Five Favorite Places

I know a ton of people who complain about living in Fort Mill. People often think Fort Mill is so boring and there is nothing to do. There may not be any extremely exciting places, but with a little creativity any boring place can become exciting. So, here are my top five spots in Fort Mill.

5) The Greenway
The Greenway is a really nice and peaceful place to go when you just want to escape from the world. Go on walks around the park and through the woods or sit by the pond to clear your mind. Bring a book, sit by the waterfall and read. Some people even like to fish. There are several things to do to please everyone.

Having fun at the Greenway

4) The Walking Park
Similar to the Greenway, the walking park is great for people who want to enjoy some time outside. I often enjoy going with my iPod and just walking in circles until I get tired. However the walking park is also great for social events. Go and have a picnic, play a few games of ultimate frisbee, tie-dye t-shirts, bring a blanket and just tan, play tag, have a Harry Potter duel with sticks you find, dance around, etc. Do whatever floats your boat.

My friend Tasha and I at the Walking Park

3) Taco Bell
Cheap food and Baja Blast. What is there not to love? Some people argue the food isn't good but I beg to differ (and I am lactose intolerant so HA). Where else can you get an entire meal for less than three dollars? I love going to Taco Bell after school or practice to get some food. Taco Bell is not only a place for eating, but for catching up on your gossip. If you are like me and find gossiping really stupid but still have some sort of need to find out what is going on, Taco Bell is the perfect place to do so. So sit down with a quesadilla and a friend and count how many girls have gotten pregnant in your school this year. It was also newly discovered this past year that Taco Bell is also the perfect place for singing. My friend, Natalie, and I would always go to Taco Bell after the play we were in and sing. It was so much fun. BONUS POINTS: If you can make songs about Taco Bell you have five times more fun. Lacking inspiration, no fear. Here is a song that Natalie and I came up with. (it's to the melody of the song the fat bird sings in Rio)

Take it, take it to the machine

Fill it, fill it, fill it up

Drop it, drop it in the cup

Drop it, drop it in the cup

2) Walmart

Seriously, how can you find Fort Mill boring when we have a Walmart? The possibilities at Walmart are endless! If you are a movie person like me, you can spend hours going through the five dollar movie bins alone! If this does not sound like something you would enjoy, I highly recommend the list of 333 ways to get kicked out of Walmart. Me, being the goody-goody I am, have not done anything too extreme on this list. I don't recommend doing things that could get you arrested but if you are the thrill seeker and can easily get away with stuff then go for it. Some of the things on that list are just genius and I promise people will consider you one of the coolest kids around. Feeling lazy and just don't want to do anything or is the TV broken at home? No problem, just go to the electronic section and watch the movie there (you get bonus points for bringing popcorn).

Walmart on New Years Eve

1) The Fort Mill High School Band Room

Nerdy, I know. But if you find yourself really bored, then just go by the band room and attempt to count very single trophy, plaque, and award that is displayed. That will keep you busy for a very long time. The band room is also my favorite place because it has been a second home to me for the past four years. Every morning, afternoon, and parts of summer were spent in that room. I have a historyin that place, thus making it my favorite.

One of the millions of memories in the band room: Pajama Day with Bri and Juyeon

Well, those are my favorite places but there are plenty of other places like Starbucks, Knights Stadium, and so on. So stop being bored and go do something!

Change the World

Do you ever have those moments where it's almost like something hits you and you suddenly have an inspiration to do something incredible? Well I am having one of those moments.

My day started off pretty bad. I was woken up eariler than expected due to a pointless text, my dog decided to run off when I let him outside, and (most importantly) I recieved my AP chemistry scores. They weren't good...at all. I worked so hard in that class and now it is all for nothing. I don't recieve college credit (which sucks since I am declaring a double major and I need all the room in my schedule I can get) nor did I need the class to graduate from high school. So I put myself into all that stressing and work for absolutely nothing. Needless to say I was not a happy person, so I did what I always do when I am not feeling too hot; I watched a movie. Along with the horrible AP scores, the movie I had ordered also arrived in the mail today.  An Alan Rickman movie, my snuggie, and a nice cup of hot chocolate in my new Beauty and the Beast mug would be enough to cheer me up a little. Luckily for me, this movie cheered me up a lot.

