It's about time for senior year round two.
It's about time for the second senior year of my life. First was high school, and now it's time for college. It's strange because the first one doesn't seem that long ago, but I guess that four years is actually pretty close to being a fifth of my life so far, so when I put it that way I guess it has been a bit since then.
The thing about senior year round two is I think I know what to expect. I think. I know it'll be a year full of lasts...and ACTUAL lasts this time. The first time around, it was just my last high school band camp. This time, it'll be my last band camp ever. EVER. Every year since 2008 I've been out in the heat learning a marching show and getting ready for the fall. It's hard to believe this is it. The first time around it was my last first day of high school. This time, it may be my last first day of school ever (grad school is still being considered...we'll see). The list goes on and on of lasts that are coming up sooner than I'd like.
Senior year round two is also a little scary. At least with senior year round one I knew what was next. College. That came next. I still don't know for sure what comes after college and won't until at least next spring, and that's scary when I think about it too long. However, I do know this: whatever does come next will be great, and I'll do great. Wherever God sends me will turn out to be awesome, and I've just got to keep remembering that.
I've also got to remember not to get too sad because this fantastic four year journey of college is coming to an end. The cliche quote, "don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened," will most likely become one of my mottoes of the school year. I've got to remember to take in every moment and enjoy it and not get too wrapped up in the fact that it's the last time.
I can't start crying uncontrollably the last time I step on Scott Field to march with the FMB. Sure, a few tears will be fine, but I've got to remember to look around and take it all in because who knows if and when I'll ever see a MSU football game from that perspective ever again. I can't start crying uncontrollably the last time I walk out of the classroom in Carpenter because one, all of the boys will stare, and that'll make me uncomfortable, and two, I've got to remember to look around and remember how impressive it is for me to make it through the classes required for a degree in engineering.
What a year it will be. I'm looking forward to it and dreading it all at the same time, but it'll come for me nonetheless. People really are right. You show up to college freshmen year, you blink, and then you're a senior.
It also doesn't help the situation that some people will look at me and assume I'm a senior in high school, because apparently it's just too hard to believe that I'm actually 21 years old. Funny stuff.
Anyways, I'll try to keep you updated on all of my senior year shenanigans. We kick it off with band camp at the beginning of August.
Until next time,
Mo
Tuesday, July 19, 2016
Sunday, June 19, 2016
A Decade of Band
The end of this school year brought the end of my tenth year of being in band. Ten years of playing the wonderful little black stick I've fallen in love with, ten years of making music with so many of my closest friends, ten years of memories I'll never forget.
I think we all have about five or so really important life decisions we make throughout our lives. They're the ones that start a domino effect of other great things. One of mine is definitely joining band. Who knew everything that one activity could offer me- numerous trips, life skills, and great friends just to name a few. Oh. And learning to play an instrument. That happened too.
To commemorate my ten years of music making fun, I want to take you on a journey, my band journey.
Rewind to spring 2006. I'm a little fifth grader, and it's the day of the band test. It's the day that the middle and high school band directors came to the elementary school and gave the fifth graders a basic music test to gauge our musical ability. A week or so later I get a letter, a letter that said I got to move on to the next stage- trying out the instruments.
I can remember the moment clearly. We were in the cafeteria of Pleasant Hill Elementary School. The DeSoto Central High School band director held out a clarinet mouthpiece for me to blow on. If you've never blown on just a clarinet mouthpiece, imagine a really bad duck call, and that's what it sounds like. The clarinet was pretty high on my list. Two of my older cousins both played the clarinet, and they're cool people, and so being like them would be cool.
I went through the rest of the stations and then wrote down my top three instrument choices: clarinet, percussion, and trumpet (I can't remember the order...but it was definitely those three).
They said I would play the clarinet.
Skip ahead to August 2006. Little Morgan sits in the DeSoto Central Middle School with her cousin's beginner clarinet ready to go. I played through Hot Cross Buns and Mary Had a Little Lamb probably a lot like a small squeaky toy, but I must have not been that bad because I didn't quit.
The next fall I switched schools. I sat in the Lewisburg Middle/High school band hall with a smallish group of 7th and 8th graders that made up the middle school band. The rest of the 7th and 8th graders marched with the high school band since the school (and as a result the band) was still growing. I went from a section of at least twenty to four, but it was still lots of fun. It was a never-ending battle between the girl in second chair and myself to see who had the most stars each week (and therefore got to sit in first chair). Seventh grade band was fun, but I couldn't wait until the next year when I got to march with all of my new friends.
