Drinking Fountain

Guess who just installed a drinking fountain in her own home all by herself? (well... Shauna helped too.)

Best of all, it looks just like Shamu!

Voila! :) My inner six year old is very very pleased indeed.

Single Flower

My roommate Natalia and I went on a walk today, and we stumbled upon this beautiful flower, still growing strong in the middle of October:

It made me really happy. :)

Life in Provo is going well. Things have just been super busy. This semester reminds me of my very first semester in grad school, when I was stressed out all the time. My second semester was much more lowkey for some reason, for which I am grateful. This semester is crazy, but fortunately I have better time management skills than I did a year ago, so I am getting by.

I am loving having Shauna at school with me. She's been my best friend for forever and it's great having her around to do stuff with all the time!

On the Family Sciences

Dear Friends,

My undergraduate major was called Marriage, Family, and Human Development. It is a wonderful major but one with many unfortunate misconceptions. Let me clear a few things up for you:

1. MFHD is not "the official M.R.S. degree" at BYU, nor is it the Mommy Prep degree. This is not a major people do to kill time before they get married and start life as a stay at home mom.
2. It is not Home Economics. When I tell people my major, they often say "Oh, you must be good at cooking and sewing!" Actually, my program doesn't include a single cooking or sewing class.
3. There is a reason it is called Family Science. Family science is a hybrid of both psychology and sociology with  a family emphasis. It is a science in the same way that psychology and sociology are sciences.
4.  MFHD is not an easy program. Our program is very research heavy. Students must conduct research, study research, and learn to write research papers really well. Our professors are usually family therapists, so they are kind to us, but they are also scholars and they are used to reviewing papers for scholarly journals. They make sure that we are doing high quality work (particularly in the upper level courses).
5. In some ways, studying people and families is more difficult than studying "hard core" science topics (physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, etc etc). Each individual has their own life story. They are faced with their own unique family circumstances and challenges. They bring to the table a unique blend of personality traits, abilities, relationships, and experiences. No two people will react to the same situation in the exact same way. Also, most human emotions and experiences are difficult to capture in a quantitative way. We have to get creative in our efforts to study families and individuals. There are limitations to what we can do that we are constantly having to work around, but that doesn't mean our efforts aren't valuable.
*disclaimer: I'm certainly not saying that our major is harder than physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, etc. Students in those programs face difficulties that we don't have to deal with. But don't discount our program just because our difficulties are different than yours.*
6. MFHD can lead to careers. Many students (like me) go on to graduate programs and pursue careers as educators and therapists. A bachelor's degree in MFHD can yield jobs too. The fact is, families are important and there are many jobs out there designed to deal with family issues.

Friends, I love my major, but I wish more people would take it seriously. Just because it has "Marriage" in the name doesn't mean I am "one of those girls" who came here just to get married. Just because the emphasis is on families doesn't mean the only career track it offers is in parenthood.

Please treat our program with respect, and we'll do the same to yours. We're all here to learn, aren't we?

Love,

Shelece