My parents had only daughters, 2 of us. Their motto and reference
for thinking in raising us girls was "Raise Strong Girls". They
taught me to be smart, capable, and about what matters.
Be Smart: My
parents placed me in an environment, culture, and society where knowledge
really is power. Learn, simply for the sake of learning. Read poetry simply
because it invigorates your mind. The Church values knowledge and learning.
Through this, also introduced to me and taught by my parents, I learned to
value knowledge. Love to learn. I was taught that I have been blessed with a
brain, and with that I have a responsibility to fill and use it. Their parents
taught them the same lesson, and it was passed down to me. My poetry book is
the same as one my grandpa has. His is heavily worn, all the pages read, spine
held together by duct tape. I watch him slowly turn through the pages, reciting
the poems printed on the pages, but not reading them. He pulls them deep from
memory, from a place deeper than he seems to be able to access for other
information. This, these familiar, learned, beautiful words are what he
remembers. What you know is a solace, a comfort, a friend when all other things
leave you.
Be Capable: I
learned to be capable, be independent. My place in the world is wherever I want
to be. I have chosen to become a teacher, but eventually to stay home with my
family. I was taught that what I can do is important. I need to have the
potential to be completely independent. Should I need to support my family, and
myself; I need to have the skills to do so. Throughout college I have
taken classes in electronics, robotics, woodworking, sewing, cooking, finance,
parenting, nutrition, interior design, among others. I am learning skills that
I can use to take care of my family, if the need arises.
Know what matters: I learned that friends may come and go, but
family is where time matters. I will always have my family and those
relationships are more important than anything. I was taught to stay close to
family members, help them, even when it means sacrificing something that I
want, or time that I want to use elsewhere. The gospel matters. It also is more
important than anything. Whatever happens, I will always have my family, and
the Church.
Here I am, as a strong daughter, Raised.
