Friends, memories, and sashes of course!

Many of you may not know what Job's Daughters is but it is a huge part of my life, and always will be. It is a Masonic youth group for girls between the ages of 10 and 20 and it has changed my life. I was a completely different person before I joined and I can honestly say that I am proud of who I have become.

I joined when I was 15 years old because I heard the E.I.C. of our yearbook staff talking about "Jobies" all the time and I was really curious. I can honestly say that I am thankful for Sam Boyd because if it wasn't for her I wouldn't have had this amazing opportunity. Since I have joined have learned tons of things about myself, I have made friends that I know I will have forever, and I have made memories that will last me a lifetime. 

My sisters have become a huge part of my life, and I have made some of my best friends in this organization. I have met people from around the state, and bonded with people I never thought I would have. After being elected into the position of Marshal in my bethel I got the chance to go to Leadership Weekend. I was in an amazing cabin, with two absolutely amazing counselors. One was a girl from my home bethel Jessy who I was already great friends with and the other was someone that I had met a few times and heard about from quite a few people, Kenedey. I don't know what happened but we clicked really fast and we became amazing friends. We spent the weekend together, and then it bloomed into one of the best friendships that I have now. Kenedey is now my best friend, even though she lives an hour and a half away from me, we manage to stay as close as ever. 

In Job's Daughters there are many events, titles, and tons of very important people. One of the popular state wide events is the Miss Job's Daughters Pageant. I had the honor of going a year ago as a contestant, and it was a great experience. This year I just supported my sisters from across the state. I was so excited to be there with Kenedey on stage as well as many other people that I love dearly. There are two titles up for grabs at the pageant and those are Miss Job's Daughter of Virginia and Miss Congeniality of Virginia. The outgoing Miss Congeniality was a very good friend of mine from my home bethel and she is also one of Kenedey's great friends, so the information that is about to come is quite exciting. 

I had talked to Kenedey before the pageant and I had told her that she is amazing and that she needed to go out there and win that thing and indeed she did. I was so happy when they announced Kenedey as the new Miss Congeniality of Virginia.  This meant that right then Tasha got to sash Kenedey and it was beginning of another great year with two more fantastic Misses. It was so great seeing Kenedey win and her family and bethel on the other side of the room cheering like crazy and her cousin crying with joy! 

She is going to do amazing! Love you!

We such purdy best friends!

This was one year ago, when I competed in pageant!
It's crazy to think that a year has passed and she is now a Miss.

Well this is to you Kenedey...I am so proud of you and I know that you will do a fantastic job. I can not think of a better person to represent Virginia for this next year and I know the girls chose you for a reason. You should be so proud of yourself. I love you to death and know that I am here for you if you need absolutely anything, not only this year but forever! You are amazing and a super fantastic best friend. CONGRATULATIONS! 

MLLC 2012: Part One

This past weekend I had the great opportunity to attend Longwood's annual Mountain Lake Leadership Conference (MLLC 2012). I had heard about it a bunch of times from my sister, who is a S.E.A.L member. S.E.A.L is the organization on campus that puts on the conference every year. The conference is held at the Mountain Lake Hotel, which happens to be the place where the movie Dirty Dancing was filmed, which is my all-time favorite movie. Well I'll get to that in the other parts of the blog posts to come, let's actually talk about the conference. 

The theme for this year was "Millennial Leadership." They had sent out an email before going to the conference that had a link to the blog that had all the weekends information on it.  I was kind of skeptical when I was reading the workshop briefs, but once I got there I realized that I could actually really use this knowledge to help me. The sessions had to deal with technology and using it in different ways. I attended sessions on “Where Do you Draw the Line,” “Digital Identity Development: How to Live Your Life Online,” “Social Media Tools 101,” and finally “Sleep: Who Needs It?”

Over a series of my next few blog posts I’m going to go over the different sessions I went to and the things that I brought back from them. I learned a lot of information that goes from Facebook security to the best times to nap and how to improve my sleep habits. I will also talk about the amazing experience of climbing the mountain and getting to see the amazing sunset as it slowly went descended behind the mountains. I hope that the information that I share with you all will help you in the ways that it was able to help me. I was able to come back from the weekend and actually use the information directly when I got back.

A great experience we had was having a great keynote speaker, Ed Cabellon. He taught two of the workshops that I went to and gave the opening and closing speeches of the weekend, and he was very very helpful.

So, stay tuned for more information from this weekend and amazing pictures at the top of a very beautiful mountain. Ohh, and don’t forget you will hear lots about my obsession with Dirty Dancing and the fact that I was at the hotel where much of it was filmed.

Here are some previews of the amazing pictures that I have from this weekend. (There is an obnoxious amount more to come very soon.)

My lovely roommate, Shannon. She is the best, and hopefully she is glad that I dragged here to the conference this weekend!

The Ups and Downs of Living with Shann...

It was a difficult transition moving from my home of 16 years, to a new city and room. College was something that I had always dreamed of and when it came I honestly didn't know what to do with myself. When I first moved in it was quite the roller coaster ride. It had its ups and downs, fortunately they were mostly ups!

