Frustrations This Week

1) The fact that the Talmudic passage from Isaiah 33:15-16 clearly states “He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; He that despiseth the gain of oppressions….. He shall dwell on high.” And yet, *some* of the same people who say that you need to despise the gain of oppressions to stand clean before the Mind, they oppress the Palestinian people.
2) The fact that it is legal in Utah for employees to fire and landlords to evict gay people, for no other reason than the fact that they're gay. The bill to fix this came up to the house last year (February 17th, 2009, House Bill 267) and was voted down. (Note that if the tenant is protected by a written lease, the landlord usually cannot evict him or her without proof that the lease has been violated..but still)
3) The fact that BYU lacks diversity so much that I saw a single girl dressed slightly-emo (no emo hair or makeup, just all black with chains etc). This brought a smile to my face because of how ridiculously same everyone else looks). I don’t know if it is just that only molly-mormon girls get accepted or if upon arrival everyone who stands out ends up assimilating, but either way, I’m not a huge fan.
4) Professors who think that they’re your only class when you’re trying to balance a billion different things and really would like a good grade in their class. Also, the fact that 3 different teachers make me get online every day to mark attendance and say that I was there. Also, that now I actually have to do the reading instead of just BSing it because instead of quizzes I can guess at, the question is “Did you complete all the reading before coming to class? []Yes []No”
5) Not having a car in a class where every other person has a car and constantly having to mooch rides because our teacher expects us to have a car.
6) Every time I hear the word “gay” or “retarded” and can’t woman-up enough to say that that isn’t ok.
7) Being torn. Because maybe I’m being ridiculous about point 6. I use the term lame, do I not? I use the term dumb, do I not? And I never take another second to think about crippled (lame) people or people who are unable to speak (dumb, traditional definition). Maybe I’m someone inhibiting the natural evolution of a completely different definition of the word “gay”. But at the same time… well, someone I look up to once put it way better than I ever could when they said “Using the term "gay" as an equivalent to "stupid," "unpleasant," or "irritating" implies a general belief that the entire group of people to whom the speaker is referring is stupid, unpleasant, or irritating. By making a pejorative out of the word "gay," one deprecates every person to whom the word "gay" applies. It's the same kind of thing as when someone makes the word "Jew" a verb or uses "Polish" to describe a poorly made article. It's rude, and it's wrong.”
8) Well-meaning but condescending people. Like this week when my professor told us that men should learn the gospel so that they can go out to the world and preach the gospel to the world! And women can have babies and teach them. (It was something about how he phrased it, like men aren’t going to have children/can’t teach them and women can’t go on missions or have no purpose besides teaching their kids.)
9) My career path. Most of the things I like seem to lack marketability. The only thing I really enjoy that seems to have demand is law. Which I enjoy, but I don’t know if I enjoy it enough to survive years of law school, or that I’d even be good at it. Or that I could even get into law school. Plus, if my father is ever given any chance, he tries to push law school at me, which makes me want to run far and fast. This reaction is ridiculous because it is something I like—but the fact that he wants me to do it provokes my stubborn streak.
10) Trying to cook something and getting half way through before realizing that you don’t have the right sized pan so you have to go back and double all the ingredients so it will fit in the bigger pan to the right proportions. And then having wayyyyy too much for you and your 3 roommates to eat. What a waste of perfectly good ingredients.