Award Winning Essay!

Just kidding. It did get me a $500 scholarship though! I'm pretty proud of it. Besides writing this, I had to give 2 20 minute presentations. The first was in front of the selection committee, and the second was in front of a public audience (there were maybe 30 people there), where anyone who wanted to could ask questions. The scholarship dealt with religious freedom, and was open to anyone. There were several applicants, but only 2 people receieved scholarships. It's a relatively new scholarship, but I think it's a great idea. I had to provide some background, then respond to what my fundamental beliefs are, why I want to share those beliefs, and what I would do in a situation where someone disagrees with my beliefs. So. Just thought you might be interested.




To Whom It May Concern;

One thing I have loved learning about in school is the Constitution of the United States. It is a truly unique arrangement of a nation. I lived in France for a year as an exchange student. In the high schools there, students were not allowed to publicly display any sort of religious garb. This was mainly dealing with the Muslim students there. The girls were not allowed to wear their hijab into the school. I would see the girls walk up to the doors and then remove their head coverings before they entered. I thought that this was unfair. Culturally, religion is a more touchy subject there than anything I’ve witnessed in the United States. I was very happy to return home, and see students who could openly wear pentagrams, church camp shirts, CTR rings, yamakas, or whatever they wanted. Religious freedom is one of our nations founding principles. It’s something that makes life interesting; to go to school, to work with and date people who might be finding happiness in a way that’s different from you. I believe it is a natural human tendency to share with others what makes you happy. Religion, in it’s pure sparkly sense, is supposed to teach us a way that we can be happy forever. Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, and Christianity, to name a few, all provide us with a way to reach heaven, paradise, or some form of eternal happiness, if we are “good”. When you really think about it, following a religion while going through life should ultimately lead you to some form of happiness. This is one reason I would like to share my beliefs with others. The standard of “good” is a point of differentiation, but ultimately, all mankind wants to be as happy as they can, for as long as they are allowed to.

My beliefs center around the principle that we are all children of a loving God. I believe that God has given all of his children the freedom to choose and act for ourselves, without forcing his will on any of us. Whatever persecution we face, or trials we go through because of someone else’s agency, I believe we can be rest assured that our Father in Heaven is watching over us, and is aware of our thoughts, feelings, and actions. There will always be blessings that follow when we try our hardest to do the things that we know he wants us to do. My personal goals and values are based upon a belief that my Heavenly Father wants me to love everyone. I believe that it isn’t our job to judge someone and tell them how they should be living their life. We should focus on our own mistakes before we try to fix someone else’s. I believe that every religion has good parts and values, and positive aspects. I chose mine because it fit in with every fundamental belief I had, and then taught me more than I could fathom. Without getting too deep into doctrine, I believe that human potential is limitless, I believe that people are created after the image of God. I believe that my God loves everyone, and wants us to do the same. He has given us religious freedom, so we should allow others the same privilege.

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, but I haven’t always been. One of the reasons I want to share my beliefs because there are a lot of people in the world who don’t really understand this church. I can say that because I used to struggle against the church. I didn’t know much about it except what I was taught be people without firsthand knowledge. Things that were simple misunderstandings sounded horrible, even masochistic. However, since I’ve joined the church, my life has done nothing but improve. One of my favorite things about the church are the 13 articles of faith, which are taught to every member around the world. To get a better understanding of us, reading these would help. The eleventh one states “We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.” I no longer struggle against any church, because I know that there are good aspects to all of them.
I believe that when discussing matters of religion, there should always be common consent. Faith is never something that should be argued about. If I share my religion with someone, it is because they have expressed a desire to learn. It should be shared with love, understanding, and an open mind. I will never force someone to listen to my beliefs, nor would I argue with someone who didn’t agree with them. I have experienced both of these situations, and neither one of them do any good to the parties involved. If someone disagrees with my beliefs, and refuses to discuss it with an open mind, then either the topic is changed, or we go our separate ways. Intolerance is a plague in this land that needs to be resolved with understanding and compassion. My ultimate goal in sharing my thoughts on religious freedom is a hope that intolerance can be banished, and we can live in a world free of bias and prejudice. Thank you for your time.


Bronwyn Wright

Hehehe...

I found these in my photobucket album, and I thought they should be shared.

Matt, soon after I met him, took a day trip with friends to Utah to get Kung Pow the movie, and Jamba Juice. This is a picture that I found of him from that trip.




Hehehe, it has been almost a year since I saw the praying mantis for the first time...




4th of July, right before we got engaged.





My mental image of Niel (this and the spider Sue made for me)

Matt needs more sleep.

Matt stayed up too late (again) last night. He went to bed at 3:20 am, and when I got him up at 8, he said he wanted to stay home and sleep. I stopped back at 10 between classes, and went in to the bedroom. His eyes were open, and he smiled when he saw me. Then he said "I missed... the generic tattoos." I laughed a little bit and said "What?". He said "Never mind, I'm sleep talking." I cuddled up next to him, but he was already asleep again.

