The Places I’m Going
It’s a strange thing to realize that “YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.”
By Mariah Proctor

Grocery Store Grunge
I wonder how one can progress from just having a celestial checklist and doing all the right things, to becoming a celestial being; not selective in who deserves a smile or some of our love.
By Mariah Proctor

Stepping into their Shoes
I’m crazy about languages and I’d like to learn every one. But why?
By Mariah Proctor

The Winner of the Race
My Mom always told me, because her Mom always told her, that ‘the winner of the race always knew he would be,’ and to this day I believe that it’s true.
By Mariah Proctor

36 Million Heart-Shaped Boxes of Candy
It would be nice to have one of the three vases of flowers on my kitchen table, right now, have my name on it.
By Mariah Proctor

The Motion to Self-Promotion
The recession stings and the job hunt—well, it can bring a girl to tears.
By Mariah Proctor

Staring Down Adulthood
When a peer falls short, it’s one thing. But when a bona fide adult flubs up, it gets messy.
By Mariah Proctor

For Dear Flavio or Life Betrayed
I want the issues in my life all to be all resolved, not just moved around on the table.
By Mariah Proctor

A Round of Applause for Bold Choices
I think there comes a day in every person’s life when they suddenly discover that though they thought they were moving freely and maybe even beautifully, in reality their hands are tied.
By Mariah Proctor

Tired Enough to Let My Own Soul Down
I’ve learned that there’s a reason that we have two ears and only one mouth, and there’s a reason that we can shut that mouth, but the ears always stay open.
By Mariah Proctor

Letting the Storm Rule Me
New Years resolutions don’t work for me. I have to say it out loud so I find a better route to making change.
By Mariah Proctor

"The World is an Oyster, but You Don't Crack it Open on a Mattress,"
The week between Christmas and New Years is by far the most pensive week of the year.
By Mariah Proctor

A Girl’s Life: Hanging in the Balance
Will I, the film and literary snob, succumb to going to see part two in the Twilight saga?
By Mariah Proctor

But If Not…
What of the times when you have fasted and prayed and sacrificed and worked and done all that it is humanly possible to do from your side and that effort still seems to be for naught?
By Mariah Proctor

Friday Night Lights
Going dancing on Friday night in Provo, Utah is an existential experience for me.
By Mariah Proctor

Why I Rained on this Parade
Why do these ordinary people, just play-acting in a curtained room with a couple of lights and a story to tell, touch me so?
By Mariah Proctor

The Raw ‘if’ Struggling to Express Itself
How can I prove to a panel of strangers that I have the necessary passion and skill to warrant their taking a chance on me?
By Mariah Proctor

If at First You Don’t Succeed—Destroy the Evidence
Should I knuckle down to mediocrity or decide to do something else?
By Mariah Proctor

Hypothetical Horror Story
OK, so smashing your cell phone may not sound like a horror story, but it is when you are already feeling financially strained.
By Mariah Proctor

On Not Leaving My Cares at the Temple Doors
Something good happens when I don’t leave my cares with my shoes in the cubbies.
By Mariah Proctor

Up, Up and Away
I’m notorious for yearning for the future Paradise Falls and adding a general glow of Paradise Falls to things that are long past, but being completely unsatisfied with today’s adventure.
By Mariah Proctor

A Sophomoric Return to Freshman Habits
When you think you've all grown up, returning home can bring out the child in you.
By Mariah Proctor

Waiting for the Call to Prayer
A young college student tries to understand why she just doesn't care about everything going on around her.
By Mariah Proctor

Back in the Saddle
I'm home from Jerusalem and I feel dead homesick. I flew from Zion to Zion and I want to go back to Zion.
By Mariah Proctor

Remembering Zion
I don’t know how I feel about goodbyes. I’ve struggled my entire life trying to reconcile my inclination to fiercely cling to the past while having the overwhelming desire to run full speed ahead.
By Mariah Proctor

The Waves and Winds Still Know
Ten days in the Galilee and what once I saw solely through eyes of faith, I have now seen with my physical eyes.
By Mariah Proctor

“Let us Live to Make Men Free”
The more I know, the more I know I don’t know about this conflict that takes place just outside of my window.
By Mariah Proctor