Since the movie Something the Lord Made is not a popular movie but had a huge effect on the feeling I am experiencing right now, it's probably best if I attempt to explain the plot of the movie so you understand where I am coming from. The movie is set in the mid-late 1900s, during the times of segregation. A young black carpenter, Vivien Thomas, who was recently laid-off from his job goes to work as a lab technician for the ambitous Dr. Blalock. Dr. Blalock is seeking a cure for traumatic shock and begins to notice the interest Vivien has for the medical world and his experiment. Over a period of weeks, Dr. Blalock teaches Viven and lets him assist in his experiments and together they find the cure. After a few years, the pair continues on to John Hopkins, where Dr. Blalock is the new Head of Surgery and has a new goal on his mind. He wishes to cure "blue babies," which would require heart surgery, something that was not believed possible during this time. While Dr. Blalock and Vivien work nonstop over the next few months, Viven is fighting the world around him. Vivien is expected to work as a janitor or some other low job, and gets paid that salary when he is working as a surgical lab technician. He is battling racism and discrimination, but loves his work so refuses to leave. When Vivien and Dr. Blalock find the cure and save the lives of babies everywhere, it is Dr. Blalock who recieves all the credit while Vivien is not even mentioned. This is the end of Vivien and Dr. Blalock's friendship, since Dr. Blalock treated Vivien as an equal, until now. In the end of the movie, Vivien returns to Dr. Blalock, for he missed his work and eventually became one of the first black doctors and recieved all the honor he deserved.

At the moment, I am experiencing the same feeling that Dr. Blalock possessed during the entire movie; the need to make a difference in the world and to do something meaningful with my life. However, pondering over all the options I had, things I could set my mind to in order to make a difference, I realized that in a small way I already had. During my high school years, I managed to become a talented musician, while maintaining at least a B average in almost all honors classes. My senior year was the year I really decided to test myself. Not only did I take an AP class, but I also auditioned for several national honor bands. People said I wasn't really good enough to make it into these bands but despite what they said, I worked and auditioned anyways. Much to my delight, I was a proud member of the Macy's 2011 Great American Marching Band, the Honor Band of America, and the 2012 American Honors Performance series at Carnegie Hall. So in one year I managed to march in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, perform in Carnegie Hall, perform in Indianapolis, and also earn a full music scholarship from Furman, while maintaining my grades. Not to mention I was a wonderful clarinet section leader and woodwind captain of my marching band. At the time, this didn't seem very inspirational, but I continue to hear members of my band continue to say how they are auditioning for Macy's or Carnegie Hall, more people than ever before. Also that they wanted to become section leaders and captains. People are wanting to become me. This just warms my heart knowing that I left my mark and people are inspired to achieve all that I did.

But I don't want to stop, much like Dr. Blalock after finding the cure for traumatic shock. I want to continue and do something else great. I'm not going to let my failures get in my way. I do not see failure as defeat but instead as a reminder that we are not working hard enough and to try again. Like my AP class. I guess I did not study enough and now know that I need to focus more on studying when I get to college. But I will promise you this, I will go on to do great things whether it be being the prinipal chair in a huge symphony, a known psychologist, or even medical school. I WILL do great things, so world, prepare yourself. I'm getting ready to start the rest of my life and I promise you I will not stop until my goal is complete, no matter what people tell me. Just go ahead and call me the future Dr. Blalock because "where you see risks, I see opportunity."

Spectacular Spectacular

Spectacular, Spectacular no words in the vernacular can describe this great event...

Sorry, this post probably isn't "Spectacular Spectacular." That just happens to be a song in the movie Moulin Rouge, which I happen to be watching right now. This just proves that I have watched Moulin Rouge way too many times in the past few days.

Don't worry, I haven't wasted all my time watching Moulin Rouge. I have also wasted my time watching Sweeney Todd, Despicable Me, countless hours of Gilmore Girls, Grey's Anatomy, Country Strong, and several other crazy movies. That's the great thing about summer, you can sit around and do nothing and not feel guilty about it. Yet somehow, I do. I'm out of school and I am still stressing over stuff. I have so much to do in the next month, it's driving me crazy. Between buying dorm stuff, applying for loans, practicing for auditions, learning a textbook before class starts, figuring out how in the world I am going to manage a double major, waiting for my AP chemistry scores, and dealing with my nagging mother; it hasn't been a peaceful week. And I have no idea how I am going to deal with some of this stuff.

