"It Happened Again"

    You’re probably wondering “What happened again?”, and since this is basically my first post, you don't even have anything to look back at. So let me begin with a story. My first semester of college I came to school here at BYU-Idaho as a business major. And well, that lasted all of about three days. The reason being, that I didn’t like any of my classes. After one particularly longways I came back to my apartment questioning my life choice of even coming. That’s semester I had a roommate who was a mechanical engineering major and he invited me to come along to one of his classes. It was an introductory course to engineering and that day they had all of the different engineering departments come and speak to the students. I found it very interesting but nothing too exciting. It all sounded too hard and not really worth it. But then, the automotive engineering faculty came up and immediately I felt the spirit practically straighten me up and say "pay attention". Needless to say, by the end of this 8-minute lecture I knew that’s what I wanted to do. Three years later my major is still Automotive Engineering Technology, and it has been a life changing journey to say the least. I graduate in just a few months, and I have job offers from Tesla, Ford, and hopefully more to come soon.

You may still be wondering, “What happened again?” The reason I shared the story above with you is because every single semester I have attended here at BYU-I, I thought I had all my classes figured out. Yet, without fail, every semester I always go through the very stressful process of changing at least one of my classes after the semester has started. It’s happened eight times now… Now, the really interesting thing about it is, that every one of the classes that I ended up taking in place of another, has ended up being a life changing experience. Hands down the classes that 30 years from now I will remember what I learned in them. This Semester I ended up switching my second U.S. History class for a family relations class. I know what your thinking, “Why is an automotive engineer taking a family relations class? “ Trust me, I thought the same thing. But let me tell you, it has already been a life changing experience for me. I have learned things that will forever affect the way I make decision regarding my own family and others around me.

When someone is lying on their death bed looking back at their life, thinking about what purpose their life had and how they spent their time. For some reason their thoughts always seem to come to a focal point on their family… Why is that?... Perhaps it’s because family is what brought them the most joy in their time here. Or maybe its because they feel that their family was their purpose. I don’t know that have an exact answer for you, but I do believe there is something divine about that. So let me ask you this. When someone asked you what you do for a living, why do we answer first with our occupation and most of the time only with that? When really our family is what matters most. Why don’t we answer first as a husband and father, then as an engineer or what have you. It sounds weird, but in all reality isn’t that the order our purposes fall in? 

We live in an interesting time, where I think for the first time in history, we are more afraid of the devaluing of money than we are of the family. And I am here to tell you that, that is a grievous mistake. This week in class we talked about how although the worlds population is growing, birth rates are falling dramatically and have been for a long time. Studies show that the world will actually begin to depopulate by 2050. Most people believe that this is a good thing. That its better for the environment and that a higher standard of living can be achieved by having fewer people. This is something that I have learned that could not be farther from the truth. The smaller and less value we place upon our families, the more a society falls apart. Family is the central unit for society and the disintegration of it will bring upon the disintegration of nearly every other social order. Throughout the next 12 weeks I will be discussing these subjects along with many other on why family is so important and how we can help to strengthen the most fundamental element of  our worlds society.