mY littlE boY fantasieS!! :) YEAH!!

Knights in Shining armor? Maybe the stereotypical dream of a little girl…but come on, what if I want to be that knight in shining armor?  Castles, swords, dragons, heroic exploits!! Yeah, what if I want to be a knight in shining armor too?

Growing up I loved that stuff, I would make a pillow fort and watch the “Sword in the Stone”  and “Knights of the Round Table,” while I ate macaroni and cheese, best movies EveR!! I could imagine myself charging off fighting those dragons and defeating tyrants, I didn’t so much think about the princess at the time, I really just wanted the sword…(girls still had cooties :P ) 

I really believe my dad is the one to thank for that though, we’d always watch those old movies, my imagination just ran wild with dreams of grandeur and those heroic deeds.  I can’t even tell you  how many dragons I slew, the countless hordes and kingdoms I conquered, or the number of medal of honors that I received, and of course the heroic deaths… haha, a heroic tale just isn’t complete without an epic death.  My dad would sing me the Marine Corps’ anthem for my bed time song, that for itself just shows where I got it from…

My dreams haven’t quite unfurled that way though… but I do owe my dad thanks.  I haven’t served in the military, I haven’t conquered nations, I don’t carry a sword everywhere I go,  but I will say this, I do serve a princess :) :)   I do believe I gained something from all my wishing and dreaming, the many hours spent watching “Knights of the Round Table,” it paid off, my imagining, it did have a purpose... 

“Yes Sir!”

“No Ma’am.”

“let me get your books…”

Respect! I think that’s something I learned. Or at least I hope I did:  Chivalry, the Gentleman’s code, manners, Honor. Call it what you like, I’m trying.  It’s not dead… It’s not hard to open a girls door, or to say an extra three letters when talking to a teacher…sir… respect, that’s what it is.  Honor! Something people once gave their very lives to defend, and not just their own honor, but for their families, for their friends, for women.  Obviously we aren’t all going to go out and start dueling to the death again… but how did we lose sight of that? of the importance of honor and respect? 

I’m in college and all I hear and see are people (boys) slacking off, my own roommate wouldn’t even get back till 3 in the morning from playing basketball? Really?! There is no ambition there.  And then the way the other boys talk about girls… I don’t know, that’s a topic for future thought.  Something happened at my college though, BYU, that received national attention, they questioned if the honor code at my school is too much? No it’s not, maybe to everyone else’s standards it is, but not to mine.  They merely hold me to a higher standard than the world holds me at, they know I’m better then the world gives me credit for or the other students. It is not simply rules and standards to which we are asked to follow, it is respect for others that we are asked to give and to show. I appreciate these standards. It’s not hard to follow, I decided in coming here that I would follow and obey these rules, that these are the standards to which I would hold myself, standards that I chose to guide my life, to determine what kind of man I become.

I don’t even know where I’m going with this or where it’s coming from… I guess I’m in part thanking my dad for the way he raised me.  Maybe he raised me in the past, maybe I’m old fashioned, but I don’t care, I’m proud of myself for what I do.  My princess and queen, I thank her for the bar she has set for me, for her expectations, more so for the respect that she has for herself and that she demands from me.  That too is another problem, I believe in the fall of respect that people give, people also expect less respect, the whole system seems to be collapsing.

“You have enemies? Good!! It means you have stood up for something in your life.”

I may be different, maybe I’m in the past, maybe I’m old fashioned in my feelings towards this subject, but I don’t care, I enjoy it and am proud of it.  Maybe I won’t ever wear the shining armor, maybe I won’t carry the sword, or ride a white stallion and sweep my princess off her feet, but I don’t need the horse, the sword, the armor.  There are different ways to fight your battles, there are better ways to champion respect today then a fight. People need to stand up for themselves, and for others, people need to respect themselves just as much as they respect others.
I hope I’m doing enough, I hope I show my princess and queen especially that respect that she deserves, that in my actions, be she around me or if I’m on my own, show how much I care for her and love her, that shows that I will stand up for something, something more then myself, that i can make her proud, make my dad proud.  I just hope I’m doing enough, I hope I have an impact on someone, I hope my princess knows, I hope that maybe, by the respect that I try to show her that other girls can hopefully see that they deserve the same, that the dream of being swept off their feet by their knight in shining armor isn’t such a dream after all, girls need to demand that higher standard from us boys!! And I can attest to that, I’m a boy, I have roommates, and I know boys, girls, you need to expect more, and don’t drop down to our level.

Signed,

                Jacob