Mormon Girl With Straight Hair Who Carries a Stack of Books

For my multicultural education class, we have to create a cultural diorama of ourselves by picking three artifacts that we think represent us socially, culturally, and ethnically. To present these three items, I thought I would write about them on my blog (I know you're all so excited to read my homework!) Without further ado, here's about the Mormon girl with straight hair who carries a stack of books.

Artifact #1: A Book of Mormon

I know--how cliche of me to choose a Book of Mormon for one of my artifacts when I'm doing this project for a class at BYU. Pretty much everyone in the class could use this one. But even though it may be a pretty obvious artifact, I think it is so at the core of who I am and what I do that I had to include it. Being a member of the church is more than a set a beliefs; it's a lifestyle. It affects what I eat, what I do in my free time, how I dress, and what I invest my energy in. It even helped me determine what to name this blog. Looking specifically at my Book of Mormon, I read this artifact every single day. Not only does is affect what I do with my time, but it affects what I think throughout the day. Being a member of the church has, at times of my life, made it harder to not judge people who lives lifestyles that are against what I am taught as a member to believe. At the same time, though, truly understanding the Book of Mormon has helped me have the motivation to try to love all people, even when I don't love the things they do or believe.

Artifact #2: My Straightener
This is a picture of my straightener. I use it almost every. Single. Day. I chose this artifact as a representation of feeling pressured into looking pretty. Messages in the media have taught me to believe that people will respect me more when I go to the effort to do stuff to my hair and put makeup on every day. So, instead of spending 10 minutes getting ready in the morning, I take 30. On days when I don't take this time, I don't only look different, I feel different. I feel gross and unattractive and like everyone's staring at me. Even though the difference is probably, for the most part, in my head, it still affects the way I behave. I'm less likely to raise my hand and say something in class. I'm more conscious when I draw attention to myself. I feel pathetic saying it, but I'm afraid it's become a part of who I am: I'm the girl who needs my hair to be straight.

Artifact #3: A Stack of Books
Ask anyone who's seen me withing the past several months they will most assuredly confirm that I probably had a book in hand. I'm a student. Reading and studying and schooling is what I do. This affects me socially a great deal. For one thing, I'm fairly poor. This effects my housing, what I eat, and what I do in my free time because I don't have money for extravagance  Instead of going to Olive Garden for fun, I go to Wendy's. Instead of living in a house, I live in a crammed 6 girl apartment. When I get free time, I go to the library and study (I spend so much time there that my roommates refer to Harold as my boyfriend!) In addition to being a student, once I graduate, I'm going to be an English teacher. In this profession, stacks of books are as common as popcorn in a movie theater. In essence, books will always be a part of who I am and what I do, and this will affect the lifestyle I lead.