ACCORDING TO ZAC

I didn't know when I first started my feature writing class how much I would come to enjoy learning from my professor, Bill Schmidt. He's a former New York Times bureau chief that retired to Tucson to teach and kick back a bit. He told good stories, managed to make a loosened tie look really classy, and used his expertise to make me a better thinker and writer. One of the lasting gifts he gave me, however, was turning me on to The Atlantic , a really interesting news magazine that I otherwise hadn't heard about. Since I took Bill's class back in 2014, The Atlantic  has been a place where I have learned a lot  about the world, the way people think, race and class issues, critique (mostly of TV and movies, but also of social norms and trends), and a host of other things. This year when they chose to go to a paywall model (subscribe to good journalism to keep it alive, folks!) I immediately purchased a subscription and have been thrilled to have unlimited access onlin...

0/10, would not recommend a broken ankle to anyone. The cycles of life are at the forefront of my mind tonight. Or rather, my blindness to the cycles of life are what I’m thinking about. The last couple of weeks I haven’t been very happy with where I’ve been spiritually, and it’s been getting pretty frustrating. I spend a lot of time thinking about the things that I ought to change and ways that I could be different, but I’m struggling to break out of my rut and actually do a thing— anything —that will move me away from where I am right now. And surprisingly, I hadn’t really talked to anyone at length about it (truly an unusual occurrence). But I finally felt a little tug, and I went and saw my best friend Eric. He didn’t have the answers, but he was kind and empathetic and it was unquestionably time well spent. He and I talked about the phases we go through, some of which are of our own doing; we make poor decisions, we avoid certain things or people, we run away from what’s ha...

"You know everyone, don't you?" he said to me as we walked down the hall towards the clerk's office. I had just high fived someone that we passed walking the other way. I hadn't even thought twice about the gesture, it just felt normal. And yeah, I know plenty of people in my ward. I've been here for two-and-a-half years now, which I would hope is long enough to make some connections. But as I thought about his question over the course of the day, what I really think this new friend of mine was saying was this: "You really have a family here, don't you? You are loved here, aren't you?" And the more I thought about it, the more overwhelmed I was at the truth of what he was getting at. My life in Mesa has had some challenges, of course. We've all got them. But my time here has also been everything I never knew I needed, all thanks to the amazing people that I've been able to rub shoulders with. And when I really stop to think abo...

I’ve been reading a Mormon site called By Common Consent . It’s generally a place for honest introspection and spiritual questioning without disparaging anyone on either side of the theological issues facing Mormonism. I just read one article about the legacy of President Thomas S. Monson, who passed away in January. The author suggested that a lot of the big controversies the Church was involved in over the last several years might not have really been spearheaded by President Monson, and that he’s getting a bad rap for being the figurehead of the modern Church at the time that these situations were unfolding. Perusing the comments of articles such as these can prove dangerous. People say terrible things about our beliefs and about each other, depending on the site you might be looking at. The last thing I want is some online troll causing me to question my faith. I can do that all on my own without a stranger’s help. In a shocking twist, however, I was uplifted by one ...

Lately I have been really worried about my life. Like, waaaaaay more than usual. And I've been having some really intense emotional whiplash getting really  caught up in these episodes in which I think about all the negative things that might happen and why does everyone else have something that I don't have but want and blah blah blah . And then God throws me a bone and says, "Hey. I love you. No, really, I do. And it's going to be just fine. Trust me." And then I cry. And then I start the process all over again. Well, in today's installment of "I love you and CALM THE HECK DOWN" from above, I was blessed with this little gem: "[God] made your spirit strong and capable of being resilient to the whirlwinds of life. The whirlwinds in your [life,] like the wind against a young tree, can increase your spiritual strength, preparing you for the years ahead." — Neil L. Andersen It made me think of all of the hardships in my...

The last month or two have been emotionally and spiritually turbulent, but for how challenging or upsetting a given situation might have been (mostly of my own doing, to be honest), in equal measure I have made great strides in faith, learning, and finding true joy. I can be sort of a doomsdayer, sometimes. I think, "Well I drove off the last woman I was interested in. I guess I'll just resign myself to being #foreveralone." Or, if after repeated goal setting and personal reflection I still don't feel like I'm making any progress on behaviors I'd like to change, I'll leap straight to "I'm not meant to shake these parts of who I am. I'll always be [enter personal deficiency or weakness here]." We all grow frustrated sometimes. It's the nature of most people, I think, that we get impatient when we aren't getting exactly what we want in the precise moment we've planned for it to arrive or occur. It can be the result of someon...

"I hate feeling broken," I said, as I sat in my car before work this morning. I had missed my normal morning prayer because I had slept in. I wanted to make sure to get a quick prayer in before I got started on the rest of my day. I didn't say much else, but I felt that God was near and that He gets why I feel this way. And I also felt that it would all be okay. I didn't even have to ask to feel better or anything, God just needed me to tell Him that I was hurting and He sent the good feelings and the calm and the love. This life can be so hard. We feel the need to live up to all these expectations that we set for ourselves, that society sets for us, and that God sets for us. The awesome thing is that He knows we can't do it all at once. We will stumble and fall and get so frustrated trying to be what we feel like we are supposed to be. I've learned that I just want to chase what God and I have worked out together to be my path. I get irritated that I can...