My Last 2 Communication Classes--

I have been picking at college for the last 25 years and I have finally completed my last two college Communications classes. I didn't need college to make money. I didn't need college for a career.. I didn't need college to feel better about myself.. I didn't need college frankly.. But what I did NEED was an EDUCATION.. I learned from college that I LOVE LEARNING!! I Love the challenge.. but what I got out of it was far more. This is my last paper I wrote for College. I will continue to write for my Education.. But the Prophet Gordon B. Hinkley encouraged women and men to GET an EDUCATION. He didn't say GO to COLLEGE.. He said, continue to EDUCATE yourself. You can do that through so many ways. I encourage my kids to ALWAYS do what they LOVE, the Money will come.. especially if you are prayerful in your endeavors and try to follow the path that the Lord has for you. The LORD needs you to be successful.. He needs you to have desire & drive.. because then YOU will be in a Better position to HELP others.. The written story is real, it is raw and it is just part of my path and my journey. I hope you all Find your path and find increase in your journey. I hope you all find your passion and find what drives you and find that desire to do good. I pray you ALL continue to EDUCATE yourself, educate yourself for you, because if you are better then the people around you can be better. Love you all!! Merry Christmas!! 

Sadie Pulsipher

Anatomy of Peace

December 13, 2018

Readings & Conferences

Anatomy of Peace

This past summer our family chose to move into an RV and live on the property of our Fiddlers Fun Center while we underwent renovations. We chose this way of life so that we didn’t lose touch with our family and with each other. We wanted to be sure that the kids always had a parent to be around them and that they were even included in the renovation work.

It would prove to be a very exhausting, long and eventful summer. We painted, we pulled chairs out, and we put flooring in, pulled wires. Our children were amazing, never complaining that they didn’t have their own bed or their own bathroom. They couldn’t fight loud, they had to whisper to yell and around July I expressed my desire to finish my college degree. My family encouraged me and has supported me every step of the way.

Over the summer months we decided to take on another adventure. I wanted to open Raindance Cleaners in St. George. We have been doing route there for some time but it was time to have brick and mortar. Again, the family rallied around their father and I and we went to work on the plans.

This transition meant that I would need to drive every day to St. George for work and it would be long days, the kids would be without their mother for most of the day if not the whole day.  My husband and I decided it would be best if we moved the RV to St. George and enroll the kids in school there and he would take care of Cedar City and I would take care of St. George.

And that’s what we did we moved into an RV park in St. George. While the store is getting ready in St. George I drive every day I to Cedar City for work. As it got closer to school starting I had a mental breakdown, nervous breakdown, whatever you would like to call it.  It was during this time that I had nowhere to turn and no one to talk to. I was literally a zombie and not even my kids or husband could get me through this one. I was numb, I was panicked, and I was anxiety stricken. Something I had never felt before and something I never wanted to feel again.

It was then that I didn’t know if I could finish college or if I’d ever have the courage to finish. But I made the hard phone call. I was paralyzed, I was exhausted, and most the time I couldn’t breathe and felt death at my doorstep. But I called my friend, my mentor and my confidant. I called Sage Platt and with a sobbing emotion I explained to her what had just happened to me. I was scared, I was embarrassed. I was embarrassed because I was the strong one. I was super woman, wonder woman and I could do it all and now I couldn’t even get out of bed. I had to beg God to lift my head and carry my burdens and forgive me for not being strong enough.

Sage expressed her deepest empathy and then told me to not give up. She told me she would help me and work with me and told me to read the book Anatomy of Peace.

Anatomy of Peace is a book about adults and their wayward children. It is a book that is history driven and it is about people’s lives and how they overcame their obstacles to better their own life but the lives around them. It’s a book about love, understanding and even self-forgiveness. It goes deep into the lives of the Hebrews & the Muslims. It’s the story of how one can have an outward expression of peace and how to look from the outside in.

We all have a box in our lives and this box is self-reflecting of who we are and who we can become. We all have a story to tell and reasons to justify our behavior. It shows you how to step back and evaluate, take time and the worst of this book is it makes you THINK. It makes you think of how you act with others and how you react with yourself and those around you.

I drove to Cedar City every day for the first 90 days of school.  At times I would pull over in fear that I was going to pass out, I would cry on my way through Blackridge and I would pray that my heart wouldn’t give out on me while I was driving. But while I was driving I was intrigued by the audio of this book. I started listening to it on the way up and on the way back. I started to relate to Mr. Lou in the book who was a business owner and who was so preoccupied with work he forgot those that got him where he was in that moment. I began to understand the philosophy behind the treatment program for their children.

I learned by reading this book that if you want to win friends and influence people you must see yourself in the other person’s shoes. There is a part in the book where one of the young ladies doesn’t believe she needs the treatment and she takes off running and she runs and runs and runs. The parents are told to let her run as the assistants chase after her, but they do not run and scream as one might think. No, they run with caution, they run with understanding and they run in a manner of love.

When they catch up to this young lady they offer her their shoes because you see, she is barefooted and her feet are starting to bleed. She is scared, alone and feels threatened. But the assistants find something in common. They tell her if she will not take their shoes then they will remove their shoes and keep walking with her.

This young lady begun to feel like someone was on her side, as if she had place that she could fit into. She began to not feel alone and not feel the pains of her addiction.

Sage Platt was that assistant to me. She brought peace to my soul in a moment of terror that I had felt for my life. She took her shoes off to help me finish something that I never dreamed possible. She helped me get out of the box and breathe. She saw me for who I was and not for what I was doing.

I have spent many hours on the road since school began and I have read the entire Book of Mormon, I read the Go-Getter, I read the Medical Medium (which is a book I began reading because my health needed some help). But out of all the books I read this semester (and some I didn’t write about) it would be the Anatomy of Peace that I learned the most from, but the experience this semester was by far my most challenging and my most rewarding one yet.

I know that my book reports were not in APA format J or maybe they were not even what you expected and not even up to your standard. But at the end of the day, going back to college wasn’t about the papers or about the tests for me (although necessary) college was about the real education that happens to one’s soul, the relationships, the new ideas, the different perspectives, and the enlightenment from learning from professors of my same age group.

I just would like to thank you Dr. Challis for allowing me this opportunity to take this course and spend time educating myself through good books and taking the challenge to write about them. I love to write, but I write my way. My goal is to write my story and write a few books of things that I have learned and that has helped me to be a better mother, a better employer, a better student, a better friend and simply put a better Human.