The semester of civil rights.

(Jenna, Me, and T.Betti at the MLK Walk of Life & Commemoration--from the Daily Herald's website)

Really, a more appropriate title for this post would be "the year of civil rights." I mentioned in a previous post, that while registering for classes this past fall, I was hit with a hard wave of FOMO. I wanted to take every undergrad class with a civil rights focus. I literally typed in "BYU Civil Rights" into google, and I'm so glad I did.

It is because of this google search that I discovered the Civil Rights Seminar offered at BYU--a class that meets once a week, and delves d e e p into everything leading up to the civil rights movement. There was a whole application process, and twelve of us were selected for the class. Why so selective? The culmination of the class is a trip to Georgia & Alabama to visit some of the most historic sites of the movement.

The happiest part about this? Three of my closest friends from my racial minority & group relations class from last semester are in the class along with Tbetti! So much of my free time this semester has been devoted to remembering the civil rights movement and celebrating diversity in Utah.

As a confirmation of sorts that I'm headed down the right educational path, I got my grades back from last semester, AND HOLY WHAT A CELEBRATION!!!!! I got the highest grades of my law school career to date, I made the deans list, and even had the top score for a class! (By way of reminder, last semester I took the 14th Amendment, Federal Indian Law, and Criminal Procedure Adjudication) I was on cloud nine the day grades came out. I had worked so hard last semester, and really before checking grades I thought, "whatever they are, I know what I've learned, and I know how much I've loved learning about it." I was so happy I treated myself to my first burger of this year! haha.

This semester my love of civil rights continues with Civil Rights Skills, Evidence, Law & Public Education, plus an internship with the greatest mentors I could ask for. It seems a very appropriate year to be studying all this; I'm gaining the tools and skills I will need to fight for what's right in an ever more hostile future. In light of all this, I feel so blessed to have such great opportunities at BYU. I have been richly blessed.

Apparently I was on BYU's insta story? Who even knew that was a thing!? I'm so out of the social media loop these days. 

Loving came to BYU, which was perfect because it was only showing at two other theatres in all of Utah. &&& this meant I got to cross another thing off of my BYU Bucketlist (yeah, still working on that!)

#37 See a movie at the Varsity theatre

Embracing Diverse Voices is a art exhibit currently at the MOA. We went to the opening celebration featuring a beautiful gospel choir. It brought me back to my childhood in Compton when every Sunday I would hear the loud gospel music from the baptist church across the street from my house complete with it's loud drums and powerful voices. Melodie was on cloud nine during the whole thing, "You better sing!! I'm writing the First Presidency and telling them THIS is how MoTab needs to sing."

Emmanuelle & I went to the Women in Freedom Movement at SLCC where we got to hear Angela Davis speak! Emmanuelle even got her book signed. My favorite part of this whole experience was Emmanuelle's commentary: "Angela Davis is silencing her phone." "Angela Davis is laughing." "Angela Davis and I are breathing the same air."