Cowboys vs. Hicks

Cowboys: Get up at 3 am to feed their cows and give them all baths and move a couple tons of hay around before driving 30 minutes to school in their truck that they saved up and paid for on their 16th birthday. They are normally very good students, know what it is to work hard, and work hard in every aspect of their life. They can dress up nice and normal when they want to, and apply for every scholarship known to mankind. They're very involved in FFA, but I won't hold that against them.

Hicks: Have been drinking since they were about 10. Normally alchoholic parents. They live in trailers in the country, wear Wranglers that are way too tight all the time, and skip most of school to drink the cheapest beer they can find (provided by the friendly neighborhood drunk adult who doesn't care). They drive the beaterest of beater cars, which normally come from the pile of dead, abandoned and rusted cars lying around their house. They also chew tobacco and spit it in the corners of the hallways at school.

Nice Diggs, innit?!

Something completely unique to Wyoming happened to me. The credit union I worked for got a new (badly needed) main office building in Lander. I only worked there for 2 days, but in those 2 days, at least 1 in 3 people walked in and said "Nice Diggs!". What the crap does that mean??!!?!?! I had never ever heard that saying?! What does it mean?! Is it some inbred saying from my hometown, or does it have some cool meaning? I'm guessing it's just some hick Wyoming saying. I couldn't believe the variety of people that said it though. Old ladies with too much jewelry, Natives, soccer moms, even the Sheriff!! I was wondering if you all had any insight into this saying, or any other sayings that you never want to hear ever again.

Matt's amazing trip of joyness/B was really lonely

At the very beginning of August, Matt was hired to go on tour with and film a documentary of the band Elizabethan Report, of Provo UT, who are also my blog buddies.






He got to see Chicago, New York, Pennsylvania, and got to drive through Ohio (his mission). They got to play at the New American Music Union festival in Pittsburgh PA, and made a lot of great contacts and friends. He got to see Bob Dylan (who I think is one of the 2 most attractive male celebrities of all time) and all I got was a really cool, slightly purplish t-shirt. It was a really awesome opportunity, which we hope leads to more business in the future. He also had a TON of fun while he was with them.








However, he was gone for 2 weeks, was in the car for 70+ hours (which makes me nauseous just thinking about it), had to drive through Iowa and Nebraska, and has come back with a subconscious paranoia that I am going to leave him for the drummer from the Roots (a well known band that played there). He has had 2 nightmares about that since he got back. Plus, being apart for 2 weeks was really really hard for both of us, having only been married for 10 months. Needless to say, getting back together with him was the best thing that has happened all year. During that time, I spent a lot of time at work, at lot of time with the Phisters, a lot of time with our friends Vicki and Josh, 4.5 awesome days with Emily, Rob and Scout, and there were many more people who offered to feed me and entertain me and keep me from dying of loneliness. Now we're back together and Matt made some awesome friends, found some new fantastic music that we can't stop listening to, and has a crush on the drummer of Elizabethan Report, Tom

Some old blog ideas

I recently found a list of topics that Matt and I came up with that I should blog about. Every day he's like "You should blog about that!" but he doesn't want to actually do it.


1: Matt is a penguin. We started watching "March of the Penguins". We have this joke that I am his Sugar Mama, and am going to work for the rest of my life while he raises our kids. We related it to the mother penguin getting up and going off to get food for herself and their baby, while the dads stay and keep the eggs warm. Matt also has a really cute penguin walk. Very Dick Van Dyke-ish. I also discovered that there is a leopard seal part in every penguin movie I can think of, which I hate. You can't just have a happy penguin movie from start to finish, can you movie people?! You have to throw in the stupid leopard seal!!

2: My awesome co-workers/cars. My first day working in Riverton, I was working in the loan department with Debbie, who is the awesomest person in the world. I'd only known her for a couple hours, but we really hit it off. Anyways, it was lunch time and I was waiting for Matt to come get me, and she was like "Well just take my car!" I'd only known her for a couple of hours, but she was like "Go ahead, I don't mind!" It was so sweet and cute! Mikey, my boss, did the same thing. They are the 2 funnest people to work with/for. I have since then driven Mikey's yellow jeep, and it was really fun.

NSO...

NSO stands for New Student Orientation. Also referred to as Freshman Seminar. I think that it is a great class if you are just starting at college. It teaches you where everything is, and lets you get to know everyone in your class, and teaches you how college is different from high school. However, when I got to college, I just dove straight in, in the middle of winter, and winged (wung?) it. Now, 4 semesters and 66 credit hours later, with a 3.65 GPA they are making me take this stupid !@#@W#$#$%$%^$%^^& class to graduate. I am not a freshman, or a New Student. I am very pissed off at the establishment. Granted, it's only 6 hours a day for 3 days, but I could be making money to pay bills in that time, not sitting around with obnoxious 18 year olds with their reproductive organs between their ears. Grr, stupid establishment. Also, I won't be graduating on time because during my first semester, one of my hardest classes didn't count for anything. A 4 credit Psych class (which I got an A in) doesn't count towards dip for my degree. Freak. That, a dual credit French class counting towards nothing and getting married in the middle of a semester mean that I have to take an extra semester of classes. Welcome back to school!