Fall of 2008 came around, and I experienced my first marching season on the field. It was so overwhelming. I had to learn how to use these things called dot books, and I had to figure out how to play and march at the same time, and I had to remember where I should go and when...so much going on. And then I had my friends that had already marched a year handling it like what looked like pros to me. I wanted to be good like them.
That year's marching show was a Patriotic theme, and near the end the entire band formed an arc, placed their hands over their hearts, and sang the line, "o'er the land of the free, and the home of the..." We were told to use a blade hand (all fingers touching) so we would all be uniform. One day in the band hall my director popped in the DVD from one of our competitions. The menu screens for band DVDs always start with a short bit of different bands...and which bit is first...none other than a close up of me with my fingers spread very far apart. Talk about embarrassed. I've come a long way since my struggling hand and band days.
That spring was my first spring to be in the high school concert band. I sat on third part and loved playing with the big kids. Fun stuff.
The next fall I felt much more confident in my marching abilities. We won State Championships that year - the first time ever for any Lewisburg organization - and it was grand. What a grand experience. Winning a state championship is a great feeling. It's knowing that all of your hard work in the hot and cold through countless practices paid off. Great stuff.
We went on to win state champs two more times while I was in high school and were the runner up the other year. Band was such a huge part of my high school experience. It taught me about music, people, and myself, and for a little teenage girl, those were important things to learn about. My band directors are wonderful people, and they encouraged me to be the best I can be- as both a player and a leader. It was in band that I discovered I really enjoy being in a leadership position. I learned about servant leadership and how some of the best leaders are those who are willing to work alongside those they lead. My best friend and I were the section leaders for our section of clarinets, and it was a joy to serve alongside her and help the clarinets have a great time and grow as players and people. Band taught me the importance and power of team work. It also kept me pretty fit. Our marching band did LOTS of workouts. In 2008 we did jumping jacks to Boom Boom Pow every day. Even to this day, when I hear that song my arms try to start moving.
Then it came time for me to start thinking about college. I had marched five years, a year extra than most. It had been a very hard-working five years, and I thought it was time I retired from marching. I had decided to just try out for MSU's wind ensemble and not March. Then the more I thought about it, and the more people talked about it, I decided maybe I should give college marching band a try. So sometime late in the school year (I think April) I called the band office, and the very nice sounding lady scheduled me an audition for May 16. That was quite late for FMB auditions. Most people audition starting in late January and into March.
I played my audition piece and scales for Dr. Aarhus and Dr. Taylor, and they must have liked me enough, because a few days later I got my acceptance letter for the FMB. I showed up on my first day at MSU, moved into my dorm, had lunch, said goodbye to my family, and headed to the band hall for the freshmen/transfer day of band camp. On that first day I made friends that I still have to this day.
I made it through my first college band camp, and then right after I auditioned for the wind ensemble and made it! I was on cloud nine. I already knew the group was taking a trip to Italy the next spring. Exciting stuff!
After that school year I knew I made the right choice to do college band. I can't imagine my freshmen year without the FMB. I had never been to a MSU football game before, so it was so cool to experience it all with the band. Getting to go down on the field was great, and marching pregame, and just everything about game day.
Also, Italy was FANTASTIC. Check out my blog post about the trip.
I got hooked on the FMB and came back for another awesome year. That was the year of the magical MSU football season! I made even more friends, and I made so many wonderful memories. My junior year I was asked to be a squad leader for the clarinet section, and I gladly agreed! It was a great year, and I loved being able to get more involved in the FMB. I got more wonderful friendships, and life is just grand.
I'm excited to head back to Starkville this fall and serve again as a clarinet squad leader alongside some other awesome people. It's going to be a great senior year! It's also hard to believe it'll be the last hoorah. It'll be a year full of lasts, and each one of them will be bittersweet. As hard as I know the many moments of senior year may turn out to be, I'm so glad a good number of them will involve band. I'm so glad I decided band was the thing for me in 6th grade. I'm glad I joined marching band. I'm glad I decided to keep marching in college. I'm just glad about band. I don't know what I'll do without it. I'll be looking for community bands every where I go, and if my kids one day decide band is for them too (fingers crossed), then I'll be such an awesome band mom.
