Leaving.....

I'm done. I'm officially a Senior in college, crazy! We just had our last supper together last night as a CMC family. It was an extremely emotional night. We all told stories about the whole entire semester, complimented each other, prayed for each other, and gave LOTS of hugs. I don't think that i has fully hit me that I will never be in the same place with these 32 people again. I keep having this feeling that we're on a break but, that next week I'll see them all again......that's not the case :-( Warren (the director of the program) wrote us all a letter and basically told us how he felt about us and then last night he went around and gave all of us a hug and basically gave us a "send-off". At the beginning of the semester Warren seemed SOO intimidating, i barely even talked to him. During the middle of the semester, i didn't like him (haha) and I even went into his office one day and told him that i basically wanted to quit that I didn't like performing I just didn't want to be there. And he listened (like he always does) and told me just to hang in there. That if i wanted to do something different that he would work with me in any way possible, that this program was here to service me and my needs. By the end of the semester (yesterday) Warren signed all of our letters "Your friend, Warren." When i read that, I started to tear up because once he calls himself your friend it's such a great feeling. He is a guy that i have the utmost respect for. He told me, "Please come back and visit, don't lose contact with us." I have no plans of doing that!!

It's crazy how much I will absolutely miss everyone! They have truly become my family, they understand me and my (artistic) mind :-) Not that some people at home don't understand BUT here there are 32 people who for the most part all think alike and have the same likes and passions. There will never be a place that I can go again where when you wake up there will always be someone playing music, at lunch you'll hear people writing songs, at 3am you'll see people in the recording studio, etc......there just will never be another time like this. I am SOO thankful for this experience, it truly has changed my life. Now i KNOW 100% where I want to be heading in life, the goals that I want to accomplish, and my faith has been challenged and it has made me a stronger person because of it.

People even right now are leaving and it's so sad and extremely emotional for all of us. BUT on a brighter note i'm so excited to see where everyone will end up. They have told us all semester that this is the most talented semester that they've ever had. It will be so cool to see where everyone ends up. I know most of the people here have the passion and drive and ability to make it SO far! A lot of them are moving down to Nashville either this summer or the start of fall, they keep telling me....move down here! haha I told them I will try my absolute hardest to move down here as soon as I finish college..... (looks like i'll be needing to find many jobs :-)

to wrap up this post i thought i'd leave with some of the funniest things and things that i'm going to miss about this semester's people:

-Joe Casey always singing my songs, Image in the Mirror and Black and White Masquerade
-people constantly saying, "the girl in the mirror is not me."
-late night talks with the girls in 711
-A.j saying, "OMG (insert name) HOW ARE YOU???" when she answers the phone
-playing INTENSE basketball at the park
-park workouts with Mike
-sleep overs
-late night talks with Karissa and Mike
-practice sessions where Alex is always saying, "I just can't connect to your songs, the girl in the mirror is not me."
-Cupcakes from IVEY cupcakes, Sweet CECE's, Pancake Pantry, shopping, Downtown Nashville, B.B. Kings Jazz Club, the amazing weather here!
-MOUNTAINS!
-Audrey acting like she's possessed and then writing songs about Warren and him not knowing it :-)
-Rocking out to everyone's songs!
-being a skyline singer
-Singing "Thank you Lord" when ever ANYONE says "Thank you"
-performing shows with everyone
-back massage trains
-sunrises and sunsets over the mountains
-shows downtown


Semester 20, i love each and everyone of you. You have become my family and closest friends. It's crazy that we've only been with each other for 4 months but i'm closer with most of you than anyone i know. Thank you!


Well friends and family who follow this, thank YOU so much for supporting me on this endeavor to follow music. It has been a road of emotional ups and downs but it is something that I would not trade for the world. I look forward to coming back and seeing each and everyone of you. Thank you again for all of your prayers and support.

10 days left, what??

10 days left! It's crazy to think that we've been here since January. This place feels like home and these people feel like my family! I'm sad to leave in 10 days and return to OH-IO but, it will be nice to see family and friends. I'm really trying to brace myself for the reality of being back at home. It's going to be hard for people to fully understand what I've been through since January. I know people are going to act like they somehow understand which don't get me wrong is totally sweet of them but, they don't really understand anything about this place. I'm trying to picture what my life will be like when I get back home......have a summer job, hang out with friends, church stuff, stealing hollywood stuff and then start my last year at school. All that sounds great but, my heart isn't there. My heart is in Nashville doing two things that I love, music and Stealing Hollywood.

One of our "music profs" (I never know what to call them haha) Anyways today while we were listening to our 3rd masters he said something like this. "I'm going to miss you all so much. Are you guy's ready to be working on something you love for something like 5-8 years before you'd actually make it anywhere. Do you love what your doing so much that you'll do anything to make it? How much are you dedicated to doing what you love?" Such a good thing to think about. I was talking with one of my really good friends down here about life after the CMC. And I was telling her that I really don't know what i'd do without Stealing Hollywood being my job. But then the question always comes into my mind, what if it failed? What would I do then? I honestly cannot answer that. It's become such a passion in my life that I dont' want to do anything else in life. Thankfully being at the CMC has helped me realize alot about what I want in life and the direction to take.


But right now i'm doing what I love, in the recording studio! Recording the song, "Every Step of the Way." Written by Whitney McCombs! I'm so excited to have a couple masters and everything done for people to actually hear whats been going on all semester!

Recording at an ungodly hour.....

4am and 5am have never been in my vocabulary until I came to the CMC and started recording late nights from 4am-9am. Right now i'm in the studio recording a song that the very talented Whitney McCombs wrote, "Every Step of the Way." Thankfully it's only 12:35 am.....i only am in the studio until 1am tonight and then get to sleep! Ah, how i've never valued sleep so much in my life. Well, I guess I haven't updated this blog since before tour. Tour.....wow now theres an experience. We were on the road 7 days a total of 28 hours on our tour bus with 32 students and 5 staff and 1 baby. Overall it was a great tour we had great crowds and everyone got along for the most part. We've all kind of hit that point in the semester where we all know each others faults and annoyances and well just ignore them now haha. I could have gone into a lot further detail about tour but honestly sooo much happened that its hard to write it all down. But, I do remember that we played at these colleges: Lipscomb University, Greenville, Wheaton, Cedarville, Malone, Asbury, and Nashville. It was the longest tour that they have ever taken a semester on but all for all it went great! Now I only have somewhere around 15 days left. It's seriously crazy how time flys here, it seems just yesterday that I was just moving down here and meeting new people now we're all family. I was talking with someone a few days ago about how weird it will be to come back to real life and try and explain this place to people. This place reminds me of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory haha it's all like a ficticious place. ANyways ficticious or not it's been the best experience of my life! I'm all finished up with my recording session so I'll update a lot more later!