Productive Friday Afternoons

I LOVE Fridays.

Mainly because I get to sleep in until 9 and only have to go to one class. Because of this, I have aaaaall day to get stuff done. During the week I'm constantly running around or working on things due later in the day. Fridays are the days that I get to use to regroup and organize my life/room. My project today was organizing my desk. I made the mistake earlier in the year not to use binders for most of my class because they just take up space in my backpack and I only get 1 or 2 pieces of paper during class. Unfortunately, these papers quickly add up, so my desk was cluttered with them. This had been driving me crazy for the past few days, especially when I would look for a paper but not be able to find it, so today I went back to my old system and put the papers in binders. It feels so good. 

You may not be impressed, but you should
have seen it before I started.

Now it's time to get to work on homework and studying. I have at least 12 pages of reflections to do by Wednesday (which is also the day of my Junior Recital Hearing), Mid-Terms on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday (Intro to Education, Music History, and Music Technology), plus my Mom is coming in tonight ... It'll all get done...right? 

FALL

Fall is here, and it is magical.

It's getting cool outside (I can tell because my rings are falling off,) and it makes me so happy. My first thought whenever fall starts making an appearance is "It's marching band weather!" What I wouldn't give to be back in high school just to experience marching band again. What wonderful memories.

Fall makes me feel as if life is full of endless possibilities. I have always been a "jeans and a hoodie" kind of girl. Surrounding a bonfire with my closest friends is one of my favorite things in the world to do. Not to mention, fall in east Tennessee is one of the most beautiful things God has blessed us with. 

Enjoying some hot cider on a cool fall day.
Photo Credit Lukas Williams

So even if you're a summer lover, or hate cold weather, try to appreciate this season. Soak up all the changing colors and remember that spring will come again, when everything will burst to life again.

Relationships

Relationships are hard.

Let's think about this - we're all humans, but none of us are the same. We have all had different experiences that have shaped us into who we are today. Because of these differences, what one person could blow off as nothing, could destroy another person's day. Communication is essential. Knowing a person and how words and actions effect them is crucial to a healthy relationship.

This is amusing, but unfortunately, it's not that easy, at least if you want a deep friendship. I'm slowly realizing that friendship takes effort and needs to be intentional. Especially during school, I find that I'm not always a good friend. I get busy and distracted by different things, and I don't always put all the effort into my relationships as I should. I grow distant from my friends, and before I know it, things are not how they used to be. 

Being an introvert, sometimes I get to wondering if it's really worth it. I mean really, it takes so much time to get to know someone, truly invest in them, and care for them. And after a long day of classes, practicing, etc., I'm ready to just go to my room and not talk to anybody. It's also a risk because they could choose to walk away from the relationship at any time, and you're left with the memories of how things used to be, which is the worst. However, on the other side of things, community is a wonderful thing, and having people to share everything with is invaluable. 

So after all this jumbled thinking, here's my final thought: being in relationships is hard and sometimes complicated, but without people to go through life with, what's the point? I guess I think the effort is worth it in the long run, you just have to choose the right people to completely invest in. 

Miss Eversole

Since when is my name Miss Eversole? 

For my Intro to Education class, I have to have a certain number of observation hours. This morning was my first visit to my assigned teacher. Now, let me tell you, figuring out a time to observe was incredibly difficult, so I get the privilege of going at 7:50am on Tuesdays and Thursdays. . . This morning, getting up wasn't too difficult, but we'll see how much harder it gets in the weeks to come.  

I was nervous and not really looking forward to this experience, but once I got there (and found the office), things were great. The teacher (let's call her Julie) is funny, friendly, and very laid-back, and the students are very amusing. At the end of the summer, I was questioning whether or not teaching is really what I want to do. I was unsure that I would be able to find purpose through that, but this morning reassured me that teaching is a good choice. 

The class is a choral class for beginners. None of the students are very experienced, so I knew this would be an interesting class to observe. To start off, Julie split the class up into sectionals and had me teach the altos their part to a new song. This was fun but kind of challenging, since I'm used to working with people who can at least read music. 

I'm super excited about this opportunity and can't wait to get to know Julie and the students more, along with learning different techniques that I can use in my future teaching career. 

Memories

And the memories came flooding back.

I just watched a video that was made my freshman year here at Milligan. It always makes me laugh, but this time I was flooded with memories of that year along with specific feelings and even smells from that night. 

The video was for my Humanities project. I arranged a section of my favorite song, and enlisted the help of some of my friends to sing the parts for me. This video was filmed at about 11 o'clock the night before the project was due...maybe that's why we were so loopy. 
You can view the video by clicking here.

This night was one of the best nights of my life, and not only because I was in love with one of the gentlemen (no secret there). There were so many laughs during the filming and after that my sides hurt. I remember the details of that night more vividly than most, and thinking of it always brings a smile to my face. We rehearsed the song a few times and then turned on the camera. As you can see, there were many many takes and mistakes. I'm so glad everyone kept a positive attitude throughout the whole thing because it very easily could have turned sour. There could have been frustration and arguments but instead there was laughter and tears of joy, and that is why I hold it so close to my heart.

Though some of us may not be as close as we used to be, I cherish these moments and people more than they know. 

Pieces of Life

My life has a lot of pieces.

There's the very prevalent music piece, of course, and the friend piece. The piece I always need to pay more attention to is the spiritual piece. There's the family piece, the media piece, the coffee piece, the introvert piece, and then there's the new learning about education piece. Lately, I've been trying to fit all of these pieces together within everyday, and it causes me to have no time for silence. The only silence I experience is when I'm sleeping. 

On Monday & Wednesday, I wake up at 7 and usually don't return to my room until 5:30. Once I do return, it's time to eat dinner and then either do homework or head back down to the music building to practice. Tuesday & Thursday I don't have to wake up until 8:20 (which is a luxury), but then I have class until either 8:20 or 9 with about an hour break for dinner and some work. Fridays are heavenly because I only have one class, but I will soon begin my observations for one of my education classes.

My Junior Recital hearing (when I play the entire program from memory for the music faculty and they decide if I can do a recital or not) is on October 2nd. That's right, less than a month from now. My professor and I decided on the final selections on Monday, so as you can imagine, I'm spending all my spare time at the piano trying to breathe new life into previously learned pieces or learning the new pieces and cramming them into my memory. As much stress as this brings, I am super excited for my recital. I have some incredible pieces (Mozart, Schumann, Liszt, Ravel, Rachmaninoff) and I cannot wait to share them with everybody that comes. They will cry (I hope), and I probably will too.

So friends and family, I'm sorry if I cannot spend as much time with you as I or you would like. This period of my life will be over in 2 MONTHS FROM TODAY. (Yes, I just had a little freakout, ask my roommate,) and then I will gladly return to your life if you will have me. Please be patient, and bring me as much coffee as you feel led to.