What a great decade of music making, friend making, and memory making. What a great decade full of wonderful directors encouraging me to succeed. What a great decade of growing and and changing and what not. Hopefully there's another decade of music making in my future.
Until next time
Mo
Saturday, April 16, 2016
Design. Create. Explore.
Last Saturday I had the opportunity to see a dream come true.
On April 9, 2016, the inaugural Project ENspire happened, and it was everything I wanted it to be and more.
Project ENspire was a creation all my own. I came up with the idea, planned everything, got the volunteers together, did the advertising, everything. Putting it all together was one of the most challenging yet rewarding things I've ever done.
I'm a part of the Montgomery Leadership Program. It's a three semester long program, and the last semester involves a capstone project. Every student teams up or works alone on a capstone project of their choosing. They come up with the idea and make it happen. Back in October we started with our capstone brainstorm papers. We had to come up with two ideas we could make into a project and write about them to turn in to our teacher. One of my ideas was a day of engineering fun for young girls. I wanted to bring them to MSU and give them hands-on activities that not only taught them engineering principles but also showed them that engineering can be fun.
I had all of these ideas for the day swirling around in my head, and I wanted everything to be just right. No other students were thinking of doing projects along the same line as mine, so I chose to go at it alone. I wanted every part of my dream to come true.
Now there were times when I wondered why I let myself do it alone. I had to get out of my comfort zone sometimes. I had to do a lot of work. I never realized just how much time and effort go into planning an event. It's exhausting. But it was fun. I enjoyed going through things and deciding what I would need for the day and covering every detail. I enjoyed getting to make decisions about things.
I enjoyed getting to come up with the three activities. I did some research and finally decided on popsicle stick towers, golf ball ziplines, and Coke bottle taxis. For the popsicle stick towers, each group had popsicle sticks, sticky tack, and tacky glue. They had to build a structure to hold their people (little glass pebbles) at least 4 inches in the air. The golf ball ziplines seemed to be the fan favorite. Each group had to use the materials provided to build a zipline for a plastic golfball. For the Coke bottle taxis, each group had to take a Coke bottle and make it into a balloon powered taxi with the materials provided. My first concern about the activities was, "what if we get to the day and the girls can't make anything work? What if all of my activities are duds?" Then I had the idea to test the activities. All of a sudden it seemed obvious. So I had engineering student volunteers come a few weeks before the big day and go through each activity as if they were a group of 4th and 5th grade girls. They had all of the same materials and restrictions. They went through the activities and gave suggestions as they went along. Give less of this material, more of that material. Change these regulations. Those testing sessions were really helpful, and because of them, all of the activities went smoothly on the actual day. Talk about avoiding a stressful situation. All of the activities used many materials the girls could find around their houses or easily get a hold of. I wanted to show them how easy it is to be creative every day. I had 13 4th and 5th grade girls, and they were divided into four groups. Each group had a MSU engineering student as a group leader. I had some awesome group leaders. They were so great with the girls, and I think they really enjoyed themselves. I had more awesome volunteers leading the activities and going over the lessons taught in each activity. I made a Book of ENspiration for each girl to take home, and in it was an explanation of the engineering principles used in each activity. The activity leaders did a great job at going through the book and explaining every activity to the girls.
It was really encouraging to walk around and hear the group leaders enforcing what the activity leaders just went over. For the zipline, we discussed friction and potential and kinetic energy, and I heard group leaders ask their girls questions like, "what here can you use that will cause the least amount of friction?" and "what kind of energy does the ball have when you hold it the top of the zipline?" It was even more encouraging to hear the girls answer the questions correctly.
We had lunch out on the Drill Field because it was a beautiful day outside. After they got done eating, some girls went out in the grass and started playing. Eventually all of the girls and volunteers were out playing games together, and as I looked out at it all, at everyone enjoying themselves, I had a great feeling of accomplishment. I did all of that. I made it happen.
