Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Utah as a box

As of January, I will have been living in Utah for a year; that's a hell of a long time. 

After being here for that long, I have since decided that moving here wasn't all that it was cracked up to be. Granted, its a lot better then where I was before, either AZ or ID, but its still falling short of my expectations. Those expectations being that of a improved social life.

The biggest thing is that, quite frankly the social life here sucks. Everyone here is enveloped in Logan's own subculture; go to school, go to church, be Mormon. I'm not trying to start a anti-Mormon rant here, because thats just not the way I prefer to portray myself as; but the way things appear to someone such as me, an outsider to the church, it's all pretty sucky. 

The problem is that, when your not a member of the church, you're essentially, locked out of society here; that is that your excluded from so many activities and even excluded from being a normal member of the community. It seems as though, when you're a non-member, people shun you. Now, if I were to come up with a random number, I would say 75% of the community here is LDS, and just like that 75% of all relationship opportunities, 75% of social activities, 75% of everything.

Now, this may seem like a load of unsupported bullocks, but it's true. There have been numerous instances where I have talked to girls, or even guys and we'll have a normal, healthy conversation, then the moment they pop the question of "where did you go on your mission" or things like that, the conversation heads south. Apparently that's all that is required to keep people away from you. As soon as people find out your a non-member, they don't want anything to do with you.

That bring's me to another thing; what is with girls here wanting missionaries? I'm sorry but that just seems asinine; automatically being more attracted to someone who only has a label in front of his name, and for what reason. What reason do a lot of males go on missions here. I have a lot of friends who are on mission/have been and they don't fit the stereotype of a missionary. Going on a mission doesn't really make you an angel, you're not saving children in Africa from starvation, you're not saving dogs from being eaten in China (yes, I am allowed to say that), Basically, what I am saying is that people should be realistic, don't date someone because he has the word "Elder" in front of his name, or because he is a member of PETA, or whatever bullshit people do; date someone because they are genuinely what you want, because they're a good person. There is as much potential for someone who hasn't gone on a mission to be as good of a person, if not better then someone who has.

Another thing, stop and think about what you're doing. Don't say you don't watch rated-R movies and then go and spend the night in someone of the opposite gender's room. Both are may be harmless on their individual levels but doing that is kinda a hypocritical. There are so many good things that can be experienced from rated-R movies. There are so many good thing that can be experienced from a lot of things, but don't just mindlessly follow what people tell you to do.

To summarize my very rant-like non-rant, all I am trying to say is, don't judge a book by its cover. Don't be so close-minded that you only hang out with people of the same religious following. Don't exclude people because they're not what your society has taught you to be righteous. Those goes for every religion, race, culture, sub-culture, whatever. 

I'm done non-ranting.

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