Category: Mormon

Utah Mormons get a bad rap, you know? If you live in Utah, you’ve experienced it. The smug smiles from people who live in Idaho. The insane questions from people outside of the religion (“Utah huh? Isn’t that where they have all those wives?”). The complete shock from people who hear about what it’s like…
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On January 20th,  hundreds of thousands of protesters reclaimed President’s Day as a way to resist the Trump presidency. On Twitter, the tag #NotMyPresidentsDay topped the trending tags, at over 54 thousand tweets strong. Angry shouts of “Hey, ho, Trump has got to go,” filled the air during a downtown Washington D.C. protest. Although many…
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  It is incredibly easy to remember all the hardships that happened over the last year. The loss of job, the loss of dog, the loss of my no-pants writing gig. It’s easy to count the losses and grief. I think those things stick in our craw because they are the times that we learned…
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  I don’t like being hated. I mean, that’s probably a human universal, right? No one wants to feel like a target. One of the words that I hear bandied about often as a middle school teacher is “bullied.” Students and parents both know that it is the modern-day equivalent of screaming “fire” in a…
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Recently, I have been working on a fictional story that is very personal. It involves some things from my past that are traumatic and hard for me to bring up. Finishing was difficult. It left me razed and empty. What’s more, is that I know that I will never be able to publish it or…
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It’s not like He doesn’t want to, however. The problem is that you’ve been so busy being alive that you may not have taken the time to slow down and really listen. You don’t have to believe me on this, and I’m sure that some of you don’t. But, after a strange and harrowing 35…
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No one who knows me would call me a “good driver.” From the time the driving test instructor said, “I’m going to pass you anyway,” to the time of this entry, I have paid out enough money in traffic violation fines to purchase a stainless steel food cart from Craigslist. I still think that there…
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  Christmas is a funny holiday around the Willowsphere. I love it, don’t get me wrong, but there are stages of Christmas in my world that are fraught with their own peculiarities and dangers. This is the typical breakdown (both metaphorically and mentally) of how my holiday season looks. Nov. 28: OHMYGOSHCHRISTMASCHRISTMASCHRISTMASSSSSSSSS!! Nov. 29: Lights…
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  The Dark Side is infiltrating every part of our world. It’s slipping into our homes through television, Internet, and legislation. It’s squeezing our trained Jedi force and helping to extinguish formerly bright testimonies of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We are sending out our new forces, but there are just too…
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I’m one of these weird writing people that loves math. Seriously. Whereas writing is about the ability to perfectly define with words, math is about perfectly defining with numbers. And, unlike language, it is almost impossible to misconstrue an equation. No marriage has ever been ended because 24x + 14 = 50. Although math has…
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This post is for people who are about to have sex for the first time, or who would like to hilariously remember all the things they wished they’d known the first time they had sex. If you’re not prepared to read about either of those things, here’s a fun alternative activity!  Wow! You’re really going…
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Even though I’m a Mormon, I still get asked sometimes if I drink. As many of my religion would respond, I don’t participate in traditional beverages intended to loosen the inhibitions and make the world look fuzzy. But, I do like to hang out with drunk people in bars. Bar people are my kind of…
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