My tagline for Project ENspire is Design. Create. Explore. I wanted the girls that came to see the wide world of creativity that many times leads to a career in engineering. As a female engineering student, it isn't uncommon at all for me to walk into a classroom of 70 people and be one of seven girls in the room. For me, it hasn't ever been super intimidating. I know I can hold my own with the boys. I know I'm just as smart and hard-working, if not more, than many of them. The reason I think there are so few female engineering students is because not enough girls have that mindset. Engineering is hard. It really is. Solving problems can be hard. Math and science can be hard. The problem is that so many girls look at engineering and science or math related things and say, “I can’t,” because it’s hard, and then they look around and see how few women do them and think, “and it’s okay because they can’t either.” And that goes for boys in female dominated professions. We aren’t doing our jobs well enough to push kids to break barriers and try to do the hard things. So that’s why I wanted to do Project ENspire. I wanted to show these girls that they CAN and not only that, but it’s fun. It’s fun to design, create, and explore.
And you know what? I think I did just that. Throughout the day I saw smiles. I saw that face full of pride and accomplishment when a zipline worked. I saw enthusiasm to make their ideas come to life. It gave me hope. It gave me hope that it really is possible to make young girls believe that they are smart, strong, and capable.
I stayed on my toes the entire day just waiting for something to go wrong, I kept waiting to discover one missed detail. But I never did. Sure, there were bumps and lessons learned, but they weren't major issues. They didn't ruin the day. Everything went as according to plan as I hoped, and it was one of the best feelings. I did it. I planned an entire day. I did have help along the way though. I can't forget that. My MLP teacher was great and always available to answer my questions. My friends were a great support system and offered advice and also just kept me sane. My friends also were so great about helping me out on the actual day. They all told me, "put me where you need me," and they did their jobs almost flawlessly. Some were there the entire day, and some came when the were free and helped where they could. I couldn't have done it at all without all of the extra help.
I walked around that day with a name tag that read, "Morgan Green, Director," and I felt at home. It was a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, experience, and I can't wait to do it again next year. But next year I won't be in MLP anymore and I won't have the budget that each MLP student receives from the program. I'll have to go out on my own and hopefully partner with the Bagley K-12 outreach and other organizations to make the 2nd Annual Project ENspire happen. But you know what? I'm ready for the challenge. It'll be fun. Crazy busy, but fun. I can't wait.
Until next time
Mo
P.S. You can see all of the pictures from Project ENspire here
P.P.S. You can see the Project ENspire website here
On April 9, 2016, the inaugural Project ENspire happened, and it was everything I wanted it to be and more.
Project ENspire was a creation all my own. I came up with the idea, planned everything, got the volunteers together, did the advertising, everything. Putting it all together was one of the most challenging yet rewarding things I've ever done.
I'm a part of the Montgomery Leadership Program. It's a three semester long program, and the last semester involves a capstone project. Every student teams up or works alone on a capstone project of their choosing. They come up with the idea and make it happen. Back in October we started with our capstone brainstorm papers. We had to come up with two ideas we could make into a project and write about them to turn in to our teacher. One of my ideas was a day of engineering fun for young girls. I wanted to bring them to MSU and give them hands-on activities that not only taught them engineering principles but also showed them that engineering can be fun.
I had all of these ideas for the day swirling around in my head, and I wanted everything to be just right. No other students were thinking of doing projects along the same line as mine, so I chose to go at it alone. I wanted every part of my dream to come true.
Now there were times when I wondered why I let myself do it alone. I had to get out of my comfort zone sometimes. I had to do a lot of work. I never realized just how much time and effort go into planning an event. It's exhausting. But it was fun. I enjoyed going through things and deciding what I would need for the day and covering every detail. I enjoyed getting to make decisions about things.
I enjoyed getting to come up with the three activities. I did some research and finally decided on popsicle stick towers, golf ball ziplines, and Coke bottle taxis. For the popsicle stick towers, each group had popsicle sticks, sticky tack, and tacky glue. They had to build a structure to hold their people (little glass pebbles) at least 4 inches in the air. The golf ball ziplines seemed to be the fan favorite. Each group had to use the materials provided to build a zipline for a plastic golfball. For the Coke bottle taxis, each group had to take a Coke bottle and make it into a balloon powered taxi with the materials provided. My first concern about the activities was, "what if we get to the day and the girls can't make anything work? What if all of my activities are duds?" Then I had the idea to test the activities. All of a sudden it seemed obvious. So I had engineering student volunteers come a few weeks before the big day and go through each activity as if they were a group of 4th and 5th grade girls. They had all of the same materials and restrictions. They went through the activities and gave suggestions as they went along. Give less of this material, more of that material. Change these regulations. Those testing sessions were really helpful, and because of them, all of the activities went smoothly on the actual day. Talk about avoiding a stressful situation. All of the activities used many materials the girls could find around their houses or easily get a hold of. I wanted to show them how easy it is to be creative every day. I had 13 4th and 5th grade girls, and they were divided into four groups. Each group had a MSU engineering student as a group leader. I had some awesome group leaders. They were so great with the girls, and I think they really enjoyed themselves. I had more awesome volunteers leading the activities and going over the lessons taught in each activity. I made a Book of ENspiration for each girl to take home, and in it was an explanation of the engineering principles used in each activity. The activity leaders did a great job at going through the book and explaining every activity to the girls.
