My take: Media

Okay, so I'd like to share with you some of my thoughts on the topic of Media. You may have noticed the YouTube video that I posted right before this by John Bytheway. I just found it and I recomend you watch it. So like I said in my first post in my bio, my family thinks I have a funny taste in music. I told you that I only listen to EFY, and country music. Well truthfuly, I haven't listened to country music in over a month. Let me tell you why.
So as you all know I am obsessed with EFY. (and probubly the reason why all my posts are about EFY is because I was just at EFY a few weeks ago.) So at EFY I was listening to one of our counsulors talk. He said something like; "there is a certain spirit about EFY that you don't get other places. Think about it, how many prayers have you said today? How many hymns have you sung?" I thought about it and I realized we don't have the same spirit in our daily lives because we choose not to. But we can! So I made a goal for myself (that eventually turned into a personal progress 10 hour project.) I decided that from then on my goal was: don't listen to any music that isn't appropriate enough to be played at an EFY dance. Now that's intense in the worlds eyes because what they play at EFY dances is music like Hannah Montanah, and thoes funky line dance songs. I was determened but at the time I was still at EFY and thats easy to live at EFY where everybody has thoes same standards. Watching TV isn't alowed, and they basically plan every second of your day for you. Life is different at home.
When I got home I knew it would be hard, but I was determined to carry out my plan. I started with my Ipod. I decided I would delete any songs off my Ipod that aren't appropriate enough to be played at an EFY dance. Now don't think I was listening to horrible music, because I wasn't. I just wanted to listen to BETTER music. We don't have to limit our selves to MoTab but I know for a fact that much of my country music that I had spent the last few months collecting wouldn't invite the spirit into my life. So I hit delete. It was realy hard because I had spent good money on much of this music and no body had told me to delete it. Nobody had told me that it was bad. Because in the worlds eyes it wasn't bad. But I knew I had to do it if I wanted that same spirit I feel at EFY to follow me in my every day life.
Now after that whole ordeal I was left with not very much that I realy wanted to listen to. I had 2 EFY CD's that I had collected over the last 2 years of EFY, and 2 other church CD's. Yes I did have much music that I hadn't deleted that was appropriate but I still wanted more. (mostly to spare my family from the pain of listening to the same few songs over, and over, and over again. Because I have done that to them before.) My EFY Counsulor, Randi, had told me about how there are tons of free downloads on the LDS Youth Websight. So I headed there and downloaded every single song and now have a huge playlist of music that I felt good about listening to.
Now that is just about all that I listen to. I was talking to my little sister today and she said "you know, I just wish you would play a little bit more variety." And I was thinking "what do you want me to play? I'm pretty sure Katie Perry, and most of Miranda Lambert where out of the question. And I just said "well sorry" and moved on.
Well a few weeks ago I was on my way to tumbling and my dad was driving the car. I had pluged in my iPod and had pushed play on my "Whitney's endless church music playlist" (yes that's really what its called in my iPod!) and after a few minutes he said "you know, uplifting music literally is uplifting." and I was thinking "haha not literally...It doesn't make float!" but I kept that to myself. He then went on to say "You can realy feel a difference when you are listening to this music as apposed to other music." And I was thinking "YES! MY PLAN IS WORKING ON OTHER PEOPLE TOO!" We talked for a while and I told him about my plan I had made. And then after a while he said something like "the hard thing will be letting other people have their free agency in what they chose to listen to." And that has proven to be the toughest part. I want to have my playlist playing at all times, but that's not what the world wants, and that's not what my family always wants. Sometimes I can't be incharge of the radio and I will just have to deal with it.
On my drive too and from California for Nationals recently I found that my family didn't want to listen to EFY music the entire way (despite the fact that I had burnt 6 CD's of it) So I plugged my head phones in my ears and made my own decision, while still letting them make theirs (and no I am not implying that my family listens to bad music, its just not the music that I want to listen to.)
I had gotten discouraged thinking "how am I going to pull this off for the rest of my life if the world is going to fight me so much?" And I got my answer in that YouTube video I posted right before this (I hope you've all gone back and watched it by now....and if not shame on you!) We need to be listening to not just GOOD music, but we need to be listening to GREAT music! And that other people believe the same way I do! It's okay for me to play my church music in my headphones on the bus on the way to school, and its okay for me to watch conference talks instead of watch TV. Its okay. I'm not going to be thought of as "weird" and even if I am.... hey it's my desision and its the way I want to live. I don't need to worrie about what others think about it. It's just me.

Feel my Sunlight