi". Sheryl is an amazing woman who is not afraid to talk about women’s issues in the work place and even how men are affected. After I listened to her talk, I read her book “Lean In”, which is an expansion of her talk. What I love about Sheryl is that she expresses it is okay to be a stay at home mom and its okay to be a  working mom. She is a successful woman being the COO of Facebook, a wife, and a mom of a daughter and a son.
                Her talk inspires me to be the best woman I can be and not let the world intimated me. She discusses how women hold themselves back because of our failure and we need to help build one another up. It’s a unique way to look at feminism issues, because it a world issue. Along with this talk and her book, I would encourage you to check out “Lean In’s” current project: #LeanInTogether


4. "I am a son of a terrorist. Here's how I chose peace" - Zak Ebrahim 

 I heard this talk Fall 2014 Semester at BYU-Idaho in my "Terrorism and National Security Class" (a personal favorite class). What is unique about this talk, is it really puts a face to a family of a terrorist. Zak Ebrahim does not focus on terrorism or justify his father's actions, but talks about his (Zak) choice on how to live his own life. Just because we are born in certain circumstances, we determine what our future is. His courage to stand up and tell his mom he will not have a prejudice or hatred against others is very admirable, but what was surprising is how his mother agreed with him.
I also feel like this is an important talk because of what kind of world we live in. Before 9/11 I feel like not a lot of people knew or understood the Middle East and the Islam. And I  feel like this because I never knew what a Muslim was until 9/11 and then I was taught to be fearful of them and I did "other" them. I assume that I am not the only person to feel like this, but we do see a growing prejudice and hatred for the Islam community and we assume every Islam is a terrorist or capable of becoming one, however, they aren't. This is a talk that can help anyone begin to break stereotypes against the Islam and Middle East community. 

Picking #5 was really difficult because I love so many TED talks, especially the ones that address women's issues. I know I needed to show variety in this  post to show what TED has to offer. With that said #5 is something we do not discuss, but we should!

5. "What I learned in jail as a kid"- Ismael Nazario

 Before he was 18, Ismael spent 400 days on Rikers Island, a jail complex in New York, and 300 of those days were spent in solitary confinement. What I like about this talk is the eagerness in helping young people. When I hear of a young person being convicted and sent to jail, my first thought is, "What a waste" and instead of building and teaching these young people, we are throwing them away to rot. I understand what they do was wrong and there are consequences for our actions.
I think it is perfect when Ismael says, "Jails are actually suppose to rehabilitate a person, not cause him or her to become angry, frustrated, and feel more hopeless." He mentions about discharge plans and how correctional officers can be used to mentor young people; Build them up, don't prepare them for the next crime. Currently, Ismael works for Fortune Society, an organization that assists in helping people to reentry society after prison. 

I hope you enjoy these talks and take time in finding some talks that you enjoy. Let me know what you think about these and if you find any, please share! 

Dating Darwinism

On Mondays and Fridays I have two classes; Ancient Political Theory and Senior Seminar. Neither are over the moon exciting, but they are the last hurdles before I graduate, so I continue to endure. 

This past Friday wasn't anything out of the ordinary, besides the fact that my Senior Seminar class was cancelled due to Brother L. being sick. In Ancient Political Theory the topic of the day was Aristotle Book 1 of Politics. If you haven't ever read a philosopher's work, I encourage you to try. This class has been a struggle for me and I have a fear of failing the class and being left here in this Rexburg hellhole (I add that for a dramatic effect). I have a test on Monday about Plato and The Republic, but I have barely studied. 

In class, Brother Hanson introduced the concept of "Social Darwinism"; a term coined by a bunch of rich men to justify exploiting their workers and how they have "rightfully earned their money". I am not going to expand more on this, I just hope you are fowllowing me. After class, I overhear the guy in front of me say to a girl, "We should have out sometime." GAG! Really? ASK THE GIRL OUT!!

Walking out of class I felt fed up with the dating scene here and I fear it will remain this pathetic as I leave school and venture out into the real grown up life. The dating scene here seems to never progress or give anything essential to me. I find it useless. 