Right now my major concern is paying for college/dorm stuff/gas. I was not able to find a job this summer, leaving me only to have the money I recieved from graduating and that money is running low. I still need to buy bedding and a few more things for my dorm room and I need gas for my car, but I cannot afford either. My mother refuses to help...or care...leaving me completely stressed on what to do. I have actually considered selling my car to help me with college. I also considered selling my instrument...my instrument! I'm a performance major! And I'm considering selling my instrument so I can just have help paying for college...ugh...I know, or at least hope, that deciding to go to Furman was a great idea. The price is just leaving me a little stressed at the moment.

Hopefully things will work themselves out...

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

For those who do not know, I am a huge Alan Rickman fan and I have seen almost every single one of his movies. One of his movies I had not seen though was Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. That was, until last night. Now I love Alan Rickman, and I loved his character in this movie, but I'm going to be honest. this movie was messed up!

The movie is about this boy who is born with a super sonic sense of smell. This kid could smell everyhing from miles away, it was crazy. He started out normal, wanting to study how to make perfume and such but one night he was placed into a trance by the scent of this girl. So what does he do? He stalks the girl, comes from behind, sniffs her, and ends up killing her when she tries to scream. Then he gets super creepy and starts to undress her and sniff her, trying to take in the scent. It was strange. From this moment on he was obsessed with trying to re-create that scent, making the perfect perfume. The way he did this though, not cool. He killed several woman, stripped them, cut off their hair, placed animal fat all over their body, wrapped the body up, and then removed the animal fat and placed it in a device that turned it into a liquid. If that is not messed up, I don't know what is. A man is killing several women only to try to retrive the scent from their body! What kind of plot is that? A dumb one in my opinion...Anyways as if the killing of all these women isn't enough to make this movie strange, the ending just leaves you sitting there thinking "what the crap just happened." Warning, I am about to ruin the ending for anyone who actually wants to watch this movie. In the end when the super scent kid is about to be executed for his crimes, he takes out the perfume he made and it puts everyone around him in this kind of trance. Everyone starts to bow to him and call him "angel" because of what they are smelling. Then for some reason everyone starts to remove their clothes and get all touchy-feely with each other right in the middle of the center of town. They then proceed to wake up the next day with the same feeling the audience watching the movie have; that "what the crap" feeling. The killer then escapes, goes to Paris, pulls the perfume out again, and is tramped to death by the homeless people in Paris. That's the end of the movie. You can not sit their and tell me that this movie is not a little messed up. It was completely pointless in my opinion.

The one good thing about the movie was that Alan Rickman was in it. Alan Rickman played the father of one of the girls the killer became obsessed with during the movie. He did everything in his power to protect her, including moving them into the middle of nowhere, where he thought no one would find them. His acting was splendid, except his cries and screams when he discovered his daughter was one of the victims after all his troubles. They were a bit fake.

Pretty much the point of this post was to warn you. If you like to watch movies that have a point to them and aren't completely weird, then you will have wasted two hours of your life if you watch this movie.

The Good, the Bad, and the Burning

Lesson that I learned over the weekend: Do not go on a boat for an entire day without wearing sunblock if it has been over a year since you have been on the lake.

Friday afternoon I met up with my friend Ashton, that I met at summer orientation at Furman, at her lake house. The drive down there was a little challenging. My lovely GPS decided to get confused while I was in the middle of nowhere, leaving me to drive on unknown roads having no idea of where I was going. Luckily I got there alive. Once I got there Ashton, her family, and I instantly got on their boat to ride around and go tubing. Oh we won't be out long, I thought, so there is really no reason to put on sunscreen. Besides I needed to work on darkening my Edward Cullen tinted skin, so I found no reason to wear sunscreen. WRONG. I was okay for awhile, tubing and swimming and having a jolly good time. It was great. While we were swimming we instantly became the most creative people ever. We had those foam noodle things and claimed we were riding sea horses. My favorite, however, was the "crotch vest" which was a life jacket that Ashton's family friend decided to wrap around her crotch in a strange fashion. Everything was great, until we returned back to the house and I wanted to change clothes. When I was changing shorts it felt like someone set my legs on fire. I look down to see my legs and shoulders are, quite literally, tomato red. Ouch. Overall the trip was so much fun, but I learned my lesson; so kids, always wear sunscreen or turn into a painful tomato.