I had moved in with my friend from high school Jess, and it was going great at first. Even though we had our times it was a good match for the most part. We had met our suite mates who were quickly becoming some of our best friends at Longwood. We both clicked with them and it was great. When times got tough and things got hectic we discussed it and decided that it would be best if we had a little room switch-a-roo. Even though we had some of our skeptic thoughts it seemed like it was for the better if we did the good 'ole swap. So...it happened, and now I have this chick Shannon as my roommate. Many say that your freshman year roommate will be your life long friend, and let me tell you, we have already made that promise to each other. (She mentioned it to me when we were doing laundry in the basement and she had said, "We're going to be life long friends. Does that scare you?")

Living with her is quite the experience. So far it has been a great one at that. Even though the title may fool you, I have not found very many, if any, downs yet. I hope that this doesn't jinx me, but I'm sure we'll still do great for the rest of the year, and years to come. Living with someone is quite the pressure, you need to really make it work, or else you will live in HELL. At first switching rooms was weird, it was like I was coming to school all over again, in a good way.

I could not ask for a better roommate and friend at college. She takes all the crap that I give her, she listens to my long vent sessions, and she understands my weirdness (which most people don't tend to accept). It is very likewise for her. So in all we make a good team. (I had the urge to say couple, but you know, she might get a little freaked out) I would have to say if I didn't meet her I don't know what I would have done with my life. I hope she never gets tired of my obnoxious singing, angry venting, and fun name calling. And if she doesn't I promise that I will not get tired of her non-obnoxious singing, her loud pterodactyl noises, and her constant sickness. We get along very well and I'm sure it will be a four years we won't be able to forget.

Enough with the gay talk, for all you future college students out there, really think about who you are rooming with, it can make or break your freshman year. And even if times get tough don't give up.

Love you Shanny McFanny, the Pretty Pretty Princess. You's da bestest!

.

 

Volleyball, To-Do Lists, and Stress: My Life in a Nutshell

I completely forgot how amazing it felt to hit a volleyball. Playing was always my release while I was growing up. I went to practice once a week and it was the one thing that I managed to be good at and could always get better every week.
Going to college, if you guys didn't know already, is very stressful. At least for me it is. I don't take well to pressure and I don't tend to handle it well. Over the years of high school and yearbooking I have learned many ways to deal with my stress and ohh how I love these wonderful things.
On a daily basis I try my best to elevate stress through my tiny bit obsessive habits. Including: to-do lists, obsessively keeping to my schedule and just taking moments to my self to ya know relax (mostly sleep).
Recently I have been really stressed with school and it has been hard. All I can say is I have made probably about 100 to-do lists in the past week, it's crazy and amazingly reassuring at the same time. Today I played my first game of volleyball since my junior year of high school. And let me tell you it was absolutely amazing. I have now found my new safe place. I can just go hit a few and it's like a whole new world. Ohh how I forgot how it felt to just play a game of ball. It was great getting in that zone again. Now I know not to freak out and just casually make my way to the gym.
So when times get tough keep calm, make some to-do lists and play a little bit of volleyball.
I also just want to add Happy Birthday to my Nanny. This is the first year we haven't had you with us and it is one of the hardest ones yet. You were a great mom and grandma and you have been greatly missed. I hope you're having a blast up there for you birthday. Let dad know that I love and miss him!

It feels good to be a voter!

Today was a big day for me. I have been looking forward to casting my own ballot since I was a kid going to the polls with my mom. I remember being in elementary school and making my mom come home and get me before she went to the polls at the Courthouse Firehouse.

Going to the polls today was a great deal of fun. Even though standing in a line for 30 minutes (I know it wasn't that long compared to other people's waits) wasn't that fun and it may not seem like the best way to spend my afternoon, it was still very exciting. Being in a line full of people who actually care about where their country is going, was quite reassuring. It was amazing to think that all these people, mostly college students, weren't wasting their vote, and were putting their two cents in.

Enough with this talk, casting my vote was quite an experience. Even though the election outcome may not be the one that I wish for at least I know that I did that duty and put my vote into the pot.

I hope that all of y'all got the chance to go out and vote today, or send in your absentee ballots for you college students out there. And as one of my biggest pet peeves, if you didn't vote just because you didn't want to then please don't complain for the next four years because we don't have the president you wanted.

I finally got my very own "I Voted" sticker. It feels good.

A new kind of thing...

Well this is a first, and that makes it kind of awkward for me, but hopefully I can get the hang of it eventually. I am a freshman in college and I have been wanting to try out blogging for quite some time. I hope that my posts won't bore any one, but if they do, than I'm glad that I can assist in putting you to bed at night.

I live my day to day life from the viewpoint of a Lancer, a Longwood Lancer that is. My school is absolutely amazing and beautiful, it is honestly the best place on Earth, that is other than the wonderful salty air filled beach where I grew up. I have experienced quite a few things since I have come to my new home but they have helped me grow, and that is one of the things that made me want to start this new adventure.

I got the idea to start a blog when I saw many of my Facebook friends, mostly my high school yearbook advisor, linking theirs to their profiles. It seems like a nice outlet and a way to end my days with a plus.

So grab a seat, a nice cup of coffee, and a good blog and enjoy reading.

I love going to a school where I have my sister (second from the left) there, when I want her to be, and all of her amazing friends to help get me through the day.