Keeping on the sunny side in early spring

Hello again, faithful readers! Sorry it's been so long, but I try to wait to post until after there have been several exciting events in my life. Gotta keep my posts exciting!

Well, first of all.. IT'S ALMOST SPRING BREAK!! Yeah! I have two exams: one Thursday morning and one Friday morning. Friday afternoon I have to stay to set up for a huge event at the high school... but we will get to that later. After that, though, I'm free for two weeks! I am so excited! It's a little bittersweet, though, because after break I only have about 30 days of high school left. 30 days with wonderful teachers, 30 days of mandatory attendance, 30 days with the greatest principal ever, and 30 days to be in the Tullahoma Band... Yeah, that last one makes me cry every time. Anyway, let's get to what's been happening in my life lately.

Right after my last post, I went to the Mock Trial regional competition in Columbia. We worked SO HARD and we did great, but we didn't come home with the trophy. Some members were disappointed and sad, but I felt indifferent. I wouldn't have been able to go to the state competition because of my cousin's wedding, anyway. And hey, you win some, you lose some. Tullahoma had won the regional competition 6 years in a row, so it was time for another school to experience the state competition! I am happy for Columbia Academy and hope they do well!
Sorry I don't have any pictures from the event; it was a busy day, and we didn't have much time for pictures!

The Saturday after Mock Trial (last Saturday) was SUPER busy. My cousin Kacy had a family luncheon at Miss Mary Bobo's in Lynchburg to celebrate her wedding. It was the last time we would all be together before the rehearsal dinner! It was my first time to go to that restaurant. The food was INCREDIBLE, but I couldn't eat too much because I was in a pageant later that night. Here are some photos from the luncheon...

Kacy, our grandpa, and me.. He is the best Papa ever!

Me, our grandma, and Kacy. I love you Nanny!!

I can't wait to go back to Miss Bobo's when I can eat as much as I want! The food was so yummy. Fried chicken, okra, potatoes, chess pie, baked apples... If you haven't gone, you definitely should plan a trip there soon.

That night, I competed in the Miss Tullahoma pageant. This year was not nearly as stressful as last year because I wore the same dress and shoes that I wore last year. Also, I basically replicated my spray tan, make-up, and hairstyle from homecoming, so I was really comfortable with the way I looked. Here are some pics!

This is me after my make-up and hair appointments. Spray tan: Sunshine Shack, Make-up: Merle Norman, hair: JP Designs, and nails (which, sadly, aren't in any of my photos): Cali Nails.

This is me and my good friend Kaitlyn. She got 4th runner-up!! Congrats Kaitlyn!

This one was taken by Mrs. Jo Todd. Thanks Mrs. Todd! 

Well, I had a blast at the pageant! I was thrilled when I was chosen to be in the top 20 (there were 32 participants), and ecstatic to be in the top 10!! The top 10 had to answer an on-stage question. Thankfully, we had received copies of the questions the day before the pageant. My question was, "What do you think schools can do to encourage healthy lifestyles for teenagers?" My answer was something along the lines of, "Schools should offer physical education classes and healthful food. Your lifestyle isn't just the way you live at school, though, so parents also have a large responsibility in encouraging healthy and active lifestyles for their teenagers." And then some kind of concluding sentence. I honestly don't even remember answering the question... I was just trying to remember to breathe! I am so thankful for my experience in Distinguished Young Women (formerly known as Junior Miss).. without it I would not have been able to answer that question.
I got several compliments about my answer, but I guess the judges didn't think it was too great. I didn't get in the top 5. I probably should have stuck to answering the question instead of giving my opinion... But I really don't think schools can do that much to keep kids healthy; parents have to do that at home. Oh well. I really like the girl who won Miss Tullahoma.. She is a great friend and she will represent well.

My next big event was last night (Tuesday night). It was the Middle Tennessee School Band and Orchestra Association Concert Festival. Wow, that's a mouthful! Anyway, the THS Symphonic Band (the higher-level concert band at THS) traveled by CHARTER BUS to MTSU to play our concert music for judges. We left school right after rehearsal. We got to MTSU and watched 2 or 3 bands perform, and then the chaos started! Well, it wasn't really chaos; they pretty much have it down to a science. We had 30 minutes to warm up. This included tuning, individual warm-up, and running through difficult parts of the music. Then, we got on stage. We performed Grade 6 literature. Band music is rated on a scale of 1 to 6, with 6 being the most difficult. Needless to say, our music was pretty hard! We performed really well, though.
Then, we went to the sight reading room. There, we got folders with music inside. When the judge said OK, we took the music out of the folder and got to look at it for the first time. We had 8 minutes to look over the music - we use some time to look at it individually, and then our director runs through it with us. During the 8 minutes, we can do anything EXCEPT play our instruments. After the 8 minutes, we play the music.

Well, we knew that we did well on our prepared music, but the sight reading was pretty shaky. We got all superior scores, though!! Superior is the highest score you can receive, and we got it in every single category  (including tone, intonation, accuracy, etc.) Today we listened to the judges' tapes, and they hardly had any criticisms! I am super proud of this band for putting in so many hours of hard work and for being completely dedicated to these pieces of music. If you're curious, we played Valdres (a Norwegian march) and The Hounds of Spring.

Next Tuesday and Wednesday, my school will be hosting the 3rd week of the MTSBOA Concert Festival. Several bands will come to THS to go through the same process we went through at MTSU. I'm eager to work at this event because I want to meet band directors, see my friends from other schools, and hear other band programs. It will be a lot of work, but it will get our school on the map. I'm excited to show off our amazing state-of-the-art auditorium! :)

Sorry for the lack of photos in this blog.. But here's a nice picture I took of myself this morning! Hehe.

Okay, so no, Bisby didn't win the mayoral election this year. But I still support him and I love this shirt my boyfriend gave me!

COLLEGE DECISION UPDATE!

My latest piece of information was an acceptance letter from Belmont's School of Music. The acceptance didn't come with any scholarship notification, though.

Both TTU and Belmont will let me know about music scholarships around March 15. Hopefully I will receive the letters before leaving for vacation! I am just beyond ready to know which school I'm attending. I want to start planning my dorm room decorations, housing situation, meal plan, etc. 

Thank goodness for Pinterest! That site helps me immensely with dorm room ideas!

So basically, this college decision update isn't much of an update. This process is painstakingly slow! I just continue to pray for patience and the ability to be happy with whichever school I have to attend.

Keep in touch; scholarships and decisions should be happening very soon.

Thanks for reading, friends! And keep smiling!

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.

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!