Ashton and I after a long day on the lake

Now time to continue on to the rest of my day: which includes babysitting and eBay

If there was one thing I have to say about babysitting it would be it is one of the best jobs ever. Now, I will admit that I am not the biggest fan of children but I do enjoy babysitting. Tonight, my job duties consisted of pizza feeding, playing with play doh, building a blanket fort, and watching children shows. I got paid for that and it was so much fun!

The next thing, eBay...oh my goodness, it is so awesome! I am just now getting into the whole online shopping thing, but when I do go online shopping, I do my research. According to my research (as far as movies go) nothing beats eBay. Tonight I made the purchase of a copy of a Something the Lord Made DVD for about five dollars. This is a movie that is definitely not found in stores and one of my favorites, heck yeah! For those who do not know, Something the Lord made is a movie about a black man becoming a doctor in the times of discrimination and working alongside a white doctor in order to find a cure for a disease. One of the stars in the movie is Alan Rickman (Severus Snape from Harry Potter), who is my favorite actor. I'm trying to collect all his movies and eBay is making this very possible.

So that is what happened in Savannah's life this weekend. I know it's only Saturday but I promise you tomorrow won't be anything to blog about. I can almost tell you with certainity right now that tomorrow will be a stay in pajamas and watch movies until I have to go to my cousins brial shower. The bridal shower will consist of food, alcohol (except for me since I'm only 18, which is kinda dumb but that's a whole different blog), and opening gifts. Fun stuff...So I am going to return to my movie of Moulin Rouge now and hope you guys have a wonderful weekend!

Crazy Times

Sorry guys, you probably think I am one of the worst bloggers ever due to my lack of blogs lately. However, the past week I have been working like crazy trying to clean the house for a 4th of July cookout my mother decided to have. Never before however did I realize how similar my characteristics are to my mom's. Her purpose of this cookout was not to bring our family together to celebrate what really mattered, the freedom of America, but to see how my stepdads family would react when they came to our house for a change. They never come down here, so she wanted to see if that family was as cruel (for lack of a better word) when they were not in there own setting. Maybe I am not adopted like I thought before...Anyways, sorry I cannot share the results of this experiment, for I stayed downstairs with a friend the entire time.

Besides cleaning every inch of the house, I have been getting a few more things for college and I saw Beauty and Beast (the traveling Broadway show)! That was a great night....

The play itself was magnificent! My only complaint would be our seats, I was waiting for an airplane to hit my head for we were so far up, but the play was still wonderful! Be Our Guest was so extravagent and the choreography was amazing! I also found myself falling in love with the character of Gaston. If you are familar with Beauty and the Beast, you would know that Gaston is the character that everyone is supposed to hate. He is sexist, tries to force an innocent girl to marry him, accuses an elderly man of being insane, isn't that good-looking, and literally stabs the beast in the back when he isn't looking. But for some reason, I found myself loving that character! Kuddos to the man who played him, that acting and singing was incredible!

That night was also great because my friend and I found ourselves starving when the play was over. Do you realize how hard it is to find open restraunts at eleven o'clock on a Sunday night? Well it is extremely difficult! To continue the story, my friend and I found ourselves at IHOP. As if commenting on our formal attire isn't enough, the waitress also had to comment that she did not believe that I could eat all fur of my red velvet pancakes and my eggs. My response? Watch me. The look on her face when I had completely devoured all of my food, a cup of hot chocolate, and a glass of water was just fantastic. Overall, it was a great night.

That pretty much sums up what I have been up too lately. Oh, and here is a picture of me and my friend at Beauty and the Beast!

Productive Day!

It's been too good of a day not to share about it!