It was really encouraging to walk around and hear the group leaders enforcing what the activity leaders just went over. For the zipline, we discussed friction and potential and kinetic energy, and I heard group leaders ask their girls questions like, "what here can you use that will cause the least amount of friction?" and "what kind of energy does the ball have when you hold it the top of the zipline?" It was even more encouraging to hear the girls answer the questions correctly.
We had lunch out on the Drill Field because it was a beautiful day outside. After they got done eating, some girls went out in the grass and started playing. Eventually all of the girls and volunteers were out playing games together, and as I looked out at it all, at everyone enjoying themselves, I had a great feeling of accomplishment. I did all of that. I made it happen.
My tagline for Project ENspire is Design. Create. Explore. I wanted the girls that came to see the wide world of creativity that many times leads to a career in engineering. As a female engineering student, it isn't uncommon at all for me to walk into a classroom of 70 people and be one of seven girls in the room. For me, it hasn't ever been super intimidating. I know I can hold my own with the boys. I know I'm just as smart and hard-working, if not more, than many of them. The reason I think there are so few female engineering students is because not enough girls have that mindset. Engineering is hard. It really is. Solving problems can be hard. Math and science can be hard. The problem is that so many girls look at engineering and science or math related things and say, “I can’t,” because it’s hard, and then they look around and see how few women do them and think, “and it’s okay because they can’t either.” And that goes for boys in female dominated professions. We aren’t doing our jobs well enough to push kids to break barriers and try to do the hard things. So that’s why I wanted to do Project ENspire. I wanted to show these girls that they CAN and not only that, but it’s fun. It’s fun to design, create, and explore.
And you know what? I think I did just that. Throughout the day I saw smiles. I saw that face full of pride and accomplishment when a zipline worked. I saw enthusiasm to make their ideas come to life. It gave me hope. It gave me hope that it really is possible to make young girls believe that they are smart, strong, and capable.
I stayed on my toes the entire day just waiting for something to go wrong, I kept waiting to discover one missed detail. But I never did. Sure, there were bumps and lessons learned, but they weren't major issues. They didn't ruin the day. Everything went as according to plan as I hoped, and it was one of the best feelings. I did it. I planned an entire day. I did have help along the way though. I can't forget that. My MLP teacher was great and always available to answer my questions. My friends were a great support system and offered advice and also just kept me sane. My friends also were so great about helping me out on the actual day. They all told me, "put me where you need me," and they did their jobs almost flawlessly. Some were there the entire day, and some came when the were free and helped where they could. I couldn't have done it at all without all of the extra help.
I walked around that day with a name tag that read, "Morgan Green, Director," and I felt at home. It was a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, experience, and I can't wait to do it again next year. But next year I won't be in MLP anymore and I won't have the budget that each MLP student receives from the program. I'll have to go out on my own and hopefully partner with the Bagley K-12 outreach and other organizations to make the 2nd Annual Project ENspire happen. But you know what? I'm ready for the challenge. It'll be fun. Crazy busy, but fun. I can't wait.
Until next time
Mo
P.S. You can see all of the pictures from Project ENspire here
P.P.S. You can see the Project ENspire website here
Saturday, March 26, 2016
Nobody Love...Tori Kelly like I do
DMy best friend loves Taylor Swift. Ever since we were in seventh grade she's been a super fan. I've always wanted to find my Taylor Swift, that singer that I could listen to day in and day out and still love him/her.
Last summer I found her. Tori. Kelly.
If you haven't heard of Tori Kelly or haven't heard any of her songs, I need to you to pause before you read anymore and go listen to these five songs:
-Unbreakable Smile
-Dear No One
-Confetti
-Hollow
-Something Beautiful
Bonus: Nobody Love
I'll wait for you to listen to those.
