My senior year - So many reasons to smile!

It's my first blog! Wahoo! I've been wanting to do this for a while, so here we go!

This is mostly for my family and friends to keep up with my life, and for me to look back on later and remember how blessed I am! 

Right now, I am a senior in high school. Life is really stressful because I have to do well in school and apply for colleges and scholarships. I plan to major in Instrumental Music Education, so I also have to audition at every school I apply to. Ahhh, the life of a musician...

Anyway, since I'm more than halfway through my senior year, I'll use today's blog to reminisce. So this is what I've been doing since last summer.

Hold on tight, because we've got a lot to cover!

For four weeks of my summer, I attended TN Governor's School for the Arts. There, I played music (I play French horn) all day, every day (yes, even weekends - concerts every Saturday and rehearsals every Sunday). Taking four weeks out of my summer was a big deal because at my school, we only have about 7 and a half weeks of summer (we're on a year-round schedule). Also, I had 2 weeks of band camp right before school started. So Governor's School took the majority of my summer. But it was a blast, and I was honored to be one of only 250 attendees. I met so many new people from across the state. In fact, almost all of my friends were from Knoxville and Memphis. I miss them so much!

Dress day! That's me on the right. These girls became my best friends!

The day I had to leave Governor's School, I sobbed like crazy. I definitely did not stop crying all day long. Playing music with people just creates a bond like nothing else. When I got home, though, I unpacked all of my clothes, did laundry, and then packed again for a trip to the beach! My parents and I usually go to the beach alone, but this year we took my boyfriend Shane. Shane is a student at Vanderbilt (a smart one!) and he's pretty swell :) Now, we've been dating for over a year and a half. Here's a beach picture!

I'm rockin' the double chin! 

The week after our beach trip, band camp started. Even though everyone is basically miserable during band camp, it's exciting because it means good times are ahead! I love marching band. This year's show was called "Contagion." No, we did not steal the idea from the movie. I was a drum major this year, which had been my dream since freshman year! I am so blessed. It was lots of hard work, but I'm so glad I got to wear white this season. 

I'm the one on the far right. The shortest one, of course...

My last marching season with the THS Band was bittersweet. It seems impossible that I won't be marching here anymore. If I do march in college, though, it will be a lot less stressful.

In November, I auditioned for Mid-State Band. I made All-State for the first time! YES!! I don't need to post a picture of that on here, though.. it's pretty self-explanatory. I was also accepted to the Mid-State Orchestra! Our conductor was Maestro Giancarlo Guerrero, who conducts the Nashville Symphony. This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I still can't believe I got to study with this genius! 

Hannah, me, Maestro, and Ann Marie. Hannah, Ann Marie, and I are French horn players at the same school. Can you say BEAST? Haha, our teacher is wonderful. So thankful for him!

My January was SUPER busy. The first weekend was Mid-State Band weekend (our conductor was Dr. Lowell Graham, who is absolutely amazing!), the second weekend was Mid-State Orchestra, the third weekend was my audition at Tennessee Tech University, and the fourth weekend was HOMECOMING. I found out in December that I was voted Homecoming Queen! To add to the excitement, one of my best friends, Brady, was voted Homecoming King! AHH! We spent so much time practicing a dance to perform at the pep-rally. I also spent a lot of time finding a dress, jewelry, shoes, and the perfect hairstyle for the ceremony. Here's a great picture of Brady and me at the ceremony. I got my dress at the White Room in Murfreesboro, my earrings and shoes at Beauty Queens Boutique in Cookeville, my hair comb (which you can't see, unfortunately) at Treasures, my spray tan at the Sunshine Shack, my make-up done at Merle Norman, and my hair done by a wonderful lady named Ms. Jody.

All of our hard work came together for the pep-rally dance and the ceremony. Our theme was Hollywood Homecoming, so we had to have a red carpet! This was such an unforgettable day. 

Homecoming was an absolute blast. I can't believe it's over! Our boys won the game by a landslide. Go cats! Anyway, the morning after homecoming, I had to travel to Belmont University for my audition there. I am SO thankful to my mom for driving me there. We only got about 5 hours of sleep before having to drive to Nashville and staying there the entire morning. Needless to say, when we got home, we both crawled into bed! Thanks Mom!

Well, here we are on February 7th. Last weekend was my first free weekend of 2012. I caught up on sleep and spent plenty of time with Shane. This weekend, I have my LAST college audition! It's at Vanderbilt University. I'm pretty nervous, but I'm more excited to get it over with. I'll let you know how it goes!

For my family: Here's an update on the status of my college decisions.

I'll try to add one of these every time I post a blog, since I don't really put this stuff on Facebook.

I plan to major in Music Education and Spanish.

My 3 college choices are Tennessee Tech, Belmont, and Vanderbilt. 

Tennessee Tech and Belmont both have incredible music schools. Vanderbilt's music school is great, but it focuses on performance more than education. 

No matter which school I choose, I will get $5,000/year from the lottery scholarship.

TTU is giving me $5,000/year for academics (this is their largest academic scholarship). I will have to work for the school for 75 hours per semester in order to keep the scholarship (in addition to keeping a certain GPA), though. I've also been accepted into the honors program there, which is pretty exciting! The French horn professor really likes me and is offering me whatever it takes to make a full scholarship. This will be a little less than $5,000 from the music department. He said there's a possibility that I could actually get a surplus - and get paid for going to TTU! Awesome! 

Belmont is my dream, though. I've been accepted to the university and given their maximum academic scholarship of $10,000/year. They have not yet accepted me into the music school (this will probably take a couple of weeks). They also haven't given out "competitive scholarships" or music scholarships. I'll probably know about money from them by the end of March. Belmont costs about $34,000/year.

Vanderbilt is a different story. I chose not to apply for "early decision" because if you are accepted in early decision, then you have to commit to Vanderbilt - no matter how many scholarships you get. But because I only applied for regular decision, I won't know anything until April. Vanderbilt costs about $54,000/year.

My school gives out a packet of over 60 scholarships that are given out locally. Some are sponsored by businesses and organizations.. some are "in memory" of someone. I was eligible for 21 of these scholarships and I applied to 19. These are for $250 to $1,000 and they basically just give you the money. They can only be used during your first year of college. I've heard bad things about these - like that the only people who receive them are the people who are well-known around the community. I still tried, though. I still have a couple of scholarships to apply for.

I hope you enjoyed my first blog post. The next posts won't be nearly as long.. I just had to catch up on my senior year so far! Thanks for reading!