Okay, well the beginning wasn't so hot. My friend decided to text me at eight  in the morning, waking me up. This normally wouldn't of been a big deal except I was trying to sleep until ten due to my lack of sleep. But I couldn't sleep after so I got up. Then I just sat around for a bit...then I decided to be productive! Go me! I actually got my butt into my car and went to the mall, not to shop, but to pick up my contacts. Then I went to Target since I have  $50 gift card for college stuff. This might not be super exciting, but for some reason I love dorm shopping! So I got some stuff for my dorm that I needed. But also at Target I found the first two seasons of my favorite show, Gilmore Girls, on sale for seventeen dollars! It's normally about thirty dollars for a season but both of them were less than twenty! I don't expect many of you to understand this excitement right now, but trust me, it's there. Then I went to the Walmart and got stuff to paint this frame I've had for my dorm. Yay!

The fun part comes now! I get to paint while watching Gilmore Girls and have the great feeling of being productive! After typing this I see how lame I actually am, but I guess that's what happens when you do nothing all summer.

Summer O!

Hey guys, or the one or two occassional people who read this...anyways, sorry I haven't posted anything lately but I have been getting ready for that wonderful thing I look forward to, COLLEGE! Can I get a whoop-whoop?!? So what have I been doing to prepare myself for college you may ask, well my friends, I have just returned from my summer orientation at Furman University. And oh my stinking goodness, what an experience it was. Here's the run down of all the exciting stuff that has happened!

The beginning of my weekend was pretty boring, so I'll spare you the details of that. The  summary of that would be checking-in, walking around, seeing a dorm, and sitting through a meeting. Now the fun stuff. We split into our groups and did those awkward "ice-breaker" activities. My personal favorite being a beach ball we passed around that had a ton of strange questions on it and we had to answer the question our thumb landed on. However, during these activities, I met some pretty awesome people, their names being Ashton, Kevin, and Blake. Pictures will be below...after that we sat through some presentations on how to succeed academically at Furman from required courses to note taking, which actually did better prepare me. The student coordinators also gave us the low down on what to expect upon arriving, including some of the Furman lingo...I will never refer to the dining hall as the dining hall again. That place we eat, yeah, it's the DH. After we did these presentations, our group leaders took us to their favorite spots and we got cookies! Yum. While we were eating cookies our group leader decided to make us feel as uncomfortable as possible and he was very good at it. Then we played this trivia game that got super intense. My group was so close to winning, but in the end we sadly lost. It was very entertaining though. Then we returned to our dorms to sleep, but almost no one did. I went to Blake's dorm with Ashton and laughed about crazy, pointless stuff such as making a video of Ashton trying to jump on the bed. However we eventually ended up asleep. Then today we signed up for our classes. Since I am a music major, I only get one non-music class, so I only had to sign up for one more class, which was la clase de espanol (Spanish). Along with classes, we also signed up for seminars. And I know what you are thinking. Seminars? How boring, right? Well, not really. There are actually several interesting topics that these seminars revolve around that satisfies almost any interests. I myself signed up for a seminars about how the music effects the mind, drugs sex and other stuff such as, how philosophy is used in the TV show House, and so on. See, not so boring. That is pretty much the important stuff that has happened this weekend.

From left to right: Kevin, Blake, Ashton, me (Yes my face is weird, my O-staff leader made me laugh, hence the dumb face)

This orientation really did a lot for me, not just academically but also socially. I'm normally the person that never really talks unless I'm spoken too, not anymore. I was randomly talking and laughing with people I have never seen before in my life. And I loved it! I can already tell that I am going to be so much happier in college than I was in high school. Furman is such a warm and loving place, ready to accept anyone no matter what their background. I cannot be prouder to call myself a Paladin!...or a Din according to the new lingo we were taught :)

The New Spot

                   Finally! I have found a new, peaceful place to read! The good thing about summer is my parents aren't always home so the house stays quiet, except when they come home and the TV stays on until midnight and then it becomes near impossible to read. I also tried to read on the back deck; that worked for about five minutes and then the bees decided to scare me away. So if I wanted to read anywhere in my house, my only option was the bathtub (I get too distracted when I read in my room). However, this past Friday I found a new spot. The Greenway. There's this nice little creek with a waterfall and a nice rock to sit on that's off the beaten path that is perfect for reading. There is also plenty of shade from the trees so it won't be too hot. Also at the Greenway is this little bridge that goes over the water so I could also read there and soak up some sun at the same time. The only downfall is if I ever needed to use the bathroom during this time, my only option would be to find a nice tree...but hopefully that won't happen.
                   That's my plan for tomorrow. Go to the Greenway and read. It's on the summer Bucket List to read at least new five books and I have some catching up to do. I have read two so far, The Juliet Club and the first of the Narnia series (I know, I'm eighteen years old and have yet to read this series, sad). I am currently working on Catcher in the Rye and also bought the Complete Works of William Shakespeare today so I might also read something from that. I'm trying to expand my "classic" library if you can't tell. I'm also looking into some of the Fitzgerald novels, having loved The Great Gatsby from english class. I also have Gone With The Wind on my bookshelf, but I tried to read it in eighth grade and failed. I might just have to try that again...

