arguments

I really enjoy having a good debate with someone. There is something about trying to prove a stance while someone else is using every fact they can get to negate your argument that gets my adrenaline pumping. For me the best debates are when neither party is completely emotionally invested in any principle. This way they are both willing to concede when they know the other person has made a valid point. Unfortunately, there are some people who feel like no matter what you say or how well you try to articulate it, you are always going to be wrong and they do everything to prove it to you (even to the point of making themselves sound completely ignorant).

Apparently the reference desk at the library is made out of some sort of magnetic material that only attracts these kinds of people. Almost everyday random strangers stop at the desk with the intention of having some sort of heated discussion about something. Today I was lucky enough to have a guy stop by who had been at BYU-Hawaii with me several years ago. He started out the conversation innocently enough, but eventually he led me down the "everyone at BYU is racist and you need to do something about it" path which eventually led to something about my dad being too much of a pacifist and he is wrong for being that way. He kept asking me a bunch of questions about how I view life, I would answer them, and then when he wasn't satisfied he would just rephrase the question and tell me he didn't understand what I meant by what I was saying. At this point (thankfully) a bunch of people started coming to the desk to ask real questions so he left.

What was most interesting about the stupid conversation was that he specifically remembers running into me when I first moved out here and I had told him that I didn't want to be known for being someone's daughter or granddaughter and that I wanted to be known for being me. And yet, here he comes wanting to discuss my family and how I have been raised to be a pacifist. If he had bothered to get to know me, he would know that when I have something to say, I don't have a problem speaking my mind. But I am not going to cause problems where there are none to begin with.