As I begin walking to City Hall for my internship, I overhear another conversation. Yeah, I'm nosy, but so are you! Surprisingly, another pair of people from my class that sits up front. The girl is always dressed adorably and I love her hair styles. I think she speaks French because Brother Hansen is always asking her questions about French things. The guy sits next to her, he is average height, pretty cute. He resembles Prince Eric from The Little Mermaid. They were talking about Russian classes. However, that isn't what caught my ear. This is what caught my ear:

Prince Eric: What time do you want to go out tonight?

French Girl: Um, I don't know, what time works for you? 

Prince Eric: I was thinking..7:30?

French Girl: Yeah that will work!

They say their goodbyes. This conversation I find more pleasant. It was casual, but the purpose was established. 10 points to Gryffindor (or whatever house they are in). I hope they had a good time. 

That is when it hits me, I am living in the world of Dating Darwinism; survival of the fittest, date or not date. I don't know what people say about other school but when people (specifically Mormons) find out that you are going to BYU-Idaho, you hear about the "marriage scene", "BYU-I DO", "Ring by Spring", and any other marriage jokes you can come up with. 

I won't lie to you, I assumed it would happen for me. I thought when it came time to receive my diploma, I would be married. I never wanted to admit it out loud, but here I am five weeks before graduation and I am just as single as I was on the first day of college. But don't worry or try to lecture me because it doesn't upset me, I have done a lot of cool things while here; I have learned a lot about myself and I am really grateful for the experiences I have had while here. 

Let me tell you another secret, I have never had a serious boyfriend while being up here. You can ask me all the questions, did I talk to people, did I put myself out there, did I dress nicely? And I would answer all of these questions with a yes. I was involved with school activities, I met people, my roommates and I had great parties. My time up here has been a blast, I have made lifelong friends, However, I am burnt out of it all. 

Last semester I had a terrible dating experience and this semester has been no different. But there is a difference, this semester I have entered the world of online dating. It has been an interesting experience. You would think that people would be more brave because they are hiding behind their keyboards and computer screens. They aren't. "Profile views" and "flirts" aren't impressive. 

And the dates themselves have been interesting. I am the Queen of First Dates Only. The following is just an example of what kind of guys I have been on dates with: a guy who was texting another girl, a guy with dirty fingernails. a guy who straight up talked about his ex-girlfriends, and the list goes on. I also have not been on dates, but just chatting with guys. Hey guess what fellas, I suck at small talk and I don't want to small talk with you.

Here are a few more "Dating Darwinisms" that I have experienced:

1,) "So what do you want to do?"- Did I ask you out? If you ask me, or any other girl out on a date, please have a plan of what to do. I am fine with putting in input, but you are the one inviting me to do something. 

2,) "What do you like to do?" - I understand that when you go on a date you are getting to know someone, but I feel like this question is a double edge sword. I feel like I am being judged and you are only going to focus on the things you like and completely ignore anything else I am interested in. So I am going to be trapped listening to things only you like. Ask a more specific question, please!

3,) Being called pet names when I first meet you- Really? Do you even know how to spell my first name? I don't know you, don't call me pet names. Compliments are fine, but don't call me beautiful or gorgeous either, Its weird. 

4,) Touchy- Please remove your hands off of my hip, refer to the above concern. 

At this point, you may be asking yourself, "Why did I just read all of this?", Well its because you are curious about my dating life and there you have it; in a big fat nutshell. Dating is something I don't find joy in, at all. And I am not sure if I ever will. I probably need to change my attitude, but I just want to share with everyone the experiences I have had so I do not have to answer the same questions over and over again. 

Stay tuned for another blog post based on married people have said to me! 

Becoming a Domesticated Political Scientist

Last winter I had a roommate, Dana, who was also a political science major. We would always joke that we were political scientists and not domesticated; we thought it was funny. Heck, I still think it is funny. I also am the first to say that I do enjoy cooking, especially for one. It is really hard and time consuming for one person. I would prefer to eat out, however I really wanted to push myself. That is why I made it a goal to try out 5 new recipes. 

This past week I made TWO recipes from Pinterest; now I have completed one item off of my 101 Things in 1001 days, so I decided to up it from 5 recipes to 20; which I am excited about! I also created a new Pinterest board called, “Recipes I have tried”. I figured I could move recipes from what I have pinned to this board and in the description (because honestly, who changes those) to the date I made the item and what I thought. I feel like it will be a good way for me to track what I have done and to see if it would be worth me making again.

