I grew up in the south, Atlanta GA. I was 1 of 7 LDS kids in my high school. I think out of those 7, maybe 2 were "ideal." I had my fair share of teenage angst and rebellion, but got accepted into BYU anyways thanks to a glowing letter of recomendation from my Stake YW Pres. Let me tell you, coming from Atlanta to Provo was a pure case of culture and shell shock!! I came with visions of everyone being my friend because we all go to the same church!! I came with visions of the men respecting their priesthood and having faithful VT. Oy veh!! Within my first week there, I was involved sexually w/ a RM. I smoked my first bowl at the Y monument 2 months later. No one on campus would look me in the eye cuz I had a shaved head. I tried to strike up conversations w/ people in class, and I would be ignored. I ended up getting my navel and my tongue pierced, hair dyed turquoise and I couldn't wait to get back to Atlanta. I felt like I hadn't moved, but the land around me had. I was so naive about what life would be like, that I fell back into my old patterns verrrrrry easily. And when the aforementioned RM met his "eternal companion" and took her to the temple 6 weeks later and I asked him if he had cleared things up w/ his bishop and he told me that you don't need to clear those things up if you stop doing them...I left the church... Now, quite a few years later I can look back on the experience and see my own shortcomings and faults. I would love to live in Utah again, but only for the mountains and weather!! I don't envy the ward situations or the lifestyle expectancies!! Now I live outside of Chattanooga, in the largest ward in our stake. Every stake calling seems to come from our ward. I run into fellow ward members every once in a while out in public, and wouldn't ya know..they're normal people just like me!! I saw a counselor in our bishopric last night at Walmart. I yelled out his name and he waved and that was it. I guess even Mormons can be too busy for each other. As far as anti's...Like I said in my intro, I suffer from a couple of infertility diseases..one of which causes extreme depression..so let's see, I've been on Sarafem, Prozac and lastly Zoloft. I finally took myself OFF the medication because it took away my sex drive..kind of counterproductive when you're trying to make a baby eh? I disagree. My husband comes first and foremost, but depression is depression and we shouldn't judge people because they're on anti-depressants. Unless you know the situations and backgrounds of all these perfect Mormon women in Utah who are taking them, I think it's unfair to make a big deal out of how many people are on them. Mormon women are expected to reproduce, reproduction causes hormones to get horribly out of control, out of control hormones causes depression, Zoloft fixes depression, Mormon woman can enjoy her life now... the only reason I think there is such a magnifying glass on what life is like in UTah is because there ARE so many people in utah...like someone said, take the church out of it and utah is just like every other state in this country... ok..i'm rambling..making no sense!! guess i better hit the hay!!
