Spring Blossoms

Is it just me, or does it seem (to anyone else of the male gender) that as soon as spring starts rolling around and the trees start budding and the flowers start blooming, that something else very exciting happens: beautiful women start popping up all over the place like flowers coming out of the ground.

I have taken a small survey among men (a convenience sample for all you stats people out there) and found the general consensus to be in the affirmative. We as single, women-seeking men have been on the hunt (since it is openseason) all winter long only to come up empty handed. Fortunately for us, sometime around April every year, good-looking single women start coming out of the woodwork like you wouldn't believe!

Where they've been all winter no one knows. One hypothesis is that the cold temperatures have caused them to migrate south with the birds to warmer places like Las Vegas, San Diego or maybe Phoenix. The important thing is they're back! What I want to know is in what cave do all these pretty girls hibernate during the winter and how can we get access to it next winter?

RICH MILLAR
Payson

Graduation or funeral

I just graduated last week and graduation was incredibly boring. I kept asking myself, "Is this graduation, or is this my funeral?" I felt like I was in my casket (the hard Marriott Center chair) waiting for my name to be called and honored.

For me, this event marked the end of four years of college and 12 years of prior schooling. For many, it may mark the end of formal education. This is a time to celebrate, to be happy, to laugh and to cheer. It is not a time to solemnly sit and listen to long winded talks about "Enter to Learn and Go Forth to Serve" and how I need to be ethical and give back. These kinds of talks are too late and leave me looking at my watch every couple of minutes. It's like the basketball coach who tries to teach his players the fundamentals of dribbling, passing, and shooting twenty minutes before the game starts. Or the power lifter who starts to train only days before the competition. If those values haven't been instilled in the graduating students by commencement day, a few sleepy graduation speakers are not going to change anything.

As Elder Pace said in the May 1989 Ensign, "My counsel to members would be to relax, lighten up, mellow out, and not get so huffy. While the gospel is sacred and serious, sometimes we take ourselves a little too seriously. A sense of humor, especially about ourselves, is an attribute worthy of development."

I have loved my BYU education. The values of service, integrity, and hard work are not only talked about but acted upon. For graduation, please liven up the ceremony, lighten up the atmosphere, and let us celebrate who we have become through our education at BYU.

MARSHALL MORTLEY
Albuquerque, N.M.