Wasn't that such a great experience? Yes. Yes it was.
I had tried to find my Taylor Swift before. I would find artists that I liked and listen to them frequently for a week or so, but then I would move on and be okay. I happened upon Tori by accident, and I still haven't moved on.
The iHeart Radio station has this thing called, "the Next Big Thing," a contest for up-and-coming artists. Tori won last year, and it was around this time that they played her song Nobody Love on the radio. I remember hearing it the first few times and being, "whatever," about it. But then one day I really sat and listened to it. I listened to the music and the lyrics, and when it got to the final part with those great chords that just make you want to jam out, I got to thinking, "you know, this is a great song." But I didn't do anything past that.
Then in early May I was watching the Billboard Awards on tv. Tori won the chance to play at the awards ceremony. There she was out on a stage in the middle of the crowd, just her and a guitar, and she played a gorgeous acoustic version of Nobody Love. I was in awe.
After that I looked up Tori Kelly and found her first album, Handmade Songs by Tori Kelly. I found out that handmade means actually handmade. Tori wrote the lyrics, wrote the music, recorded the songs, engineered the songs, and produced the songs all from her bedroom. What a boss. I listened to the CD and decided I liked Tori Kelly. She was cool.
I was driving home about a month later and remembered that Tori's new CD was in stores. I stopped by Target and bought the CD (yay for Target because I got the two bonus tracks). I popped the CD in my car and started listening. The first track is a short acoustic opener. Beautiful. Then the first full song came on, Unbreakable Smile. I distinctly remember what road I was driving down as I listened to it for the first time. I was jamming along, and then it got to these lyrics, "maybe one day I can sell out shows without taking off my clothes. God made me sexy, I don't care if only I know," and I let out a big, "YES!!" and jumped on the Tori Kelly train right then and there. From that moment she became my Taylor Swift.
I listened to that entire CD, and then I listened to it again. And again. And again. I'm pretty sure it was early August before I switched to other music in my car. It was always Tori Kelly for over a month. And really I only switched music because I didn't want to get sick of Tori. I could have kept going.
To this day, over seven months later, if you get in my car, at least 70% of the time Tori Kelly will be playing.
Not only does Tori Kelly have the voice of an angel, but she also believes in and chases after the King of all angels. Her twitter is full of Bible verse references. Her interviews mention her strong faith. One of her latest songs, Hollow, is about her relationship with God (check out this link here). Her lyrics are clean and friendly to ears of all ages. That's a great thing to hear in the world of today's music. So if you find your 13, 25, 40, or 60 year old daughter, wife, friend, etc, wants to listen to Tori Kelly, encourage it.
Whenever I've had a rough day, I always turn on Tori. I'll turn on Nobody Love, crank up the volume, and car dance like nobody's watching. It always makes me feel better.
Tori was featured in the February issue of Seventeen Magazine. They released two different covers, and I made it my mission to find them both. Luckily I found them both without much struggling. I took both covers and got artsy, and now I have these lovely wall decorations.
I've yet to see her in concert. She came close enough to me two times last semester, but I had unavoidable conflicts both times. Boo. She'll be close enough three more times this semester, but once again, unavoidable conflicts will cause issues (darn you school). But that's okay. Each time I miss out just makes the day I finally see Tori Kelly live even better.
Until that day I'll keep jamming in the car, during homework, and during many free moments of the day. Her music has yet to get old.
Until next time
Mo
P.S. If anyone wants to get me tickets to see Tori Kelly or even (gasp) meet her, I definitely would not be opposed.
Last summer I found her. Tori. Kelly.
If you haven't heard of Tori Kelly or haven't heard any of her songs, I need to you to pause before you read anymore and go listen to these five songs:
-Unbreakable Smile
-Dear No One
-Confetti
-Hollow
-Something Beautiful
Bonus: Nobody Love
I'll wait for you to listen to those.
Wasn't that such a great experience? Yes. Yes it was.
I had tried to find my Taylor Swift before. I would find artists that I liked and listen to them frequently for a week or so, but then I would move on and be okay. I happened upon Tori by accident, and I still haven't moved on.
The iHeart Radio station has this thing called, "the Next Big Thing," a contest for up-and-coming artists. Tori won last year, and it was around this time that they played her song Nobody Love on the radio. I remember hearing it the first few times and being, "whatever," about it. But then one day I really sat and listened to it. I listened to the music and the lyrics, and when it got to the final part with those great chords that just make you want to jam out, I got to thinking, "you know, this is a great song." But I didn't do anything past that.
