Southbound Belle: Knicks City Dancers

Firstly, my sincere apologies for my little disappearance this past week. I took off a little time from blogging just to get back in the swing of things, but I'm back! My first week (well, week and a half, really) of school has been great. I especially love my Broadcasting and Latin American History classes, and I love the way my schedule worked out, with my lighter classes (Latin American History, Broadcasting, and PreCalc) in the morning, followed by Lunch and P.E., and then my hardest classes (Spanish, English, and Chem/Phys) in the afternoon. Having Lunch and P.E. together is such a great break in the middle of the day, and it leaves me totally energized for the rest of the day.

The first home football game was fantastic! My school won against the odds, and my team danced a great halftime show, if I do say so myself. I'm so happy and excited for the upcoming season. Last Friday, I also went with some friends to an away game at a school half an hour away, which was a ton of fun. We ended up losing, but the atmosphere in the student section was great and we had a good time anyway.

And now, the real reason I started this post. Yesterday, as I was doing my homework, "Four Years" by Jon McLaughlin came on my Pandora station.

If you've never heard the song, it's so worth a listen, especially if you're still in high school.

He talks about how high school is really just four short years of your life, saying not to worry too much about it, but rather to enjoy it. Last year, as a freshman, my year was really hard. It was the first time I was really challenged academically, especially in Science, which I learned is so not my subject. I took five honors classes, two electives, only had half a lunch period, had poms practices for two hours a day after school, plus four dance classes a week, and seemingly endless amounts of homework on top of it all. I'm not gonna lie, I was totally miserable. I was aiming for New York University and the Ivy Leagues for the prestige I knew they possessed, without really knowing much about the schools themselves and what they could offer me.

(Coates Hall at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, LA, one of my new top three prospective schools. It offers a great mass communications and broadcast journalism program, a fantastic dance team and athletics, and warm weather year round.)

It wasn't until this summer that I really sat down and thought long and hard about what I really wanted to do with my life. I wrote down a list of what I really wanted in a college (a good dance team, strong athletics and academics, and warm weather) in addition to academics, and came up with a whole new list of schools, that I really do believe I can do well at, and realistically get into without being miserable in the process. And when it came time to register for my classes, I was able to go in with a clear head and a much clearer idea of what I wanted, both now and in the future.

I've set some new goals, that are a bit more realistic than my old ones (making a living solely as a dancer is near impossible!). I'd like to be a sports reporter or talk show host, that bit is currently undecided.