My schedule for next year looks great! I’m taking an introductory course in education and I’m very excited about that. It will give me the opportunity to spend time in a classroom and experience firsthand what it’s like to be a teacher. I’m also excited about my Intermediate Composition class. I love writing and I actually missed not having an English class this semester! The only class that I was unable to get into was Spanish Conversation. This class is intentionally limited to a very small size—16 people—since the emphasis is on speaking and individual participation. Hopefully next year I will be able to take Advanced Spanish in the fall. I might even study abroad in Mexico this summer!

This week has flown by and it’s hard to believe that tomorrow is Friday! My week started off with an amazing opportunity: I was invited to go to a sneak preview of the movie August Rush (in theatres next Wednesday) with one of my friends, Brittany. Her choir teacher had somehow received sneak preview passes to the movie so we got in free! It was such a great movie and I highly recommend it. The story is about an orphan who is truly a gifted musician. He has a firm belief that his parents will find him if he learns how to play an instrument...and I can't tell you anything else about it! (I don’t want to spoil the ending for you.) Freddie Highmore plays the role of Evan/August and he does a phenomenal job. He is such a talented actor—especially considering the fact that he’s only 15 years old! I loved the movie and I am so glad I had the opportunity to see it…I might even see it again next week with my mom!

One of the programs that Belmont is promoting right now is called STRONG. It encourages college-age students to learn what their greatest talents are and then focus on strengthening them. The first step of this process is, obviously, discovering what exactly your strengths are. In order to do this, I took the StrengthsQuest test . I found out that my top five strengths are Empathy, Discipline, Relator, Learner, and Developer. When I saw “Learner” I was a bit confused. I couldn’t possibly love something as nerdy as learning, could I?! Well, it turns out that I actually do. The results of the test are accompanied by a description of each strength along with a list of the typical actions and thoughts of people with that strength. As I read the list for the Learner strength, I found myself perfectly described by almost every bullet point. The descriptions included: “You continuously want to learn and improve,” “You can get frustrated about wanting to learn so many different things because you fear you'll never be an expert,” and, “You are energized by the challenge of keeping up with constantly changing fields and enjoy taking courses in a wide variety of subjects.” All of these are, surprisingly, true! I found the StrengthsQuest to be very helpful and the insight that I gained from the results will be invaluable in the future—especially when communicating my strengths at a job interview.

I am really looking forward to Thanksgiving—I’ve been counting down for weeks and now it’s just days away! It will be great to spend time with my family and I am looking forward to cooking our Thanksgiving meal!

This Saturday is the Country Showcase . I am not exactly a fan of country music, but I’m still looking forward to hearing all of the talented musicians that will perform. Besides, if you live in Nashville then you’re bound to experience country music at some point in time...right? ;-)