What's happening?

I remember the day my mom called me into her room to tell me that my friend was pregnant. I was 17 years old; so was my friend. I was finishing up my senior year of high school; so was she. I was raised in a home where we were taught that sex was a beautiful thing, but something you waited to have until you were married; so was she.

According to the Natality Data File from the National Vital Statistics System, "The U.S. teen birth rate declined 9 percent from 2009 to 2010, reaching a historic low at 34.3 births per 1,000 women aged 15–19; the rate dropped 44 percent from 1991 through 2010."

Although thousands of teenage girls are getting pregnant and having babies out of wedlock, that number is decreasing. I think this is a good thing, although just because the number of babies born to teenagers has gone down, it doesn't mean that the number of teens having premarital sex has gone down.

Since the 1940s, the number of babies born to teens has been decreasing. However, the number of teens having sex is still high. According to the CDC, 47.4% of high school students had ever had sexual intercourse. That's almost half of all those high school kids!

So my question is, if so many kids are out there "doing it," why is it that the number of teen pregnancies and births is steadily declining? I think this is because birth control is so much more accessible to kids than it has been in the past. Just a few days ago, the FDA approved that Plan B, a "morning-after" contraceptive be available to purchase over the counter to anyone aged 15 and over.

It's pills like this, pills that are so readily accessible to teenagers, that convince kids that premarital sex is okay. That they can do what they want and not have any consequences because they can just take a pill that will "fix" everything.

They may not be having babies, but there are still other factors to consider. Emotional side effects as well as physical effects are still cause for concern.

STDs anyone?

Raleigh, North Carolina Temple!

Yeah, I went there. :)

Mission Call!

Whew! It finally came! For a while there I was afraid my application to go on a mission would be denied.

Maybe they'd found out about the time I stole that toy from my cousin and took it home with me...

Or the fact that I'd run that red light recently.

BUT it came!!!! And I am hereby called to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Utah Salt Lake City Temple Square Mission!!!

Confession: my very first reaction was actually not one of complete and ecstatic joy. Mostly because a sad thing about our church is that we are taught to be excited about missions....to other countries. If your call is to Montana or Wyoming or Ohio (anywhere stateside, really) people look at you with those pitying eyes and say, "oh...congratulations... You'll be a wonderful missionary there." Whereas if you get called somewhere like Guatemala people are ceaselessly patting you on the back, wishing you the very best, and baking you cakes.

So for a girl to get her call to Temple Square, well, I just never thought it was that exciting. Until now.

Now that I am actually going to go out there and be a missionary, I could not be more stoked! This will be just as much of an adventure as if I were going anywhere else in the world. People from all sorts of crazy countries are going to be coming to ME. And I am going to be sharing the gospel with people who are actually interested in what they are looking at and what they are hearing.

It is going to be amazing. The Lord knows exactly the best places for us to be. I know I KNOW that Temple Square is the absolute best place for me to serve my mission. Not only will I grow and gain confidence and the testimony that will make me stronger, there are people waiting to hear about the gospel from ME.

I just can't think of anywhere else I would rather be going. Salt Lake City, HERE I COME!!!

First Story!

http://heraldsun.com/view/full_story_news_durham/7587074/article-Bull-City-streets-to-be-open-to-fun-lovers?instance=main_article

I am officially a real reporter! My very first story in the Herald-Sun just came out today. I have to say, I am very proud and extremely excited. :)

I love being a journalist.

Waiting

I found this in my inbox today. It's a writing response I had to write for my Communications class two years ago and I kinda liked it.

The assignment was to write our thoughts about this quote: "How much of human life is lost in waiting." --Ralph Waldo Emerson.

One of the things that Americans are best at is waiting. With theme park lines, college acceptance letters, and true love, we are constantly waiting for something. But, like Emerson ponders, how much of our life are we wasting by waiting? Much of my life has been squandered away because I have been too afraid to take action to obtain something that I want, reasoning that if I wait just long enough, surely that thing will come to me. Life is partly about taking risks. You don't learn if you never find the courage to get out there and experience life, even when you are terrified of making a mistake.

I have had many experiences with waiting. My personality is one that often dictates just how outgoing or courageous I am (or am not) when it comes to what I do with my time. I have often been stuck inside of myself...waiting. Waiting for the right words to say, waiting for the perfect moment to tell someone something, waiting for someone else to make the first move. Often I've been told that to override my fears I have to be willing to jump in headfirst. Waiting just prolongs the inevitable and makes what's coming that much harder to deal with.

In our society, particularly within our Mormon culture, this situation comes up regularly. Girls are taught during young women lessons and youth activities to make up lists about their perfect spouses. They devise long and lofty goals of who and how their perfect guy should be. Then, when confronted with an opportunity at being happy with someone, if that guy does not possess everything on her perfect list, she throws away a chance at happiness because she continues waiting. Waiting for something that will never be there. Perfection is not found in every day experiences. Perfection comes over time. It is a never-ending process. One too long to be waited for.

Our lives could be so much more enriched, enlivened, and experienced if we would only stop waiting. Although it is said that the best things in life are worth waiting for, it is my personal belief that the best things in life are actually the things we go out and attain ourselves.