Thoughts on Easter

The resurrection of Jesus Christ, which we celebrate on Easter, is the single most important event in mankind's history.  Regardless of whether or not people are good or bad, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ means we'll all live forever. Immortality is guaranteed. Imagine the teacher saying, "Even if you get a 0% on this test, you'll still pass the class." Jesus told us essentially the same thing when he said, "[D]eath hath passed upon all men" (2 Nephi 9:6).

Yet, the blessing of immortality is rarely mentioned during Easter. Instead, we celebrate bunnies and eggs. Why bunnies and eggs? The tradition became common in the 19^th century when people saw that bunnies’ litters, which are rather large, bearing new life (http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/17597617). The meaning, however, has been lost in time; we only think of egg hunts and chocolate bunnies during the holiday. To make matters more confusing, the name of the holiday—Easter—means Passover. However, Passover did not even occur during the resurrection of Jesus Christ; rather, it was the week before the resurrection. I'm left to conclude the meaning of "Easter" and our celebrations have distracted us from the true meaning of Easter. 

Easter should be a holiday of joy, hope, and peace. How can we experience these three things? I suggest three things: (1) Reading the account of Christ just like we read Luke 2 during Christmas. (2) Doing family history of our ancestors. (3) Expressing our love and gratitude for our Heavenly Father for the atonement of Jesus Christ.

Even though I just wrote a list of how to respect God, don’t see myself as an incredibly religious person; rather, I see this holiday as incredibly sacred. While Christ didn’t specifically command us to keep the holiday sacred, I believe keeping Easter special is a poignant way to show how much we appreciate His divine sacrifice.

The Importance of Planning

Many aspects of my life are more cyclical. While I clearly progress in many aspects of my life, I find myself in crummy situations I have been in, whether it be in school, social, spiritual, or financial areas. For example, I find that I get burnt out from school every three months. Even worse, I find myself mentally drifting away from God just because I'm preoccupied with other things and fail to do the elementary aspects of the gospel. 

Unfortunately, my planning habit is also very cyclical; I create effective plans and follow through on them for a while... then lose track of them. These planning sessions are critical because they allows me to continually progress rather than fall back to crummy situations. 

Thus, I want to make planning a top priority for the rest of my life. Goal setting will become my anchor that keeps every other aspect of my life intact. I believe that the lives of notable people like Elon Musk confirm I can succeed in multiple areas if I simply plan correctly.  With my coming internship at Amazon in the summer and my position as Executive Director of Marketing for the student council in the fall and winter, I'll need to anchor my life around a set schedule that will guarantee positive results in every aspect of my life. 

The World Needs General Conference

I'm slowly transitioning from the academic world to the business world. I know I need to pay closer attention to how I express my religion beliefs in the business world than ever before. Hiding my beliefs is new to me because my academic world has included spiritual learning with its secular learning because I attend a school funded by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The business world, in comparison, has many amazing people with a plethora of ethnic and religious backgrounds all with a common goal: success in one's chosen profession. These people offer unique perspectives on how to succeed in every aspect of business. I enjoy scrolling through online magazines and LinkedIn just to see if I can be successful just like everybody else.

Although I have learned a lot through reading business media, I've realized that the world doesn't have every secret to a successful career. I'm confident that my spiritual learning has made a difference. One main way I learn how to be successful is the church's semiannual General Conference. There, prophets, apostles and leaders of the church speak to the public. These men and women have proven successful in their professions (though they typically don't mention them). If the world needed to have a conference with successful professionals from a wide array of disciplines, the world should choose the speakers from General Conference. For example, look at the following professions of just a few of the speakers from the April 2017 General Conference:

• Gary R. Stevenson: Founder and COO of the world's largest manufacturer of sports equipment, ICON fitness
• Dallin H. Oaks: Law professor at University of Chicago Law School and Chairman of the Board of Directors for PBS
• Russell M. Nelson: A recognized authority on coronary artery disease
• Gary B Sabin: CEO and Chairman for Excel Trust, a real estate firm

These speakers are truly successful people. With the gospel at the center of their lives, they became successful in business. I've noticed that much of their advice applies to situations everybody faces. Their lessons teach us how to be kind, honest, hardworking, and grateful people. I don't want to impose my religious beliefs on anybody I'll meet in my professional life, so I won't typically bring this up in a professional setting. Nevertheless, I'm confident that if the world listened to their lessons taught in General Conference, we'd have better employees, coworkers, and bosses. 

My Journey from Music to Business

My life up to 2016 revolved around piano and music composition. I always been in love with great piano compositions and incredible classical performances. I get it from my family; both of my grandpas' careers were in music, and my mom was a music education major at BYU. I started playing piano for my ward when I was 13. 

As I moved through my music composition classes, I realized I didn't have much of a specific career path in mind; Rather, I just liked music!

It got me thinking about my future financial situation, so I got a minor in business. I took the prerequisites for applying the Marriott School during the 2015-2016 school year. Surprisingly, I did well in the classes, though I was not interested in marketing, finance, and accounting, though I thought economics was fascinating.

During one of my marketing classes a professor from the Global Supply Chain (GSC) program introduced me to the major. He taught me how supply chains affect every aspect of our lives and is a growing industry. As an added bonus, he broke an iPhone during the presentation. Leaving the lecture curious, I talked to students in the program and a GSC professor who was once a musician like myself.

Even though I was happy as a music major, I felt like GSC could broaden my horizons and prepare me to get a job when I graduated. I decided to apply. Much to my surprise, I got into the program!

