Sample Profile Essay
Note to reader: This draft is re-printed here with the author's permission. These student drafts are provided for a couple of reasons: first, to give you a taste of the variety of topics and approaches students have taken, and second, to provide instructors with readings that might be used in class discussions and activities. These samples are not perfect and represent final grades from across the grade scale (A through F), so please be forgiving, understanding, and respectful if you find errors or problems.
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Savannah Herring
February 21, 2017
English 1010D
Profile essay
Polygamy
Located in the middle of the desert is a small town known as Short Creek. You may have never heard of this town by this name. It is known to the outside world as the polygamist town of Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona. This is the community that my roommate, Jess Winn, grew up in. Being a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), she had to follow strict rules: obey, love to serve, keep a heavenly hush, and bless others.
The FLDS is an off branch from the LDS church. They follow the teachings of Joseph Smith and believe they are the one true church. The FLDS Church is currently under the leadership of Warrens Jeffs, who is serving a life-time sentence in Texas prison for his marriage to a child bride and leading a cult. Although their “prophet” is in prison, the followers still believe in his teachings and principles. One of the basic teachings is plural marriage or polygamy.
Born to monogamous parents and being an only child, Jess had a very peculiar family. She said that other polygamist in the community thought her family was weird for only having one child and only one mother. All of her aunts and uncles had many children and some where even married into plural families. To give you an example, her dad had three mothers and 34 siblings. “I have too many cousins to count,” said Jess, “I can never remember their birthdays, or their names.” Growing up she seemed to have a relatively normal childhood until she reached the age of 10 years old. She played computer games, listened to LDS music, went shopping, ate at restaurants, celebrated birthdays, and traveled; pretty much what every other child grew up doing in the ‘90s, except in a long dress.
Jess shares a story of obedience from her childhood, “When I was about six years old, I went out to play. My mother told me to stay in the yard. I was having fun playing on the lawn and with my kitten. I was pretending to be an explorer and got carried away to the back of the yard. I saw an ant bed on the other side of the fence line and I decided to check it out. I thought ‘I will just go out of the yard for a few seconds, my mother will never know.’ I wandered over through the weeds and as I went out of the yard, a wasp blocked my entrance back. I was terrified! I at once regretted disobeying my mother. I started sobbing and saying my prayers. Soon my mother came to the door to check on me. There I was outside of the yard, crying. Mother came over and shooed the wasp away. She then led me back to the house and told me I had learned a very important lesson about obedience.” Now Jess hates how much this had an impact on her childhood. It was a principle of the church to obey without question and she now does everything in her power to rebel and do wicked things because she can.
Shortly after her 10th birthday the church ordered rebaptisms and stricter laws. No more celebrations, gentile music, eating in restaurants, or recreation. Entering her teenage years, Jess was not allowed to date or talk to other boys besides her cousins. It was a sin to look a boy in the eyes. “We were to treat the opposite gender as snake.” You could only shake hands with proper separation and parental supervision. Jess finished her homeschooling all the way up to 8th grade where she dropped out and focused on blessing the church. Jess participated in cleaning church buildings, processing fruits and vegetables, teaching younger children school, sewing dresses and undergarments, and working in community gardens. Jess attended meeting three times a week or more and listened to four hour sessions of readings from the church leaders. To ease her monotonous life, Jess would go mud-puddle stomping, go on walks, sing, and stay up late talking with friends.
Jess said she remembers one of the meetings she went to: “One time I was sitting in church with my aunt and the bishop read a new order from the prophet. It was a declaration of higher laws to follow. There was a commandment to not eat white sugar, coffee, chocolate, white flour, black pepper, milk, and corn. We were commanded to eat beans with every meal. The next week we had another commandment. This time we were told to not eat beans except in time of famine.”
Jess said the people were instructed how to do daily little tasks, how to touch clean things with their right hand and handle dirty things with their left hand.
“We were instructed how to clean our houses, we had to start with the ceiling and work our way down the walls to the floor. Once the rag washed the floor you couldn’t touch it to anything else. When you got dressed, you had to put your clothes on without touching the floor. Yes, we were balancing on the toilet seat! As girls, our clothes consisted of a one piece long undergarment that was covered by traditional underwear, bra, leggings, socks, slip, and dress. Our hair had to be braided and rolled up so no hair was hanging. Girls could not cut their hair and boys were not allowed to have facial hair. No make-up was allowed, no red could be worn. We were told to live in oneness and unity, loving each other as brother and sister.”
Jess was separated from her parents by the church and told to live with her uncle. This was because she was told she was worthy to live the higher law of united order. Jess lived with her uncle for four months, when he parents discovered the church was wrong all along. Jess’s parents took her to North Dakota, away from the church. Jess said she considered running away, “We reached Idaho where we stayed for the night, it was there that I began to suspect that my parents were leaving the church. They stopped talking in favor of the ‘prophet’. I was scared and afraid I would lose my friends if I went with my parents. I considered running away but it was a big world and I was in the middle of nowhere.” Jess said after someone leaves the church, they are discriminated against. Someone who is part of the church cannot talk to a former member, unless they want to risk being excommunicated.
By the time Jess got back to Short Creek, she was convinced the church was wrong and moved back in with her parents. It was still a long transitioning before she totally gave up all the church’s teachings. She still wore her dress for another year after she left the church. “For a few months, my aunt would still let me come over and help her with her children, but it gradually stopped. Now she won’t even wave at me.” Neither of her parents had completed high school so she decided she wanted to finish school. She went to high school at Water Canyon School and graduated at the top of her class as valedictorian. She now attends Dixie State University and is pursuing a career in journalism.
Even today she continues to be questioned about her past life. She still gets calls from news organizations. The FBI contacted her to help them understand the cult and its secrets. She tries to keep her story to herself, while on campus, to show that she is just like one of us. “One day I’ll publish my own story about my life. As long as people can learn from it, I’ll share it.”