Anti-Mormon

I used to have this idea of the typical RM guy (his name might be "Peter"), and I hated him: He thought he was so righteous, and that if you didn't dress the same way that he did, he would think that you were a sinner or a bad influence, and he wouldn't be your friend. All he ever talked about was his mission, and it often seemd as if he just wanted everyone to know how spiritual he was, so he had to remind them all of the time. It's hard to be the punk kid around people like that, but I eventually realized that I was judging him just as much as he was me. It's funny, but it's possible that I was inventing that RM guy, because now I can't find him.
I think most of the time people choose whether to be happy in a situation or not to be. It's rare that a situation inherently makes you unhappy. Take Provo for instance. It's easy to have a negative impression of Provo: that everyone is all stiff and nerdy, and that there's nothing fun to do here and no cool people to hang out with. I don't actually think that anymore. Provo's pretty cool. I can do pretty much anything here that I can in the outside world if I want, and it being a college town adds up to a lot of cool people (both Jack and Peter) to hang out with that are in a similar stage of life as me (for the most part, anyway: I guess I am the oldest single guy in Provo).
I think the problem is that at some point people have decided that the Mormon culture is nerdy, and so they've decided not to be happy in it. No one can be happy if they've convinced themselves not to be.
Here's what nerdy is: when you're so into something that you can't deal with people that aren't into it as much as you are. I think that can apply to anything (computers, sports, music): I'm only a nerd if I belittle or otherwise can't get along with other people that aren't nerdy about the same thing as me. It is nerdy for people to not associate (well) with others that don't share their religious (or other) views, but it's not nerdy to live your religion. You can be happy with it, but it can't make you happy or unhappy. That's a decision you make about it.