Since I’ve been in the program, many musicians have condemned me for switching music to pursue business. If you're one of them, let me tell you I haven’t abandoned music. In fact, on April 4 I’m playing a piano concerto that was composed by a composition major. Music is still a big part of my life.

Believe it or not, life’s been easier as a business student. I actually enjoy composing and performing music more now than as a music major because I play on my own time. I’m also financially less stressed; I’m making more money in my current supply chain job than ever before.

For the record, I’m glad I’m in GSC but I don’t find anything wrong with studying music. I applaud all music students because I value fabulous classical music. Yet, my switch to GSC was the right decision; I’m confident I will have a bright future in business while still enjoying music.

Vegetarianism

Vegetarianism

Growing up as a Mormon outside of Utah, I get questions about my faith. Almost all Mormons can relate, even ones in Utah. For most, the temptation of drinking coffee or alcohol isn’t hard to bear; we are quite content with chocolate milk and board games. Rather, peer pressure makes living life difficult. That’s what’s hard being Mormon and vegetarian. A vegetarian doesn’t eat meat.

Vegetarians’ standards face the same stigma within the Mormon community because Mormons love meat. Meat is necessary at most LDS gatherings. When I tell people I’ve been a vegetarian for almost a year, they’re first thought is, “Why are you vegetarian? Don’t you miss eating meat?” I give my response based on scientific research on the effects of meat on the environment and your personal health. People are respectful 99% of the time, even though many people disagree with my lifestyle choices.

My mom disagreed with vegetarianism long ago. From what I remember, she talked about how God gave us dominion over the earth. Surprisingly, she became vegan when she got breast cancer and researched the benefits of veganism. In case you don’t know, A vegan is somebody who doesn’t eat any animal products like meat, dairy, and even odd products contain parts of animals like some medicines or marshmallows. It’s the next level of vegetarianism. By being vegan, my mom significantly reduces her risk of getting breast cancer again.

Below are some questions I get and my answers:

Q: Where do you get your protein?

A: Many plant-based foods contain protein. In fact, vegetarians and vegans get 70% more protein than they need¹. So … where did this question even come from? I don’t really know.

Q: Do you ever feel full?

A: Of course! I never have problems getting enough food. Most restaurants provide vegetarian/vegan options.

Q: What about vitamin B12 deficiency?

A: This is a valid criticism of vegetarianism; many don’t get enough B12, which can lead to things like nerve damage; however, many foods are fortified with B12 (i.e. most cold cereals, sports drinks, almond milk etc). This is because B12 is naturally found in the soil. Animals eat the soil. People eat animals. People get B12. The vegetarian way is to get your B12 directly from the soil.

Q: What about God giving us dominion over the earth?

A: He said long before anybody cared about climate change or deforestation or animal manufacturing. He knew we need to take care of the earth. That doesn’t answer your real question which goes something like this: Hasn’t God given us animals to eat? D&C 89: 12-13 describes my opinion on that.

Do you see the similarities between questions for vegetarian and questions for Mormons? In both cases, I don’t push my beliefs on anybody. Instead, I want everybody to understand and respect my decisions. I’ll respect yours.

11.  http://www.care2.com/greenliving/do-vegetarians-get-enough-protein.html

Why Spotify?

How we listen to music has evolved dramatically in the past 50 years. While many people don't see the evolution of music channels as less significant that than of other evolutions like technologies, it has made music easier and easier to listen to. How dull would the world have been without the record player, cassette, CD, radios, or even the iTunes store?

I see Spotify as the next generation of music listening because you can listen to practically any song. If you get premium you can download thousands of songs from their entire library on your phone with no commercials. I don’t see how music listening to could get any more convenient for me. You can make playlists to customize your listening experience.

Naturally, we’d like to listen to music for free, but this is a better option; artists worth listening to actually get revenue which allows them to produce more songs that would not have been produced without that revenue. This is a zero-sum situation because artists win by getting paid by Spotify and we spend less on music and have it on our smartphones.

Two downsides I hear about Spotify from my friends is Spotify requires more work than radio, and they don’t have storage on their phone for the songs. The first downside is easily refutable; Spotify has radio options. The second downside is just a problem with people’s phones. Get a new phone and be over with it!

I see that many competitors will try to challenge Spotify’s power because Spotify has been listen to music easier than ever. CDs and even the iTunes store won’t stand a chance against Spotify in the next ten years. With Google Music and Apple Music jumping on board, it’s clear music is only becoming more accessible than ever.

Why Amazon is the BEST Place to Work

This blog post is just a celebration. I just got an internship as an operations finance summer intern at Amazon! I've applied and interviewed at many companies in the past few months, but Amazon has always been at the top of my list. I'm not kidding; at the beginning of last semester I made a list of the top 40 companies I wanted to work for, and Amazon was at the top. It has everything that a new supply chain management student could ask for: an environment of creativity and innovation, potential, resume experience, and challenges. 

I actually just stumbled upon their info session in January in the TNRB because a friend was going and Amazon provided free food. I heard their message and realized how amazing their company was. (Just Google "Amazon innovation" and you'll see how amazing they are.) On top of that, I realized that my experience as an Amazon seller at my current job at Super Healthy Kids would uniquely qualify me for this role. The next day at the career fair I talked to the recruiter and she put my name down for an interview. Three phone interviews later, I got an offer from Amazon! 

In the process I talked to several people who have worked at Amazon. They all mention how fast-paced the culture is, but how rewarding it is, too. That's what I want to hear in a company. I'm an ENFJ personality, and I want to make a difference in the world, so Amazon is where I want to go. Plus, they pay pretty well, even for interns.