Changing My Mind

Before anyone freaks out, no, I am not having second thoughts (again) about going to Canada. I'm starting to  reevaluate my schooling options. Many of you know that I have very specific ideas and plans for y college career. After finishing up my A.A., I want to transfer to a larger university to get my Bachelor's degree in Music Business and/or Production with a major in Songwriting and a minor in Music Education (just so I can  support myself). I narrowed down my options to four schools, Belmont University, Liberty University, Full Sail University, and University of Mobile. Three of these schools are Christian schools, and all of them are private...which means they're all expensive.

Now, Belmont is my dream school. It has the exact degree I want, and one of the best Music Industry study programs in the country. It also has a lot of artists come in and work with students in the school's recording studio. It is home to the Mike Curb School of music, which is excellent! Full Sail is a private arts college, focusing on the movie and music industry, as well as marketing for several different areas. They also have their own on -campus recording studio, and also work with big-name officials and companies who know your field of study and can get you connected to the right people.

Liberty's music program is fairly new, but it shows promise. While searching through their online catalog, I didn't see a Music Business of Production degree, but I did see a degree in recording. That would be good if I wanted to be in front of the mic, and not necessarily behind the scenes. Of course, over the last couple of years, I've shifted my focus from me being the one on stage, to me being the one behind the songs.

The University of Mobile's website did not have and up-to-date course catalog, so I could not see what fields of study they provided, and if I can't get that information, then I will cut them out completely. So in reality, that narrows it down to three schools for music.

But in the past week or so, I have been thinking that maybe I could get a degree in Nutritional Studies or Food Science. This idea came to me when I started thinking about how I would eat and stuff when I moved out of my parents' home. See, we eat according to a thing called the Daniel Plan (danielplan.com), which focuses on eating biblically and cutting out all the poison that is in our food industry today. It consists of mostly organic and locally grown fruits and vegetables, whole grains, brown rice, and minimal animal proteins. If you can't grow something locally, at least buy products grown in your own country. It is much healthier and it supports your own economy.

Now, I will be the first to admit that I have problems, like many Americans, when it comes to choosing what to eat. I am a sugar addict, as is half of this country, and I will almost always pick the sweeter food. Fruits over veggies, cake over pie, ice cream over anything else. Even my favorite vegetable (corn, which isn't nutritionally a vegetable) is mostly sugar. That being said, since we started eating to acording to the Daniel Plan, I have wanted to make better eating decisions, and I want other people to want ot make healthy choices, too.

I guess underneath it all, when you put aside the fields of study and the titles and degrees, I want to help people. I want to help people understand that they are more than what they see. They are a child of God and they have worth. I want to speak to them through my music, and I want them to be encouraged by it. I want people to understand that there body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and that they should take care of it and use it as a testimony to God. To reach your full potential, you have to be healthy.

I want to help a lot of people. The only problem, though, is that in music, it takes a long time to get to the point where a significant amount of people hear your music. It took F.U.N. twelve years to get to where they are today. I don't want to wait that long. There are people out there hurting, and I can't stand to know that. With a nutritional degree, I can help people who come into (wherever it is I end up working) and take them through whatever their problem is and how they can change it.

I just want to help people...But why is it so hard to know how?

Caught up in all the choices
Emily E.

Quick Update

So... It's been a while since I posted anything, and I'm really sorry about that. Life has suddenly caught up to me, and I was not prepared. This post is going to be a quick update until I can post something else.

Update 1.) I had a yard sale on March 2, and it went wonderfully! If anyone reading this gave me stuff for the sale, thank you so, so much. I ended up making around $300 for my mission trip, which put me just over $1,000 total. That's $200 more than I needed, and people are still donating money to my trip. So thank you and may God bless all of you.

Update 2.) I had a birthday on Monday. I turned 18, which means I am officially an adult! Of course, for me that doesn't mean much, except I can pick up and buy my own medications... and vote, I can vote now (would've helped five months ago, but whatever). Also, Daylight Savings time began the day before my birthday which was different. It didn't used to be that early, but okay.

Update 3.) We (my family) are trying to sell our home and move to a different one. It is completely a God thing that we have the opportunity to move, and we think God may have given us a family to buy our current home. It is a really tricky situation though, but whatever happens, I hope we can bless the people who buy (or rent) our home.

Update 4.) I'm having a birthday party on Saturday. So no more posts until next Monday probably.

Also, in case you didn't hear, Hugo Chavez has died, and a new pope has been selected. These are both excellent opportunities for us as Christians to pray for our fellow believers in both the Catholic church and in Venezuela. Pray for those in leadership positions that they may look to God for guidance in leading their people.

Busy as ever,
Emily E.

P.S. I'm really sorry about posting the first Musical Monday and then dropping off the face of the earth. I promise there will be more and I think it is going to be an every-other-week thing instead of every week. So you can still look forward to those.