Dear Editor,
I’m a non-traditional student here at BYU – a senior studying marriage, family and human development, and pre-marriage and family therapy. It’s a great place to be, an absolute privilege. One of my favorite pastimes is eavesdropping on your conversations in the Cougareat Food Court and other places around campus.
Hey, if you didn’t want others to hear, you would lower your voices, right?
I hear students chatting about assignments, professors to take and those to avoid, the ward, family home evening, jobs, landlords, dates, activities and planned trips home. You talk about stress and anxiety and how to save enough to keep going.
But the most interesting topic I hear is when you talk about each other. There is a recurrent theme that strikes me as peculiar, and though not atypical, it is nonetheless puzzling.
I find it intensely interesting that so many of you expect so much more than you have to offer. The process of finding a mate has become an exercise in total futility because you have expectations that fall nowhere near reality. I would love to know how many possible unions have been botched because one of the candidates wasn’t perfect in the eyes of the other.
What ever happened to looking deeper than the outer shell? Where, oh where, is the perfection so many of you seek? Not here, that’s for sure, because if it were, we wouldn’t be here. Listen a little closer next time there is a lesson on eternal progression and try to understand what progression means. It’s not perfection, it’s a process, an eternal process, one that is a lot more fun to share with a companion. The only perfect people on this earth were translated. The rest of us are works in progress. Even the prophet’s children said he’s not perfect, and I, for one, find a great deal of comfort in hearing that.
For those of you who think you’re so hot, you’re not. And if you think you are, I’ve got news for you: You’re a few fries short of a happy meal. The hot ones are the go-getters, the movers and the shakers. They’re the ones who follow through with their callings and serve with joy. They’re the ones with good hearts. The ones who love Lord more than they love themselves. That’s right – more than they love themselves. Take a look around. They’re everywhere.
Tammy Leifson
Spanish Fork
