Pageant and College and Singles Ward, OH MY!

If you weren't aware, the moment  you turn 18, your whole life is yanked up, sloshed around in the wash machine on an extremely high speed, and spat out in a completely different shape. It's kind of like accidentally touching a portkey for the very first time on your birthday and arriving somewhere completely different.
I'm guessing to an outside source it really wouldn't seem that different. But that's a bit of how it feels. Most of it is good, I'm sure. First, the week before school started, I went to this totally amazing, radical magic convention in Las Vegas called MagicLive! It was my very first time and I absolutely loved it. They have a giant showroom with several dealers selling super cool new and old magic, workshops with incredible, accomplished performers, and then the best magic shows ever to top off each night! I wish I could properly express the awesomeaucity that occurred. The whole thing was the epitome of radicality, but I did have some favorites.
Tina Lenert has always been one of my "magic-world" heroes. Her signature piece is this adorable pantomime-magic-act she does as a janitor. I have always loved and been inspired by her loyalty to story. She spoke about her life and the creation of that number, and how important taking the feelings from our stories and infusing them to the ones we tell on stage is.
Another is Joanie Spina, choreographer for David Copperfield, along with many other successful claims. Her brain and heart work so well together. She creates and does amazing things. In her lecture, she discussed her experience in helping out a performer named Patrick. She was amazing. Definitely read the previous post below for more on MagicLive! and photos.
College is extremely collegey. I have very much enjoyed getting to know my professors. Dr. Seifert is my favorite so far, my English 110 professor. Westminster does this really cool thing for Freshman called "Learning Communities." You choose an LC, which is two separate classes that work together

to teach you how they relate. It'd odd to explain but very cool. It's very clever because the students are able to meet people with their same interests and, especially for us artists, collaborate constantly. My LC is Composition & Reseach (English 110) and Music Appreciation. I've been around music my whole life and still only know able three things about it. I'm loving learning about the whole new world.
College is an exceeding amount of homework. It's mostly reading and quizzes, and I love to read, but when you also have a couple papers to write, it can get a little crazy. But prioritizing is good! I'm also working at an elementary school in the mornings, which is a wonderful experience already. It has made me realize that I definitely don't want to be a teacher, but I admire and love schoolteachers thoroughly and I'm excited for my future family more than anything. I have so much to learn before then.
College is a much larger change than I thought about it being, mostly because I'm not in a musical, on a Shakespeare team, or studying Hamlet. I miss that world, very much. Most days I'm counting the minutes until I can fill out mission papers and be in the MTC (315 days if anyone was wondering). But change is good, and Westminster is a beautiful school. I'm also starting to do a lot of my own performing, which excites me. My first big gig is a seven-minute set a the Magic in the Rockies Convention in October. I'm so ultra pumped! Yeah, I went to the singles ward. It was really, really weird. The church is true wherever you go, but I'll keep investigating for a student ward at WC and stay with my family in the meantime.
Oh, and don't laugh. Okay, you can laugh. I competed in the Miss Murray Pageant this year. It was a really good experience where I learned good things, such as being a Miss is 98.5% about serving your community. Every contestant and committee member was so kind and helpful, which very pleasantly surprised me. Any of those girls would be a fabulous Miss Murray, and congratulations to the 2014, McCall Gray! I had a lot of fun becoming friends with them and performing on my home stage one more time.