Happy Birthday!

Today is a very special day. It is the birthday of someone who has long been one of my heroes. For years, she has stood by my side as I traversed the perils of this life. She represents the ideal woman: a mixture of beauty and intelligence, strength and compassion, and above all an unwavering dedication to integrity and righteousness. Her existence has made the world a better place, because she encourages young women everywhere to trust their minds, and never back down from what they know is right.

This woman is Hermione Granger.

Okay I know she's a fictional character and doesn't actually exist. But since when do fictional characters have no impact on reality? Thousands of nerdy little girls have found a role model in the character of Hermione. Any girl who has ever felt out of place amongst her more feminine peers, who has ever spent her summer reading giant books, who has ever stressed about a major essay only to receive a near perfect grade, can relate to Hermione. The girls who have been barred from answering questions in class because the other students need a chance to speak, the girls who have been accused of being "know-it-alls," the girls who always religiously followed the rules in school, who were occasionally teased for being teachers' pets, these are the girls who adored Hermione. JK Rowling gave us plenty of strong heroines, but come on. Hermione basically saved the world. Harry may have been the Chosen One, but he would have been dead meat without the help of "the cleverest witch of her age."

In honor of her birthday, I've come up with a list of little-known facts and cool pieces of info about our favorite bushy-haired, large-toothed, Muggle-born. Thanks, Jo, for giving the world this character. And thank you, Hermione, for keeping those boys in line.

1. Her middle name is Jean
2. Rowling was originally going to give her the last name of "Puckle" before she realized that it's a stupid name
3. She was one of the oldest students in her year at Hogwarts, since she turned twelve 18 days after she started her first year (kids weren't allowed to go to Hogwarts unless they were already 11)
4. Her Patronus is an otter, which is JK Rowling's favorite animal
5. When she was fourteen, her greatest fear was that she would fail her classes
6. She once made 112 points on a test
7. She translated the book The Tales of Beedle the Bard (a Harry Potter companion novel that includes notes from Dumbledore) from the original Ancient Runes
8. She came up with the idea for Dumbledore's Army
9. She first said Voldemort's name (an action used throughout the story to symbolize courage and the defiance of ignorance and evil) during her fifth year
10. Her future husband had a very public relationship with her roommate when they were in school (which must have made things very tense in the dormitory)
11. She has an enormous and grumpy cat named Crookshanks (because cats are the best)
12. The only things she isn't good at are wizard chess, Quidditch, cooking, seeing the future, and drawing
13. Despite knowing next to nothing about sports, the only guys she dated were all good Quidditch players

14. She punched the little snot Draco Malfoy right in the face
15. She worked for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement
16. She was the only one at Hogwarts to figure out what was attacking the students her second year
17. Her confidence and sarcastic personality hide her deep-seated insecurities about not being good enough, but she still totally saved the world
18. She has an amazing amount of empathy, as shown by her defense of house-elves and Buckbeak the Hippogriff, but unfortunately her logic and skepticism sometimes override her concern (see Lavender Brown dead-bunny fiasco)
19. One time, her hand shot up in the air so fast to answer a question that she almost knocked Harry's glasses off
20. From book three, it was obvious she was going to end up with Ron, because they are the second-best couple of all time, right behind Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy (although I was way happier when these two got together, since I had been waiting for it for seven years)

And the greatest moment of my life so far came when I was reading the seventh book. I started down page 625, and all of sudden I realized that the world as I knew it had changed forever. I slowed down and read this over and over, drinking in every word:

"Hang on a moment!" said Ron sharply. "We've forgotten someone!"
"Who?" asked Hermione.
"The house-elves, they'll all be down in the kitchen, won't they?"
"You mean we ought to get them fighting?" asked Harry.
"No," said Ron seriously, "I mean we should tell them to get out. We don't want anymore Dobbies, do we? We can't order them to die for us--"
There was a clatter as the basilisk fangs cascaded out of Hermione's arms. Running at Ron, she flung them around his neck and kissed him full on the mouth. Ron threw away the fangs and broomstick he was holding and responded with such enthusiasm that he lifted Hermione off her feet.
"Is this the moment?" Harry asked weakly, and when nothing happened except that Ron and Hermione gripped each other still more firmly and swayed on the spot, he raised his voice. "OI! There's a war going on here!"
Ron and Hermione broke apart, their arms still around each other.
"I know mate," said Ron, who looked as though he had recently been hit on the back of the head with a Bludger, "so it's now or never, isn't it?"

Possibly the best scene in the entire history of literature.

I love Harry Potter, and I love Hermione Granger. She never pretended to be something she wasn't, even when she was mocked and teased and abused. She is a hero.

Feminists are always going on about how we need more strong female role models in works of fiction. Here we have Ginny, Luna, Tonks, Mrs. Weasley, Minerva McGonagall, and Lily Potter. We have Hermione Granger. Seriously, what more could you ask for?

Potterhead for life.
Emily <3

Sharing the Wealth

As much as I like writing my own blog, I do also appreciate a phenomenal blog post written by somebody else. This is one of those phenomenal blog posts because it is SO TRUE. Also, it was written by my roommate, it's about dating, and random words are Capitalized, turning them into Proper Nouns for Emphasis. A rhetorical tool of which I am particularly fond. 

Now without further ado, read Monica's blog post in her blog JUNGLE ADVENTURES.

The Game 

(I just lost)

Emily <3

Reflection

As I was going through the Dallas Lovefield and Las Vegas airports a few weeks ago, I had a lot of time to myself. As is usual for me, I spent the time reflecting deeply on the nature of humanity and our unique American identity. As these philosophical thoughts were so stirring, I felt compelled to share them with you.