The Three Tenets of Mormonism
We walked in to a biblical gift shop and were immediately greeted by the smiling face and boisterous gesticulation of a Jewish man thrilled to see the Mormons coming. But what came next surprised us all.
By Mariah Proctor

Did You See Him There?
A man was telling of a conversation he’d had with his Rabbi after the end of World War II and the Holocaust and his Rabbi had asked him of the crematoriums and the death camps; “Did you see the smoke?” The man answered, yes. Then the Rabbi asked “Did you see Him there?”---silence was the only answer this survivor could muster.
By Mariah Proctor

I Was a Good Little Man
Ancient Egypt lends a piece of wisdom that still applies today.
By Mariah Proctor

The Heart of the Person Before You is a Mirror
In years to come, when all of the rich knowledge I am gaining now has truly escaped me, I will remember the people here in Jerusalem and what they've taught me about the commonalities of the race of man.
By Mariah Proctor

The Lord Comes to Sinai Again
Life presses hard upon us until we are reminded from what country we have come.
By Mariah Proctor

Not the Time But the Price
The price of progression sounds so expensive; it will take my energy and full mental capacity and yet it will pay me back tenfold.
By Mariah Proctor

“No More Strangers or Foreigners, but Fellowcitizens”
In my new Jerusalem home, I've felt like a tourist who didn't quite belong, until the shopkeeper told me his story.
By Mariah Proctor

From Jerusalem: Trying Not to Feel Like a Schlemiel
Shalom from Jerusalem!  I made it here in one piece, but my personal effects seemed determined to make it here in pieces, if they made it here at all.
By Mariah Proctor

Self-educated in the School of Nagging Regrets
There are times that walk from you like some passing afternoon—and you are left wondering, why didn't I make the most of it while I could?
By Mariah Proctor

Crummy Crash Course
She was rescued by angels who didn't care that she had just denounced their home town.
By Mariah Proctor

Learning the Rules is Easier than the “Hard Way”
I often skip breakfast, I cut across the grass, but I'm trying to learn about what's really necessary.
By Matthew Greene

Of Mismatched Shoes and Turning Over a New Leaf—Again and Again
How many times do you have turn over the same new leaf?
By Mariah Proctor

Lessons From the Omelet Kitchen
“Break an egg.”  The show must go on when you're flipping omelets.
By Mariah Proctor

“Before I Formed Thee in the Belly, I Knew Thee”
A stranger in the  world, there is one place where I am known.
By Mariah Proctor

Artistic Merit in Our Time
It seems in our day there is simply not a widespread interest in works of quality and ingenuity and the situation seems to be growing increasingly bleak.
By Matthew Greene

Trading my Birthright for a Mess of Marshmallow Mateys
It's breakfast time in my college dorm, and everything is labeled with somebody else's nickname—except the pickle jar.
By Mariah Proctor

Wrestling with Alligators
Sometimes you try as hard as you can, and the scoreboard still says you lost.
By Mariah Proctor

Love is…?
The sun is out again at BYU, and with it has come a new wave of chipper and freshly impassioned couples. Of course, the same thing happened when Jack Frost came through, also when the school year began.
By Mariah Proctor

“Livin' La Vida Single”
“I bristle a little bit at being constantly identified by my marital status.  There are many things about me that I consider to be of much more interest than the fact that I haven't found a wife yet.”
By Matthew Greene

“Jesus Wept”
The shortest verse in the scriptures can teach a lesson about relationships and life.
By Mariah Proctor

“The Lord is On Thy Side”
A Missionary Returns Home Early
“Walking became a greater burden with every passing day until I had been taken out of commission and moved close to the mission home for immediate care.” 
By Mathew Greene

“I'm Grateful for the Opportunity ”
The other day I heard a friend poking fun at LDS vernacular. Instead of saying “I'm here today to….”, an LDS person would say, “I'm grateful for the opportunity.
By Mariah Proctor

Confessions of an In-Between-er
When Fried Green Tomatoes was playing on my TV the other day, I heard Evelyn exclaim; “I'm too old to be young and I'm too young to be old!”
By Mariah Proctor