Speaking Up.

Why Now?

It is the 21st century and I promised myself that I would never blog. For the most part, it was simply because I did not think that I had much to say. I had read and shared a lot of blogs on Facebook. Yet, I have just always thought that no one would really want to hear my thoughts in a written format. What changed my mind? Actually it was taking a break from Facebook. In the middle of the summer I decided to take a miniature hiatus from the social media world that is Facebook. Unfortunately, once I started school it became almost impossible not to have a Facebook so I reactivated my account. It did not take very long to remember why I had deleted it. Current events caused friends to be divided, arguments became prevalent in comment sections, and my heart again became heavy for unity. It was not long after, that I started to contribute to the noise. I wanted to make statuses that would encourage the hurting without alienating the defensive. It was then that writing my thoughts down seemed to be a good idea.

Why Blog?

Remember the scene in Legally Blonde 2 where Elle Woods gets up to the podium to talk about Brusier's bill? As a first year law student, Legally Blonde has been on my mind a lot. If you cannot picture that scene let me lay it out for you. Elle gets up to tell the members of congress why they should vote for her bill, but instead Elle tells them a story about her most recent trip to the hair salon. This story has become the basis of why I want to blog and share my thoughts with the world.

In the story, Elle has a disastrous trip to a hair salon. This is not just any old salon. It is a high class hard to get into kind of salon. Yet, the experience is not a good one. Elle proceeds to tell how the shampooing went wrong, the coloring went wrong, and the styling went wrong. It was the worst experience but the anger that Elle felt could not be toward the hair salon. Why? Because not once did she ever speak up about the process.

This simple but profound story has invoked in me a desire to speak up about the process, the world process. Often there are things that happen in the world that make me angry, but I never do anything about them. Elle's story taught me this lesson: I have a voice but if I choose not to use it, then my anger at outcomes are in vain. I want to use my voice. Not only the sake of myself, but for the sake of others. I hope that through my words others can be encouraged. Encouraged to have the courage to use their voice and to stand out from the noise.