I already knew I wanted to make the Crock pot chicken fajitas. I love crock pots!! It’s amazing how you can put all these food together before going to class and come home to a delicious meal. When Alex came to pick me up from City Hall, she said my food was making the apartment smell good. Just for picking me and being amazing, I shared some with her. So here is the recipe for this:

INGREDIENTS

·         ¼ cup butter

·         2 cups green bell pepper, sliced

·         2 cups sweet onion, sliced

·         3-4 chicken breasts, boneless/skinless

·         1 packet of dry fajita seasoning

·         ⅓ cup salsa

INSTRUCTIONS

1.       Turn the slow cooker on low.

2.       Add butter, then peppers, onion and chicken breasts.

3.       Sprinkle seasoning over the chicken. Add salsa.

4.       Cover and cook on low for 4-6 hours.

5.       Use a fork to shred the chicken and serve.

I did not include the fajita seasoning, but garlic salt and I did not have salsa. Maybe next time I will make homemade salsa, I also would add more veggies, like mushrooms and tomatoes and more chicken! I didn’t use tortillas, but put it over spinach which made a delicious salad. After sharing with Alex, I had enough for dinner the next day, which I made mashed potatoes to go with. Crock pots are amazing and I seriously need to use them more!

Next up, the Strawberry Oat bars, I did not plan on making these the same night, but I was craving something delicious. However, remember the March Madness bet? Yeah, me too! I looked at this recipe and it only asks for 1 tablespoon sugar and ¼ cup of maple syrup, so I decided this was okay; a nice treat for us! I convinced Alex to let me take her car to the store and Erica came with me. I also spent $10 on maple syrup!! AAHHH!! My thought was, if I am making this I am going to get real maple syrup (plus another recipe I have found asked for maple syrup as well)

Ingredients:

FILLING

·         2 Tablespoons cornstarch

·         2 Tablespoons warm water

·         2 cups finely diced strawberries

·         1/4 cup maple syrup

·         1 Tablespoon granulated sugar

OATMEAL BASE + TOPPING

·         2 and 1/4 cup quick oats (not whole rolled oats)

·         1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

·         1 cup unsalted almond butter (or peanut butter or sunflower seed butter)

·         1/4 cup maple syrup

·         1/4 cup apple butter*

·         1 large egg, beaten

·         1/2 cup sliced almonds

Directions:

1.       Make the strawberry filling first by mixing the cornstarch with the warm water until it all of the cornstarch has dissolved and there are no more clumps. It should resemble milk. Set aside. Combine the strawberries, maple syrup, and sugar together in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and stir well. Remove from heat and stir in the pre-mixed cornstarch. Whisk until all clumps are gone and set aside to thicken and cool.

2.       Preheat oven to 325F degrees. Line an 8x8 baking pan with aluminum foil with enough overhang on the sides for easy removal. Set aside.

3.       Make the oat crust/topping: In a large bowl, combine the quick oats, cinnamon, almond butter, maple syrup, apple butter, and beaten egg. Mix until all of the oats are moistened and the mixture is thoroughly combined. Reserve 1/2 cup of the oat mixture. Press the remaining oat mixture into prepared baking pan. Make sure it is firmly pressed down and even. Spread the strawberry filling on top. To the reserved 1/2 cup oat mixture, add the sliced almonds. Crumble this over the strawberry filling and, using the back of a spatula, press the topping down firmly into the strawberry filling. You want to make sure it sticks well.

4.       Bake for 25-30 minutes. The topping will be lightly browned. Allow to cool completely before cutting into squares.

5.       Makes 9-12 squares, depending how large you cut them.  Squares stay fresh covered tightly at room temperature or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.  Bars freeze well, up to 2 months.

I did not dice the strawberries as much as I should. I also used peanut butter and I did not put the almonds on top. I also was not able to cut them into bars but they were still delicious. Probably better with ice-cream, but that darn challenge! Instead, I poured a little bit of milk in with it. So delicious! This is something I would make again!

Well there you have it! Pinterest is amazing and I am grateful for it! Erica, my roommate, even mentioned how impressed she was that I make things from Pinterest instead of just pinning them. You can say I am becoming pretty domestic, ha!