Summer Jobs

Why is trying to find a summer job so stressful? I have applied to several places and have yet to hear a single thing. I just filled out a super long application for my old gymnastics gym (it was strange being in there considering the last time I was there was when I broke my arm in fifth grade) so hopefully I can assist or teach a tiny kid class or something. It would be fun to teach three year olds how to do a handstand. Anyways, this is the first summer I haven't had a job and it feels so weird to sit around when last year I was slaving away scooping ice cream. And just my luck, back when I had a job, all of my friends did not so we were never able to spend time with each other during the summer because I was always working. Now the tables are turned. Every single one of my friends have a job while  I'm the one being super unproductive this summer. And it is now getting to the point where getting a job would be pointless since I leave for college in a few weeks...ugh. Hopefully somthing will come up....

Road Kill

I don't understand how people hunt. Wanting to take a poor animals life? Something is not right there...Why I bring this up you may ask, I ran over my first animal today and I feel horrible. I've been driven for three years, so it was bound to happen sometime, right? I was driving in my neighborhood, probably a little faster than I should have been going, trying not to be late to my eye-doctors appointment. Then, out of nowhere, I see a small creature with large ears and before I know it, bump-bump. OH NO! I drove back around my neighborhood going back to the bunny, the entire time screaming "Please be okay! Please be okay!" Or maybe it was just shocked and laying in the road...just be don't be dead! Even if it was, I planned on moving it to the side of the road, so at least it would be in peace and out of the way of other cars. But no, just my luck. I drive up to the poor bunny and it looks like it was ripped in half. I just lost it. I killed a poor, innocent, adorable creature's life. I mean I used to have bunnies as a pet and I just killed one! Not to mention on my way back from the eye doctor, I ran over a frog! What am I, the animal killer or something? In my defense, it was dark and rainy, and the frog was impossible to even see before it was too late. But this isn't me! I'm the person who kept a line of cars waiting in the morning school traffic so a kitten could safely cross the road or the person who always stops for the squirrels, but not the person to run over them! And a bunny none the less! One of my favorite animals and I killed it...

High School is done!! Well, almost, I still have to go to Chemistry for the next two days, but that's no problem! It's so crazy to be planning graduation parties, talking about caps and gowns, and to already be saying goodbye to some of my friends. I remember walking the halls freshman year, wondering where in the world I was going. Now, instead of walking the halls for the first time, I'm about to walk across the stage. Even though I complain about high school and how horrible it was, I must admit I had a pretty good run. I mean how many peolple can say they marched in the Macy's Parade and played in Carnegie Hall all in the same year...well I can! It's been a great four years, but it's time to move on.

Two Weeks

Well, there are about two weeks left until I graduate from the school where I have spent the last four years of my life. Two weeks until I leave the majority of my friends, in search of the new adventures that are out there waiting for me. I always say that I am really excited to graduate, and that I just can't wait to move on. That's mainly true, but after thinking, there are several things I am going to miss. I won't be able to look after my woodwinds in band anymore, or hear my band director say something completely ridiculous, or listen to my Spanish teacher ramble about Watergate. I will no longer be able to go hiking with my same group of friends on the weekend or sleep in my Gov/Econ class (Hey, don't judge me, we have all slept in a class at some point in our life). The thing I will miss most however, will be my best friend. I'll no longer have him around to encourage me to move on when I feel like giving up, or his shoulder to lay my head on when I get sleepy in a movie, or all the pointless conversations we have. It'll be over. I have to start over, in hopes of finding a new best friend, someone to replace him. The difficult thing is though, I don't want to replace him.