31 DAYS: new guitar, photo session, & dancing

Hello! Wow, it has been a while. My original goal was to blog everyday but as life grows exceedingly more hectic it becomes very difficult! I've had some very exciting events occur since the last time I blogged on here a couple of weeks ago. My graduation led off the big bang-- it was great seeing all of my family and friends. It made me feel so blessed and grateful to be surrounded by such wonderful people! It was an incredible feeling to have all of the people who were or still are very close to me at one point in my life be at my house! My family and I spent an immense amount of time cleaning and preparing for the party but it was well worth it. My mom is happy now because her house is spotless:) The most exciting thing to say about the night of my party is that my boyfriend bought me the most AMAZING gift that I've ever received in my life... my dream guitar!!!! A blue Ovation Celebrity with cutout and wings soundholes!!!! (see picture on right and be in awe!) Needless to say, it was the most beautiful thing I've ever received from the most beautiful person I've ever known. It was certainly the best moment of my life to date! I could continue talking about my amazement of this moment for hours on end, but this blog post would grow to be very large. So, I'll talk about the next great event! My mom wanted me to get some pictures taken in my pointe shoes, since this was probably my last year dancing in them because I'll be leaving for school. So I came into contact with a girl who used to dance with me but is now a BRILLIANT free-lance photographer, Stephanie Pana (http://www.stephaniepanaphotography.com). My mom helped me to pick out some extra outfits to take pictures in for the fun of it and they turned out to be pretty awesome, thanks to the wonderful photographer! Here are some of the photos from my photo session with her:

A HUGE thank you to Stephanie Pana and her lovely photography skills! Check out her website to book a session now! :) It's definitely worth it!
I also have some smaller (but just as awesome) moments to share with you, like this cool photo strip I made of my boyfriend pitching at one of his baseball games:


Now on to events that I don't necessarily have pictures to go along with...
1). I've been taking an amazing contemporary dance class from the wonderfully talented choreographer/teacher Valerie Seles-Bishop. We are doing a dance to a live, acoustic version of "Gravity" by Sara Bareilles and I am absoultely in love with it! It's a dance about heartbreak and dancing it allows me to release my week's build-up of tension. You can truly put your emotion into the choreography and it's awesome!
2). Throughout all four years of high school, I was on the pom squad/dance team. During these four years, I was part of the "choreography team" for multiple competition routines! Now that I've graduated, my coach asked me back to help the new pom squad choreograph their UDA (http://varsity.com) camp home routine that they will use to try and qualify for nationals in Orlando, Florida in February. It has been a wonderful experience to be on the other side-- not a member of the team, but an on-looker. It was vastly weird to me to attend practice but not participate in it, but I truly believe it was a growing experience and can only allow more great things to come into my life. I wish the squad and all of the new ones to come all of the success in the world!
This has been my life in the past couple of weeks! More to come very soon... I won't leave you without a blog for more weeks in a row-- I promise!

With much appreciation for life and growth,
Jess

48 DAYS: photographer wannabee

I bought an amazing camera today! It's the Nikon Coolpix L110, which has 12.1 megapixels! Needless to say, it takes awesome pictures! I've always wanted a really nice camera and finally found the chance to purchase one. In the past I've had a Sony Cybershot with 7 megapixels (6th grade-9th grade) and a pink Fujifilm Finepix with 10 megapixels and a slider front-thingy (don't judge my description).
Any-whoo, I decided that I'd like to take some really great pictures of my family, friends, and surroundings and even possibly put together a nice album in the next 48 days before I leave. It meant alot to me to get the camera now because Saturday is my graduation party, which is being hosted at my house. It will be the perfect opportunity to see everyone and take some really good pictures! :)
Over the course of these next 48 days I will post some of the best pictures I take on this blog! Who knows? Maybe by the time I'm done you may even want to purchase a Nikon camera!

Here are a few of the first pictures I've taken with it:

I have pictures of everyone I care about on a corkboard in my room and placed in various frames around my room. Some of these pictures are very old-- I think it's time to capture some new memories "on film" and be able to re-do my corkboard with lovely memories from the summer, before I leave. This is my 48-day resolution to capture the best moments of my summer on camera. I will not left myself down (or my mom... she loves taking and looking at pictures. If I don't do it for myself, it will certainly be for her)!!!!!

With hopes that you don't let beautiful memories slip away,
Jess

49 DAYS: goodbyes and desperate waving

Have you ever watched a car drive away until it disappeared from your line of sight? I have-- countless times. In fact, I've done this since I was a kid-- I (toddler Jessie) would watch my mom from the window as she packed her work things in her car, pull out of the driveway and leave for work. I would wave frantically to her until the car, and her, were completely out of my sight. Ever since I began doing this, I can't help but feel as though the person I'm watching drive away is still with me, as they were when I just gave them a hug goodbye. However, when the car gets out of my sight, it all hits me at once and I feel truly alone. My stomach drops and I always wish there was a rewind button somewhere that I could press, allowing me to relive the time I just spent with that person.
Chances are, you don't really know me that well. Honestly, you probably don't know me at all. But the goal if this blog is so that people get to know not just me, but themselves. If you or anyone else who might read this can even slightly relate to the crazy things I'm saying-- we can avoid the "alone" feeling. It always helps to know that someone else out there is feeling the same way you are at times.
So what does "49 DAYS: goodbyes and desperate waving" mean? Well, I graduated from high school, a world I knew and pretty much loved, on May 25, 2010 (a little over a month ago). And in 49 DAYS (now the title comes in...) I will be leaving for school. This means for the first time in my life I will be leaving my family and loved ones behind.
I talk about the waving because each time I wave goodbye to a family member or my boyfriend, I realize that I will only be doing that-- If I'm lucky-- 49 more times. I have 49 times left to be able to sleep in my own room and wakeup to my wonderful parents every morning. I have 49 times left to be able to kiss and hug my boyfriend every night. Sure, I will have these things again when I return home for school breaks, but life will change as I know it, as it will change for the rest of my college-bound classmates. I figured that if I started this blog and recorded my thoughts after each and every day I have left of summertime, I can live more days to the best of my ability. I will make sure that I do everything I want to and leave the greatest impressions on everyone in my life before I cannot see them nearly as frequently as I do now.
This blog is my travel diary through time. The length of the journey, as it stands today, is 49 days. Please join me as I attempt to prepare for my world to change drastically.

With best hopes for your future,
Jess