I had an incident on Sunday night. Now that it feels behind me, I think I have something to say about it.
I remember my parents teaching us when we were young to never swear or use vulgar language. When you're a kid, things are just really black and white, and your parents are there to point out which is which. So some words were bad, and that's all there was to it.
As I got older, some of the kids at school started swearing. Well, let's be honest, a lot of them swore when we were in elementary school too, but that was really more for effect. In middle school, kids started using it as part of their daily language. So a lot of us "Mormon kids" started asking those that we were friends with to not use those words around us, because we didn't want to have to hear it, since we were choosing not to use them. A lot of my friends respected that. Some of them didn't, and in fact would instead say as many bad words as they knew all in a row as fast as they could to see if they could get through their list before you could cover your ears. But you can only expect so much from fourteen-year-olds. And they weren't calling me those words, just saying them.
When I moved to Utah, it was like heaven. There were very few swear words to be found, and in general everyone's language was much cleaner and more respectful. Say what you want about Utah and "Utah Mormons" but most of them don't swear, or they don't swear very much.
Naturally, coming to Florida has been kind of a culture shock. On Sunday, someone, who was very upset at the time, called me just about every name that I know, all in different and varying combinations.
Now, I've always been the kind of person who's like "well I'm rubber, you're glue blah blah blah," and how silly is it to let someone's words hurt you?
But it did hurt. I cried all night and into the next day, so that when I showed up to work at 2 pm, I was still in tears and had to get sent home. No one has EVER treated me that way, not even when we were really immature in middle school. And yes, I had been stupid to provoke this person, but I certainly didn't deserve to get treated like that.
And as I heard some of those same names being used on a TV show, I thought...how sad. How sad that calling someone something like that could be funny.
Words really do mean a lot. Why was it so important to our Founding Fathers to have free speech? The words we speak and write can evoke emotions stronger and more quickly than anything else because they are so direct, and they communicate something specific. They can uplift and inspire, or create a beautiful image in our minds. They can also demean, belittle, and cause our minds to wander down paths that they shouldn't go. They can start wars and end wars, build relationships, or tear them apart. It's been said that "The pen is mightier than the sword."
That's why I'm going to do two things. One is that I am going to pursue my dream of becoming a writer, because words can influence nations, and if I can add a positive voice to the deluge of negativity that is flowing in the world today, then I'll have done something worthwhile with my life.
Number two, and anyone who reads this blog can hold me to this goal, I'm going to start speaking more positively. I don't swear, but I can be very negative at times, and I don't think speaking negative words really accomplish anything but brings everyone else down. I have never seen a negative word spoken cause any kind of progress. And I have been speaking negatively A LOT since I've been here in Florida. So if you hear me complaining, or my facebook status is negative, call me out. Say, hey, weren't you going to be more positive?
