Language & Culture

This artifact represents family, and also the importance of Temple marriage, through which, I believe I can be with my family forever.

Wedding rings are a symbol used in my culture to represent that one is married. It is also a symbol of eternal love.

The Book of Mormon is a religious book, similar to the Bible, written by ancient prophets that prophesied and preached of Christ.  It is the keystone of my religion, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Prayer is a big part of my culture.  It's how I communicate with my Heavenly Father, and also the answer I'm given when I ask for advice from others who share my LDS culture.  "Did you pray about it?"

Missionary work is something that is part of my culture as Mormon.  I served a mission because of my belief that others need and deserve to have the gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives.

I love Spain.  It's where I spent 18 months of my life teaching the gospel and learning Spanish.  Since returning home I have continued to study Spanish and plan to be a Spanish Teacher.

My husband and I really love to go camping and be in nature.  We actually spent 3 months camping for our honeymoon!

Baseball is a huge part of my family!  It is something I grew up with.  My whole family loves it and we specifically love the New York Yankees.

Humor is another big part of my culture.  My family is full of funny people and we love just cracking jokes and making each other laugh.

I love love love shoes.  These are just a few of the many pairs I own.  They are my favorite clothing article and can make or break an outfit.

I also love books.  I enjoy reading and I think they are beautiful.  To me they represent the sharing of ideas.

I myself am not a huge foodie, but I do love funeral potatoes.  And besides that, food is often the center of a lot of family get-togethers.

I love throwing parties.  I'm a very social person and being with other people makes me happy.  This is a garden party I threw a few summers ago.

My culture really values traveling as a way to open one's eyes and mind. It is also something I love to do! This is a study abroad a did in Spain after serving there as a missionary.  I also went to Italy, France, and Tunisia.

Traditional dating is something that is still really valued, not only in my religious culture, but in my family culture as well.

Education is a huge part of who I am.  Its important to me, my family, and those around me.  Its so important that I'm choosing to be an educator as my career.

Beauty and appearances are very important in my culture.  Many women spend and hour or more just getting ready before they leave their homes.

Along with beauty and appearance, my culture really values exercise and taking care of one's body.  I particularly like to run.

Social media definitely plays a role in my culture.  It allows people to openly express their opinions and share their lives with a broad audience.

Minimalist design is something that I love.  It is becoming more and more popular in mainstream culture as well.

I found that beginning this assignment it was easy to find artifacts.  I just thought about cultures that really pulled at me.  My religion and my family were the two biggest ones.  Then I kind of expanded, but began to find it a little difficult to know what I really wanted to identify with and what I didn't.  I even found (in the case of social media) that even though I don't really LOVE it, it is undoubtedly part of my culture and who I am.

Its also really clear that I live in a place where my culture is the power culture.  While that makes things easy for me, I know it makes things hard on others.  I can't help but think of the people around me who aren't LDS.  I'm sure they are lost when it comes to a lot of the vernacular or customs they are surrounded with.

This easily can play over to a schooling setting.  People in Utah (especially Utah County), where it is predominantly Mormon, probably have a hard time finding a place they feel they fit in.  Also, my family focused a lot on education, so it was never a question whether or not I'd go onto college.  But a lot of students don't have those same ideas or even the support to make that happen if they did want to.  So something that helped me might be a disadvantage another student has.

Community Experience: Food and Care Coalition

     Volunteering at the Food and Care Coalition was a great experience!  Its something that I have heard a lot of people talk about, but I've never had the opportunity to go until now.
     One of the first things I was impressed with is the way they go about training volunteers.  Its important to them that although these people have very little (or nothing) they want to give them the best they can.  They care a lot about cleanliness and friendliness.  They offer a lot of services to the needy: from showers and haircuts to mental health services.
     I worked in the kitchen, and was able to serve people as they came through the line.  Some of them seemed very dejected and didn't say much, while others were very grateful.  I found that I didn't really know what to say (nor did I have time to really get into conversation since it was a line) so I just smiled at them a lot.  It was interesting to note my own discomfort.  Partly because I was so unfamiliar with the setting, but also because I have so much more than them.  That was hard for me to grasp.  I may be a poor newlywed college kid, but I can buy groceries.  It really helped me to recognize the things I take for granted.  I don't think I felt guilty, but I can see that others need help and I'm in a position to give it.
     It was interesting to see the racial diversity:  latinos, blacks, and whites were there.  But it seemed that being there kinda put them all on equal ground.  They interacted normally as far as I could tell.
     After everyone had gone through my line, we started cleaning up.  I got to go out into the dining room and start sweeping.  That's when I got most of my interactions in. Lots of them acted like they were in my way, feeling like they needed to move if I came by with the broom.  It was like they were used to being shooed away by everyone. I talked to one woman (I forget her name) who goes there for all her meals.  Another woman there had her kids with her.  It was interesting to me that some people looked homeless or poor, while others really didn't at all. Some even had jobs but still were struggling. You really can't know exactly what a person is going through.
     I was impressed by the Food and Care Coalition. They focused on more than just feeding the hungry, but also helping those in need and inspiring those who have lost hope. The biggest thing I took away was that even small things (donations or volunteering) can help make a difference in a community.  But you have to do something to make that difference.

 

Being the "Other"

The gym is a foreign place to me.  Its not that I don’t take care of myself…. I just prefer to do things outside as opposed to inside.  I had heard a thing or two about gym culture, and I was ready to try it out.

I showed up in a baggy t-shirt, some shorts, and old tennis shoes.  That was my first mistake.  Turns out, at the gym you’re supposed to look cute for your workout.  Levels of cuteness varied, and I’ll admit I wasn’t the only one “underdressed,” but the majority of the women there (and even some men) were looking super cute and matchy.

I went straight to what I felt most comfortable with--the treadmill.  Running is something that I mostly enjoy, but its something I do with friends outside.  Almost everyone on the treadmills had headphones in.  And not only that, they didn’t even look at each other.  Blank stares straight ahead.  I guess I don’t want people looking at me while I run, but they don’t even smile or acknowledge one another.  

Maybe they were just in the zone, but it felt a little zombie like.  The fact that I wasn’t listening to an iPod made me the odd one out.

It was easy for me to feel alone in a crowd of people, NO ONE talked to each other besides the occasional “are you done with this machine?”

Speaking of machines, before braving one, I would sneak peeks to see how to properly use them.  And then I would usually do a few reps at a certain weight before lowering the weight with embarrassment.  The truth is I felt pretty incompetent, and it seemed everybody could see it.

All in all, I think the thing that made me stand out the most was my clothes.  Next time I’ll be sure to wear some leggings, a neon shirt and some nike frees.