100th Anniversary! Or so I wish.....

Yay! I'm gonna copy Mos and rejoice over my 100th post,lol. Well, things are starting to REALLY slow down for me, but that's all good. I know that next year will be insane again so....I will be thankful for the upcoming six weeks of peace,LOL. First off, everyone in the graduation was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G on Friday!! Seriously. And I loved seeing Antigone again. And seeing you guys again,LOL. I was sorta sad that I had to leave so soon, especially seeing that the competition on Saturday really did not go too well. I didn't place. And usually, I'm not surprised if I don't place because there have to be a few losers behind the winner(s). And usually I have some pretty stiff competition. And I realize that part of life as a musician (or really, in any career) is being rejected and recovering from that rejection and simply giving each opportunity your best shot and doing it to God's glory and all. But what was discouraging is the fact that my teacher informed me that she stayed for the Honor's recital. And the girl who won in my category really wasn't that great. Plus, apparently she had given the competition people the key to the 10 foot grand backstage, but they saw the much smaller baby grand (I think it's between 5 and 6 feet) which was untuned and decided to use that since it was already out onstage. So, everyone who competed in the high school category had to use a small, untuned piano, which really isn't easy because it's hard enough to fill up the recital hall with sound even with the 10 foot grand, muchless a piano half its size. Plus, it didn't help that I was one of the first in the morning to compete, so the untuned piano wasn't even warmed up by then. But regardless, it's providential. And like my teacher said, I can't let one bad competition ruin my love for music. So yeah. Anyway, I was really encouraged yesterday by my Sunday School class. It was a Q/A time and many questions came up. One was the question of how to deal with someone who doesn't fit the mold of what the average "Christian teen" today should be like. And I LOVED my youth pastor's response. He reminded whoever wrote that question of who they were even before they became a believer and that it really doesn't matter what your standards of the "average Christian teen" are, but that all that matters is how that person lives for Christ. And it was comforting to me because so often, I feel that I don't fit the quota of people's standards in ALOT of arenas. I'm not the girl who goes to every church function there is. So I don't really fit with the church crowd. And I don't listen to classical music 24/7 or practice piano 8 hours a day on an average day. So I don't really fit in with the "classical musician" clique. And I'm not in a homeschool group and I don't really put homeschooling on a pedestal, so I don't really fit in with the homeschool clique. But....I am who the Lord has made me. And it's a comfort to know that although I don't fit in with any earthly cliques or groups, I'm in the Lord's group. And that someday in Heaven, there won't be any cliques. And there won't be any people snubbing people who don't fit in their cliques or asking "how to deal" with people who don't fit in their cliques as if they're some unidentified species of people,LOL. Anyway, I'm going to Georgia on Thursday, and I really need to finish my packing today. Later,
Rachel