"Most of my friends will live and die in this zip code"

"Minds are like parachutes. They only function when they are open."
- James Dewar


At school our school's newspaper is the Scroll. I don't know why I keep reading it, because it just gets me into my rants about everything a hate. From the horrible writing, to the even worse choices in articles, it's just a disaster. In this past weeks issue, there were too many articles on how people were disappointed at some things with the school. Like in our new gym they were playing music, and one song just so happened to offend someone. Another one was in last weeks Scroll, the headline article was about rape. So someone wrote in to the paper complaining they were disappointed at the article and they felt that they could have chosen a better, more uplifting article that wasn't so negative. Oh goodness how I wanted to gag myself! I just feel that people are so close minded here. I strongly believe that the more you expose yourself to things, the more you will have a stronger opinion and be able to think for yourself. Yes, we are the Rexburg bubble here, but we shouldn't feed into that. I just feel that people want all evil eliminated here and have it be this perfect place where we eat rainbows and poop butterflies. That is no way to live though! It's simply just not realistic. There is a special spirit here and I can testify to that, but it's not because everyone here is perfect and is completely sinless. It's because we are TRYING to be the best we can be. This doesn't mean to shut out every rap song out of your life, and because one bad word was said in a movie you turn it off. To an extent you choose to have the spirit leave you. You choose to be offended by things and that's what makes the spirit leave. What it all boils down to is choices in the way we think. What people need to understand is that life is full of art. Art can be taken in so many different ways, there is no right way. Even crappy music is artistic to someone. Art can help you keep an open mind and accept things that aren't necessarily your taste. For our FHE we did splatter paint by that one artist guy (can't you tell I'm very educated on this topic?). To some people it's just random, stupid paint thrown together. To others, they just appreciate the effort put into it and the beauty that it portrays. I am not, in any way, shape, or form trying to say we are legit 'artists.' But I am saying that we can still portray beauty in our own way. That is what the world is doing and some people just need to recognize that instead of getting offended by the slightest things. End of story.