February 23rd update: Meh.

Hello everyone! It's February 23rd, and I don't really have much to update you on! But here goes nothin'.

Shortly after my last post, I completed the last of my scholarship applications. YAY! I had gotten so tired of filling in my name, address, GPA, extracurricular activities, etc. Oh yeah, and WRITING ESSAYS. Sheesh. I feel like the world has been lifted off my shoulders. And it feels gooood.

This post doesn't have many pictures, so here's a cool pic of my audition music!

I also had my last college audition on February 11th. It was at Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music. Last semester, when I was in the Nashville Youth Symphony, we rehearsed at Blair and had our concert there in December. So I was pretty familiar with the building. I had also met Blair's French horn teacher during Governor's School. Well, my audition was decent - not spectacular, but not horrendous. After my audition, I had a bit of down time before an information session with current Blair students. My mom and I didn't feel like getting lost in Nashville that day, so we just went down the road to Burger King. Classic, I know. Anyway, when we got back, I went to talk with/listen to some Blair students while my mom did the same with some Blair parents. The information session was nice and the students were great, but I just heard some things that really turned me off. Well, just one thing, really. At Vanderbilt, there is no "music education" degree. If you want to be a music teacher, you have to go to Vandy for 5 years. You graduate with a Master's degree, but listen to this: while at Vandy, you can't major or minor in anything else. :O!!!! Their program is like a double-major in music and education, so you have no room to study anything but music and education. Honestly, the minute I heard that, I was ready to leave. The last thing I want to do is study just one thing for the entire four (or five) years that I'm at college!
So anyway, I'm pretty much counting out Vanderbilt. I think I can still be admitted into their "Arts and Sciences" school, which is like liberal arts stuff, but I just don't think I'm going to go there. They don't give many merit-based scholarships, anyway.

Well, last weekend, Shane and I had our belated Valentine's Day celebration. I had just been to my cousin's fancy-pants bridal tea party earlier that day, so I decided to get really dressed up.

Don't we look spiffy?

We went to Red Lobster (yeeeahhhh!) and then watched Everybody Loves Raymond. So romantic. It was a super fun date. I'm thankful I have someone who can have loads of fun just sitting with me and watching movies! Shane gave me a kick-butt Belmont shirt and I gave him....

Little Miss Sunshine, a pack of cards - each card has something I love about him on it, and really cool wrapped ear buds. Those ear buds took about 8 hours total to finish! I'm such a good girlfriend. :)

Saturday (the 25th) is my Mock Trial regional competition at the courthouse in Columbia. Mock Trial is like a fake court trial. Each school's team has attorneys and witnesses. Witnesses have to memorize depositions and attorneys come up with opening/closing statements, questions, and the most fun thing (sarcasm)... OBJECTIONS. The competition is in a legit courtroom with a judge and a jury. The people who sit in the jury box are the people who are actually scoring our performance, though. The judge really just settles objections and arguments. In each trial, the defense side is from one school, and the plaintiff/prosecution side is from another school. Last year I was a witness for our team, but there were a couple of trials where I ended up questioning the other team's attorney... This year I'm an attorney. I'm having a pretty difficult time, but I think we're going to be great. I actually have practice in a couple of hours, so I should hurry up and finish this post! I'll let you know how our competition goes.

I don't have any new information about scholarships, but I did receive one bit of exciting news since my last post.... I WAS ACCEPTED TO BELMONT'S HONORS PROGRAM! Only 54 people are accepted to the program each year! I was really worried about it because the application for the program was so weird. The question that stood out in my mind was something like, "If you could have a letter of recommendation from any celebrity or public figure, who would it be and why?" I chose Vermin Supreme, who ran for president as a joke. Look him up on Youtube. He wears a boot on his head and thinks everyone is entitled to a government-issued pony. Anyway, the honors program is a big deal at Belmont. The class sizes are tiny, you get to hear special lectures, and in your senior year you write a thesis. I'm so thankful to have been accepted, and if I do go to Belmont, I'm sure the honors program will be something I'll really love! It feels SO nice that my hard work is paying off. This is my salary for my work in high school.

I guess that's all for this post. Thanks so much for reading about my random and boring activities. Hopefully in March I will know more about scholarships and college stuff, so my blog will become more interesting. In the mean time, I will be looking for a summer job around Tullahoma so I'll actually have something to do with my long summer. Let me know if you hear of anything!

Thanks for reading! And remember... you're the most beautiful when you're smiling.