hilary hurst: January 2010

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

I'm like, so pretty and so popular

Right now I'm in the Daily Universe newsroom working on some more stories, and my editors turned to me:
"Hilary, did you see that your story is the most popular on the website?"
"What?"
"Yeah. It's the most read story online."

So I had to brag.
http://universe.byu.edu/

LYG

A little bit of Advocacy

For one of my communication's classes, Media Advocacy and Social Change, I have to do a number of hours of advocacy for a certain subject. I've been thinking about it, and I have always been interested in fairness. Okay, I'm aware of how understated that sentence was. I have a passion for fairness. Life isn't equal, but it should be fair. So as I thought about it, how does one advocate fairness? Fairness in thought, in action, in trust?

You can't really.

But a lot of separation and discrimination that leads to unfair situations are spawned by fear. A fear of the new, the weird and the unknown. When people are uniformed, they tend to believe what they are told, what feels most comfortable to them or simply just make something up, leaving them biased based on falsity.

That can not stand.

I am a part of a generation that continues to break down barriers. Interracial relationships are normal. Differing sexual orientations are acknowledged. Opposing religions are discussed. We are trying to embrace the new and misunderstood. And yet that's the problem. Even if we strive to accept the formerly ignored, we still lack a level of understanding that allows us to completely and purely love the different. We have to know more, we have to be unafraid to discuss and we have to be willing to admit our own prejudices and fears in order to truly and honestly become like Christ.

So that is my goal for the next six weeks or so.

I, as an advocate for the fair, will strive to educate my peers and even more importantly, open up channels of communication and thought in the hope that we can all be a little more loving and honest.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Siblings do go on dates sometimes

Yesterday Philip called me and asked if I was free today to play. He wouldn't tell me what we were doing except he told me to bring me camera. So what we did was we drove to south Provo and took pictures at the railroad tracks. It was a lot of fun, even though my toes got cold.

I love that we both have an artsy eye so we have fun pointing out weird things that look cool.

Love him.

On campus before officially starting our date.

A marsh hawk (?) that was just kicking it right over our heads.

I know it's a little delayed, but hey.

Aren't they fabulous?!

So here's my side of the story:

McKenzie and Austin stopped by my apartment Wednesday night after I got back from class just to say hi. I just finished eating chicken pot pie (that I cooked. It was delicious, if I should say so myself) so I was drinking some tea and offered them some. They declined, saying that Austin is currently obsessed with apple cider so they were heading to get some and then, as Austin subtly said, "go for a drive."

No big deal.

But as they walked out the door, Austin turned back to me and flipped me off with his ring finger. It took a second, and then WHAM! My mouth dropped and my eyes popped open and I wouldn't leave the house until I heard from them.

The rest is history. They're fantastic and perfect and beautiful. Not to mention the distracting shiny-ness of the ring. Solid work Austin.