Urban Poly Princess

These commercials on these animals ring a little hollow for me. I am grateful I lived in Tonga. I am thankful for perspective. Right before my mission I went on a trip to Tonga with my brother and dad. Tonga is a poor country. Children don't play with toys. Instead they play with balls and marbles. They go swimming too. My cousins took many of the things I took to Tonga. Even if they had money to burn there were no stores that sold American products. Even when I lived there you couldn't buy chocolate unless it was in town

On my mission in my first area I remember visiting a family in a humble home with a television, some sort of digital game system and lots of movies. I remember the mother talking about how they might not be able to provide their children with Christmas gifts. I thought you have a vehicle, running water, hot AND cold. In Tonga that was not common. We lived for the most part in faculty housing at the church's Liahona high School. Campus housing had hot water but this wasn't standard throughout the kingdom. Children were not spoiled or babied the way they are here although I do my fair share of spoiling and babying with my nieces and nephews. I love them so much. They are so much fun and they have made it easy for me to realize how it is that our happiest moments are only found through having our own family. I can't wait to have my own children.

When we lived on campus it was common for pet dogs to be stolen and eaten by people from the neighboring villages. I remember when we lived in Ha'akame and my neighbors stole and ate my pig a friend had given me for my birthday. People stole these animals to eat them. My dad was spoiled too in a different way. His grandfather in his mother's village had all these chickens. He would let my dad take one. This was so my father could kill, cook and eat them. That wasn't typical. I may not have suffered the type of things I saw people experience but it's not like they thought they suffered either. People were happy and content with what they had. Animal cruelty and an entire organization for this is such a first world ridiculous problem to me that will NEVER get any of my money.

It reminds me of this lady I did a story on with my internship here at the Herald Journal. She wrote a book about keeping Christ in Christmas. She told me how she was so worried about putting on the perfect Christmas that she got more elaborate with her decorations and all the festivities surrounding the holiday. She had me a little dumbfounded because it is such a luxury to have that type of problem. Such a first-world silly problem to me.

These animal cruelty ads are so hollow to me because there are so many children and just people in general in the world who need help just with bare necessities. One of the areas on my mission was Cameron Park. Many people had hangers for their airplanes right alongside their garages. I was often struck there with how many first-world luxury problems people have. Psychologists who couldn't help them with their teenagers.

I will forever be grateful for my life and the perspective it has given me. I'm watching this movie about a woman who gets divorced and has no skills to sustain herself. I am so lucky. I have the education that will allow me to get a job wherever I live. The lady in the movie gets her real estate license simply through studying at the library. NOT REALISTIC. My real estate class cost $450 and we all had to sign in and out on the computer. We are required to have 120 class hours before we can even think about taking the test. My instructor required us to get at least 80% on both the state and national portions and then and ONLY then he gave me a signed paper allowing me to register to take the test with a nice $66 dollar fee. After passing this there is ANOTHER $300 fee JUST to get my license. That is B4 finding a broker and selling a single house. There are additional fees to join the MLS

Whatever I'm so excited. I love the idea of staging a home to get it sold. HGTV always stages homes they flip to sell them. If I can negotiate some sort of agreement with a furniture store in town I will. I think I can make commission off of selling the house AND selling furniture too. I know I have natural decorating skill I want to exploit. It is part of why I love real estate. When I asked my instructor about staging a home he didn't think there was a significant difference. I think there must be or it wouldn't work for agents across the country.

I love HGTV. I could and do watch it often ALL DAY.