In Review...

What a year. I'll start at the beginning. I turned 16 at the beginning of the year (YAY DATING!!). As it was, I didn't really have time for anything besides school and ballroom. Competition season was in full sway. I competed with my high school team at The Gem State Classic in February and The National Dancesport Championships in March.About two weeks before Nationals I was hired for my first real job at a local plant nursery. It's a perfect job for me as it was very flexible with my schedule and it closed at a decent hour so I could keep up with school. But besides the hours, My boss and co-workers are great. They are funny, hard working and honest. I was very blessed to find such a great job. After ballroom competitions were over, we moved on to prepare a concert for the end of the

year. It was a huge success for the coaches and all of the students. We had such a great time and all the late night practices and early mornings paid off double.

And then.... School was over for the summer. I continued to work at the nursery and my competition partner and I started cracking down on practicing. We worked with our wonderful coach, Nicole (amazing!), and she did all of the choreography for our pre-champ events (Waltz, Quickstep and Tango). We worked really hard and we're getting pumped for competitions in the spring!! I'll let you know when they are.

Mom and Dad and I went on a few great trips this summer. We went to Yellowstone for a few days and it was great!! We saw a bunch of cool wildlife and it was great to get away for a few days.

And then.... I was a Junior (School started again). This meant that LHS Ballroom started again and it was the only reason I would have ever gone back. Ok not really. I signed up for AP Biology which has since proved to be a huge mistake. I mean, is a trip to Catalina over spring break really worth the THREE textbooks we read, college level labs, and endless vocabulary quizzes?? REALLY??? Oh well, I'm stuck and I'm going on that trip to Catalina:).

In October I competed in Ballroom's annual "Dancing With the Athletes" Event. I was paired up with our Varsity Football Team Captain, Bubba (not his real name but he prefers that to Richard). But the best part about the whole thing was that by the time we had our dress rehearsal, he had broken both his arms in recent football games which made it very difficult for him to dance. But he was a trooper and we danced anyways.It was a BLAST!!

From about mid September to the end of November there is a minor Competition season. For ballroom, we have to compete once a semester in order to pass, but due to a costuming catastrophe and a few other circumstances, my partner and I couldn't compete in our open event. We ended up dancing in a syllabus quickstep event for our grade which was a blast, but no matter what we are definitely competing open in the spring.

And now I only have two more days till Christmas break and I'll be seventeen in twelve days. oooooh!! So yeah....