Then in early May I was watching the Billboard Awards on tv. Tori won the chance to play at the awards ceremony. There she was out on a stage in the middle of the crowd, just her and a guitar, and she played a gorgeous acoustic version of Nobody Love. I was in awe.
After that I looked up Tori Kelly and found her first album, Handmade Songs by Tori Kelly. I found out that handmade means actually handmade. Tori wrote the lyrics, wrote the music, recorded the songs, engineered the songs, and produced the songs all from her bedroom. What a boss. I listened to the CD and decided I liked Tori Kelly. She was cool.
I was driving home about a month later and remembered that Tori's new CD was in stores. I stopped by Target and bought the CD (yay for Target because I got the two bonus tracks). I popped the CD in my car and started listening. The first track is a short acoustic opener. Beautiful. Then the first full song came on, Unbreakable Smile. I distinctly remember what road I was driving down as I listened to it for the first time. I was jamming along, and then it got to these lyrics, "maybe one day I can sell out shows without taking off my clothes. God made me sexy, I don't care if only I know," and I let out a big, "YES!!" and jumped on the Tori Kelly train right then and there. From that moment she became my Taylor Swift.
I listened to that entire CD, and then I listened to it again. And again. And again. I'm pretty sure it was early August before I switched to other music in my car. It was always Tori Kelly for over a month. And really I only switched music because I didn't want to get sick of Tori. I could have kept going.
To this day, over seven months later, if you get in my car, at least 70% of the time Tori Kelly will be playing.
Not only does Tori Kelly have the voice of an angel, but she also believes in and chases after the King of all angels. Her twitter is full of Bible verse references. Her interviews mention her strong faith. One of her latest songs, Hollow, is about her relationship with God (check out this link here). Her lyrics are clean and friendly to ears of all ages. That's a great thing to hear in the world of today's music. So if you find your 13, 25, 40, or 60 year old daughter, wife, friend, etc, wants to listen to Tori Kelly, encourage it.
Whenever I've had a rough day, I always turn on Tori. I'll turn on Nobody Love, crank up the volume, and car dance like nobody's watching. It always makes me feel better.
Tori was featured in the February issue of Seventeen Magazine. They released two different covers, and I made it my mission to find them both. Luckily I found them both without much struggling. I took both covers and got artsy, and now I have these lovely wall decorations.
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| Seventeen Magazine covers |
I've yet to see her in concert. She came close enough to me two times last semester, but I had unavoidable conflicts both times. Boo. She'll be close enough three more times this semester, but once again, unavoidable conflicts will cause issues (darn you school). But that's okay. Each time I miss out just makes the day I finally see Tori Kelly live even better.
Until that day I'll keep jamming in the car, during homework, and during many free moments of the day. Her music has yet to get old.
Until next time
Mo
P.S. If anyone wants to get me tickets to see Tori Kelly or even (gasp) meet her, I definitely would not be opposed.
Back in the Saddle
A conversation with a friend a week ago got me realizing I want to start blogging regularly again (I know it's been a while since that has happened).
Life has been busy. Junior year is full of so many things. School Friends. Life. It's stressful, but it's fun too.
I think one of the big things I have learned this year is to appreciate the moment. I'm more than halfway through college (that's a weird feeling. I feel like I just got here), so I'm about to start a lot of "last times." It's scary and sad and exciting to think about all at once. But as I told my best friend, you've got to stop thinking about it all coming to and end and just appreciate the moments as they come.
Stay tuned as I try to keep doing just that...and stay tuned as I attempt to blog regularly. We'll see how that goes. You know how life just happens.
Until next time
Mo
Life has been busy. Junior year is full of so many things. School Friends. Life. It's stressful, but it's fun too.
I think one of the big things I have learned this year is to appreciate the moment. I'm more than halfway through college (that's a weird feeling. I feel like I just got here), so I'm about to start a lot of "last times." It's scary and sad and exciting to think about all at once. But as I told my best friend, you've got to stop thinking about it all coming to and end and just appreciate the moments as they come.
Stay tuned as I try to keep doing just that...and stay tuned as I attempt to blog regularly. We'll see how that goes. You know how life just happens.
Until next time
Mo
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