I’m going almost 3,000 miles away. That’s crazy far. I can’t believe it. Further more I’m going 3,000 miles away to study music. Although I’m sure people travel further. I can’t believe that it’s here. Some of you probably remember when I started counting down it was around 130 I think. I can’t believe how far I’ve come musically mostly. I’ve memorized two piece and decided to try out for the orchestra. I can’t believe that I’m going to try for the orchestra. It’s always been a dream of mine to play in an orchestra. I was told by an evangelist that he thought I’d be good enough to be in it. He had played in it once so he should know…although I wonder if he was just being nice. I think it was partly God telling me to at least try. I’m super timid about lots of things and trying new things is something I’m VERY timid about doing. I really am excited that. I hope that I make it in….although if I don’t I won’t be devastated. I’m also ready academically. A year ago I don’t think I would have had the maturity to sit down and do serious studying or real practice that the college would demand of me. I’m really glad that I waited. It would have also been a really big hassle being “under age”, as in not an adult. I’ve also met so many people on facebook. I know how creepy that sounds but you don’t realize how much of an encouragement they have been. Many of them encouraging me to continue on. I’ve found that the encouragement has helped with keeping my spirits high. There have been times these last few months that I’ve felt so overwhelmed by the stress of college preparation. Here’s an example: A couple of months ago the memorization of the pieces was starting to get to me. I was seriously doubting if I was cut out for the program there. A friend who’s going there this fall randomly sent me a flair that said: Smile Jesus Loves You. There was a gian smiley face on the flair. It made me smile and God just lifted my problems. I’m so thankful for friends God sends my way.

I can’t wait to get there. I’ll be leaving in a few hours.

24 hours until I leave!!!

Only 48 hours until I’m on a plane headed for Florida!

It’s exactly 72 hours until I leave for PCC….AHHHHH!

Here’s another post on those auditions….they’re coming up in just under two weeks. I can’t believe how close they are…I’m stressed about them. Of course. Who wouldn’t be…basically your whole college depends on how well you do. I’m sure I’ll do fine. Just as a reminder I’m playing Debusy’s Reverie and Rob Deas’ How Great Thou Art/Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. I hope that I’m good enough…we’ll see…I’ll hopefully blog about it in about two weeks.

10 days remaining

Let’s see…I’ll start on:

Monday:

We left the church at around 9, which to a teenager I guess is kind of early. Once we got going we were fine. There were 4 of us teens…we were going to meet up with one girls family and pick her up. About 10 minutes into the trip we realized that we were going to be very bored. We didn’t bring a single thing to entertain us…and as everyone knows teenagers have the attention span of…of…well something that doesn’t have a very big attention span.

We got there checked in and unloaded everything. We spent most of the rest of the day until dinner meandering around…still trying to find something to do…we got there around 12:00…because of that there wasn’t very many people there.

There were three other kids in our cabin. Travis, Aaron, and Andrew. Pretty cool kids for the most part.

On Monday one of the guys from our church got saved. It was pretty amazing.

Tuesday:

Tuesday was the beginning of a very long day/week. Tuesday was the beginning of the music competitions. They had vocal solos that day. I entered but did not win…which to me was ok…I’m not much of a singer, so if I won I would have been very happy but if I didn’t I wouldn’t have been sad. One of the counselors from my church won the counselor competition. It was pretty cool. Tuesday evening’s preaching was also one of the most powerful nights for me. Evangelist Kevin Brownfield was the speaker. Tuesday he said: “Many of us spend time focusing on the urgent instead of focusing on the important.” Just that statement made me wonder how much time I was wasting.

Wednesday:

Wednesday was the most stressful day for me. Instrumental solos. I always stress over stuff like that. There was a lot of competition this year. A friend of mine, Michael, who had been playing violin for 12 years was competing. I didn’t think that I would even come close to beating him. Last year he beat me not that I was surprised. This year I beat him….when they told me that you could have blown me over so easily. Michael and I were actually standing near each other when they told us…I was so in shock….I asked multiple times if this was a joke or if they had somehow mixed up the scores. I’m still slightly in shock.

Thursday:

Thursday was amphibious day. We went down to the lake and played lots of water games. This year they had a twist. They got a fire truck to come down and spray everyone with the hose. I would have pictures but obviously I was soaked. Lots and lots of fun though. That evening was also skit evening. In years past I had just watched and laughed. This year I decided I would participate. I got put into two skits and volunteered for a third. It was so much fun…I’m not much of an actor but took speech in high school so I know how to “act” or at least do the basics. It was fun. I enjoyed it so much. I didn’t even have much stage fright which is really amazing.

Friday:

Friday was just to me a relaxing day. I just enjoyed the day….met a couple of new people. I can’t believe how quickly the week went. It was pretty cool. I’m sad that this was my last year as a camper. I really did enjoy it this year.

Saturday:

Saturday was going home day. Saying good bye to some friends. Many I won’t see for a whole year some maybe longer. I hope to go back next year.

I hope you enjoyed the week so much. My minod was off of college all week. It was relaly nice. Of course I’m not back into reality….time to think about college and stress more…12 days…

I had an amazing week. A week of so much fun. Lots of hard work. I won the music competition, which is really amazing. I beat out a violin player who was amazing. I also finished all 8 verse passages. I was one of the first 15 to finish them. It’s pretty cool. I also met so many new friends, I can’t believe it. I can’t wait until I can go back…I of course will be going as a counselor. I’m so happy.

My winning piece. It was aranged by Rob Deas.

Michael placing second. If you’ve been reading my blog for a year you’d know that last year he beat me. It was weird beating him.

I’m going “camping.” I guess it’s not traditional camping but I’m going to a church camp. I’m really excited. I love going to camp. Relaxing, enjoying the outdoors, and listening to amazing preaching. I’m excited to see some friends I haven’t seem in a year. YAY. I’ll blog again in about week. I’ll see you then.

I love social networking. Sometimes I don’t know how I ever lived without it. Just meeting people who are going to be freshman at PCC. It’s truely amazing. I can’t wait to go to PCC. 23 days left! YAY!

I can’t believe how close it is. It seems like just yesterday I was writing 75 days…63 days….50 days….I can’t believe it! It’s so amazing. By God’s grace I have been getting ready. There is still a lot to do and I doubt it will all get done but I know God will help me. The hardest part is that I’ll be away at camp for 6 days. That’s 6 days I don’t have to prepare. Yikes. I hope that I can at least relax at camp. After camp there’s no relaxing. As if I should be relaxing now….