[6] Research Paper Reflection

     To find my topic for the research paper, I immediately contacted my dad. The idea was to get some family story, so I figured the best place to find a family story is to go to family! He emailed me some ideas and as soon as he said the funnel theory, I knew I wanted to write about it. More than just write a paper, I wanted to become an expert on serious relationships in high school. Once I decided my topic, I became so excited to write. I found myself researching the topic for hours on the weekend and thinking about it in my spare time. That was the best thing for me to do to write this paper: I loved the topic.
     Going to the library to research really helped as well. I found so many sources and ended up narrowing them down quite a bit. I loved researching high school relationships. The one thing I wish I could change, was the topic isn't really relevant to me at this time in my life. Researching this paper a few years ago would have been more beneficial to my life then. Even though the topic research doesn't help me specifically, I can still talk about it with my family and friends and those younger than me. This topic is brought up at every family reunion, so I will be able to talk about it much more. Most of my family doesn't agree with me, so having this extra research to prove my point will make the discussions at the beach much more fun.
     I think the best thing I did when researching and writing this paper was taking lots of time. I didn't wait to write it the night before. I took a few weeks and evenly spread out the work. That gave me time to write it so I wasn't rushed, and it gave me time to think about the topic and generate ideas for evidence and further research.
    It was almost sad finishing the paper because I don't want this to end! This was pretty much the first time I have written a paper and wanted to learn more! My research of this topic is definitely not going to end today.

[5] October 2014 General Conference: Ponder the Path of Thy Feet

In President Thomas S. Monson's October 2014 General conference talk, Ponder the Path of Thy Feet, he used repetition of what the Savior walked through to build a relationship with Christ in the audience members individually.
When he talked about walking as Christ did, he used repetition as well to emphasize the importance and intensity of the decisions we make in our lives today.He talked about going to Jerusalem and going where Jesus Christ did. Most people get caught up in standing in the exact same spot that he did, and walking exactly where he walked. The prophet pointed out that it is much more important to not walk where He walked, but to walk as he walked.  He repeated how Christ walked, "He went through many of the same trails we go through today, he walked the path of temptation, he walked the path of disappointment, he walked the path of pain." These statements cause the audience to really think about the connection they have with Jesus Christ that they may not have thought about before. This feeling of connection between their own individual lives and the Savior's life can have an incredibly lasting positive effect on their relationship with Christ. Knowing Christ personally will help them realize that worldly things don't matter, but eternal and heavenly things do. Thus they will make better decisions in this life.
Thomas S. Monson effectively uses repetition to emphasize the similarities between the audience's lives and Jesus Christ's lives, causing each member to feel closer to the Savior. President Monson states the importance of the choices we make by saying, "Decisions determine destiny." What we do in this life greatly effects our eternity, therefore getting people to understand this will greatly influence the perspective of church members to be more eternal.

[4] Research Paper Topic

When we got the prompt for our research paper to be about families in some way, I thought about what my family strongly values. The main thing that came to mind, is the "Funnel Theory and Unsteady Dating". For my whole life, my dad has taught me about the importance of this dating technique and how it will bless our lives as teenagers and as future adults. I have studied what this theory is for quite some time now, but I have never really studied why it is so important.Some questions I came up with include:

•  Why does my dad strongly discourage steady dating in high school?
• How can my family benefit from each member following the ideas of this theory?
• What are the advantages/disadvantages of following the Funnel Theory?
• How do the views of this theory from an LDS perspective and non-LDS perspective compare?
• Is steady dating in high school actually bad?
• Are there theories to improve lasting marriages, other than the Funnel theory?
• Have people tried it, and has it worked?

Thesis: Although most teenagers think having a serious relationship in high school is the only way to be happy, steady dating in high school should be avoided completely because these serious relationships cause low self-esteem, more depression, and lead to a greater risk of divorce.