In the first few years of my life, I was a very slow speaker; not able to speak correctly until age 4 (at the latest). Continually since, I have a slight stutter in my speech which breaks off sentences in the middle. Nonetheless, I constantly think and process nearly everything I hear or see, if it distracted me from life. For my whole life I’ve had lots of distracting things run through my mind every day, most of which are actually from my memory of media: movies, TV shows, video games and songs, where people were talking. I recite them over and over again in my mind, and sometimes they come out in quiet mutters. My parents have always been working hard on teaching me to listen better to others and tuning out the voices, but it still doesn't always work. When I came to college and later went on a mission, I changed my attitude about it by telling myself that it’s my own unique voice and talent, but I still needed an outlet to let it out where it would be appropriate.
Enrolling in a Voice Over class this fall showed me something: recording myself in a soundproof studio is where I feel refreshed in being able not only to vent out these quotes as loud as I want, but also hone down my personal feelings about life. Everyone has their own voice in any form, like politics, community concerns, teaching, business, and many others. They all need their own specific mode of conveying that voice where it’s meant to be most effective. Me recording myself acting eliminates bias and public opinion - I can be completely in the mindset to express what I believe is a talent of mine.
Discovering what to believe in is always easy, since choices of what to think about life come up every day. Deciding specifically what to believe in, on the other hand, can be either easy or very hard. For some, like Errol Morris, who wrote a commentary called “There is such a thing as Truth” (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4620511), belief in what is real is simple. It can be just common sense. Otherwise, it can be difficult to figure out, such as the belief that cell phones are not for kids (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HbYScltf1c). What I think are the most profound beliefs in life, religious or not, are ones that bring us closer to the example set by Jesus Christ; that eliminate judgement, that prepare for the future, that have us watch ourselves and do good for others, and that have us use our abilities for good.