I was on the plane, listening to music, when "I'll Make a Man Out of You" from Mulan started playing. I was happily listening to what is one of my favorite Disney songs, when I started thinking about what makes it so great. Even my little brother, who generally shuns all Disney music for fear of appearing a feminine-movie-lover, loves this song.  If he loves this song, EVERYONE must love this song. Which is funny, as I am a girl, and so many people who love this song are girls, and yet we cheerfully sing to each other "BE A MAN!!!" It's just so powerful and inspiring, you know? It's like a call to action for the world at large, to stand up and fight for themselves. If you think I'm taking a song from a cartoon movie too seriously, just wait until you see what conclusion I drew next.

The chorus says, "We must be swift as a coursing river, with all the force of a great typhoon, with all the strength of a raging fire, mysterious as the dark side of the moon." The first three goals make sense. If you're a guy going off to defend your country against the physical manifestation of evil, you want to be fast, forceful, and strong. But mysterious? I guess they were Chinese so maybe they also learned ninja skills. I don't know. Anyway, in my deep, life-altering meditations on the plane, I thought about how maybe we, as a culture, could apply this admonition to our own life. People aren't mysterious anymore. Many, many people, such as yours truly, put their entire lives on the Internet. Facebook, Twitter, blogs...it is so easy to find out information about people these days. The art of being mysterious is nearly dead. Which is a bad thing, because it's exciting to find out stuff about people as you get to know them better. It's also fun to Facebook stalk. But apparently Facebook stalking is bad. Go figure.

Then again, let's look at EVERY SINGLE CLASS I'm in this semester, where at some point the professor has said "Turn to someone you don't know and get to know them!" as if true and lasting friendships always blossom from a three-minute conversation that inevitably goes like this:

"Hi, I'm Emily."
"Hi, I'm a girl who is basically you but taller and with different colored skinny pants."
"Where are you from?"
"Boise. You?"
"Texas."
"Oh! I have a cousin/sister-in-law/long-lost EFY roommate who lives in Keller! Do you know where that is?"
"Yes!" (Silently thinking, Have I heard the name? Yes. Do I have any idea where it's actually located? Nope.) "So what's your major?"
"Exercise science. Yours?"
"Journalism."
"Oh how cool!"
****silence****
"Has it not been three minutes yet?"
"I guess not. Boy am I tired!"
"Oh how crazy, me too!"

Basically your entire identity at BYU, at least when meeting classmates, is confined to three things: Name, hometown, and major. Since my home state tells you almost nothing about me, and my major only a little more, I guess we still maintain a bit of mystery when we're meeting these random people who have to take the same classes as us. For me, the trite and meaningless conversation is much better than the "getting to know you" question of my younger days: "What do you do?"

I DON'T DO ANYTHING! I DON'T PLAY SPORTS OR ANY INSTRUMENTS AND I'VE NEVER CLIMBED MOUNT EVEREST OR WRESTLED WITH A GIANT SQUID!!! I'M JUST ME AND IF THAT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH YOU CAN LEAVE RIGHT NOW MISTER!

Yes. It's good to be mysterious.

The second thing I reflected on is the American need for space (unless you're in New York.) We stand far apart while talking. We like having our separate couch cushions to sit on (unless you're cramming a ton of people into a tiny apartment to watch a movie.) On an airplane, the middle seat is always left open. I took three separate flights to get back to Utah this year, and I only sat next to someone once. That was because every other aisle and window seat on the plane was filled. We like having a personal bubble. Many of us hate unnecessary touching. If we accidentally brush against somebody while walking, we apologize for the contact. Of course, there's always the odd person who loves being close (physically close) to other people. Like my sister, for instance. When we're watching TV in our media room, she has difficulty keeping her arms and legs and body to herself. Despite the fact that we have two long couches, two big armchairs, and enough pillows to make the floor a beautiful place to sit, she will inevitably choose to sit where someone is already sitting. I don't like being sat on. I don't like it one bit.

Unless it's my cat. My cat can sit on me whenever he wants. Cats don't really have a concept of personal space. But it's okay because they're fluffy and adorable.

Last thing: the toilets in the Las Vegas airport. I noticed something very odd about them. Instead of having one lever or button to flush, there were two. That's right, two buttons. One with a picture of one drop of water, and the other with a picture of three drops of water. After being confused for a minute as to why there were two flushing mechanisms, I suddenly realized that I was looking at a Toilet of the Future. You could choose how much water you wanted to use while flushing! If you wished to conserve water and thus do your part to save the planet, you pushed the button with one drop of water. If you needed to use more water to insure the flushing *ahem* did its job, you pushed the button with the three drops of water. How ingenious! I can't wait to see what they come up with next to give us a more personalized bathroom experience.

Ooh, I heard that in Japan they have toilets you can plug an iPod into. But why not have a row of button along the tank with a set selection of songs? There can be a song for every genre so you can appropriately set the mood for your bathroom experience. Sounds like a winning idea to me.

Now that you've all been so kind as to read the long and rambling thinks I think when I'm traveling by myself, I'll share one last fun insight with you. I've been in school for two weeks, and so you will probably be wondering how my love life is doing. Have I met any cute boys? Will there be a ring in my near future? I could answer these questions, but I know a great song that will do the job better than I ever could. Pay very close attention to the first line.

(There's not an actual music video. Sorry)

Single lady problems. For real.

Thanks for reading!

Emily <3