Honor Code

So, we had an awesome lesson in Relief Society yesterday, and it was all tied up at the end with the annual "reading of the honor code" to ward members. You know. Just so everyone is clear on how late boys can stay, how modest we should be, yada yada yada. I have been a major supporter of the honor code ever since I was a wee little freshy in DT.

Some people think the rules are over the top, and that BYU is too strict, but here is a little morsel of trivia: The honor code was written by some students a couple decades ago because they thought BYU was getting trashy. Please note that I said it was written by students. Yep. Not by old crotchety professors. So everyone who whines about it quit your boobin and be grateful you even got in to BYU.


Anyways. I can see how some people think its lame that we have so many "rules" on how we should be acting / living while we go to BYU, but I know its all for our benefit and safety. Even if I slightly disagree with one of the honor code points, I try to hold myself to that standard. Why? Because when I got into BYU I signed a piece of paper that says I'd follow it. And its included in your housing contract too. So you sign it at least every time you move, and I think its on the yearly ecclesiastical endorsements too.

Do people forget that they signed the honor code like five billion times? Or do they really just not care about honesty all that much? By signing the honor code, you have pretty much made a documented statement saying you will do whatever it is the honor code says. Knowingly breaking the honor code is just a fancier way of being a liar. If you don't want to keep it, you shouldn't have signed it. You might as well be wearing these:


Dishonesty is a deal breaker for me, whether it be with friends or guys I'm dating. Ya, its easy to lie yourself out of a tough situation, but since when is the easy way the accepted path? Sometimes, I want to lie. I want to lie my butt off, because it would be so much easier to deal with some things. That doesn't mean I'm going to be a liar. Just because I want to doesn't mean I will. I make a conscious effort to be honest in my every day life. Whether it be owning up to a mistake at work or telling the cashier that the self check-out didn't register one of my 35 cent Strawberry Jell-O packets. I think maintaining confidence in my own character is worth at least 35 cents.

Anyway. The rant is over. I just thought everyone should know that I have been unknowingly breaking the honor code. Apparently, it is against the honor code to walk barefoot on campus grounds. I sat in relief society, pridefully relishing in my knowledge that I'm an honor code Nazi when BAM. I hear our RS president tell us that shoes must be worn at all times. NOOOOOOOOOO! I have hated wearing shoes lately. I usually take them off when I leave work or leave class and put them back on when I walk into a campus building. Those blissful days of oblivion are gone, gone FOREVER.

I will just need to find some really comfy shoes.

HOWEVER. I promise I will not be a Birkenstock weirdy. My kindergarten teacher always wore Birkenstocks with thick, woolly colorful socks. Picture a shaggy muppet wearing sandals (as if their feet weren't awkward enough already) and that's about what it was like. The most ardent memory I have of kindergarten story-time showcases not a book, but a cropped image of Mrs. Wheeler's feet, clad in purple socks and brown Birkenstocks of this nature:

This greatly disturbed me. Even at age 5 I knew it was just wrong. Also. I promise I will never ever purposely wear crocs a day in my life. I don't care how lightweight and comfy they are. They look like leaky garden clogs.