Together/randomness

Hi, this is B!

And this is Matt. (Matt just said: My throat feels like it's made out of hamburger.)

We are both very good Dr. Mario players. I'm better than Matt sometimes but not on the upper levels. I'm just a baby Dr. Mario player. I'm just littew...

So, Matt doesn't want to blog. I'm Mrs. Blog Person, but he's not Mr. Blog Person. He doesn't want to blog with me. Powercuddle, thrash at most games and puzzles, film fiddy hours of kids in tutus whose mothers are too uptight, wakeboard, baby talk to each other (actually, that mainly just goes one way), etc... but not blog, or go grocery shopping. We live together in a little happy family, complete with our pet rubber duckies (including a foster ducky head *ahem* see Emily's blog), and weirdo neighbors.

We love doing puzzles, and recently bought one that makes us put our head in our hands and say "Why oh why??!!". It's really cute on the cover though... a mama and baby polar bear on snow. WHY??!! Plus, we think it's defective. There are 2+ edge pieces that are missing, so we may just take it back to Wal-Mart and cry until they take it back. It's impossible, we just have to look at all the different shades of snow and try to find corners that match up. We have about 10 pieces put together, after 4+ hours...

Funny story (at my expense, but I think it's funny). We were lying in bed VERY late last night (I have been having problems staying up past 10 lately, my job is tiring), and talking, and Matt started talking about how gross his dads feet are getting, and I (in my sleepy haze) said "Yeah, I wanna rub lotion ALL over him". It was quiet for a second before Matt started dying laughing. In my mind, I'd been thinking about how dry his arms are, and wanted to make them be not so itchy...but it definitely didn't come out like that!

Thank you...

We are finally getting around to finishing our thank you notes from our wedding.  It has been a 6 month process, with a few tears and raised voices (mainly from my end; I used to be the get stressed out queen, but the last month has been great!!).  Matt just said something rather mean about me getting stressed out, so I'm going to go punch him.  Matt just stole my cookie too.  And even if I am staring straight at him, and know that he is about to scare me, it still scares me.  I wish we had what just happened on video, it was a perfect example.  He looked at me, and smiled, and while I was hoping for a kiss, I got a loud scary yell instead.  But I love my Few-kitty.  I love his baby little heart.  He makes everything in the world fun, even me being a psycho hose beast.  And thank you notes.  I had never written a single one in my entire life (more about my *ahem* unique childhood later), and I thought they were pretty lame.  A good idea, but why couldn't I have started with my 7th birthday or something? Why did I have to start with 200 + wedding thank yous, mainly to people I don't know? Because I'm turning into someone who isn't my mom, and likin' it! (Danny Noriega head movements here).  So, that's part of my story.  I must finish thank you notes and go find out who the next American Idol is! 

Oh bip... dreams and my new job.

Emily reminded me that I'd said I'd start blog after finals got out.  So here it is.  

Now I can't think of anything creative.  I'll start with one of my dreams; Matt finds these fascinating.  He is working for the Wyoming Public Broadcasting Station at the moment, so I have access to the computer without him breathing down my neck wanting to edit!!! Yay!! 

This dream happened two nights ago, and before I begin, I really appreciate the Stephenie Meyers series, but I have no desire to be Bella, or date Edward.  I'm happy for them, but I'm much happier with my own life, which has never happened before while reading a book! !! Matt is way funnier than Edward.  

My dream: We were going to a ska concert at CWC, in some classroom wing that doesn't actually exist.  The concert was awesome (I believe it was Save Ferris, or someone like them), but I had to go to the bathroom.  I left, and when I came back, everyone in the audience had changed into huge corn costumes, and started protesting against global warming.  It was really lame, so I went looking for Matt.  He was off in this secluded chamber, with this huge bed and red drapes, and he had turned into a vampire.  He's my husband, so we started kissing, but then I got a terrible earache! I started holding my ears, trying to make the pain go away, when all of a sudden they exploded, and all this blood and gunk flew out of them.  We ran out of the room, and found ourselves in a huge city, and started trying to find a bus to take me to the hospital.  Nobody would help us, so we wandered around for a really long time, and then I woke up with a really terrible earache.  

I am now working at a credit union.  I am no longer a nanny (which I already miss.)   I am now an intern that gets to learn pretty much everything that goes on at a credit union.  Today, we had new member orientation, which is basically where they scare you into not embezzling money.  I LOVE the women I work with; they are the most ornery bunch of "gals" I've ever known.  I've gained a really deep respect for people that come to work every day and work their tails off and love it.   I'm excited for the rest of the summer, but I'm also needing new shoes (heels for 8 hours yesterday was AWFUL!), and a lot more "business casual" clothing.  Although I did get away with checkerboard Vans today!! Well, I'm going to go watch bad war movies with my father in law.  Thanks for reading, and pray that I'll be able to sleep tonight!!!