Friday, May 21, 2010

Elks Lodge



I haven't posted in a long time because 1) I have many secret projects going on and 2) I've just been busy! I have received my master's degree and in one week, my boyfriend and I will be in our new house in Maryland. We're so excited, but also just exhausted from the last few weeks we've had. John is in his last day of his second year of medical school today (meaning the worst part is now over) and this entire weekend we're showing our house to new renters, packing, and spending time together. I haven't spent time with him for about two weeks because we've been running all over the place, and we actually spent our anniversary last week in two different states.

I will post more about graduation later. Last night I was a special guest speaker at the Roanoke Elks Lodge Scholarship/Valedictorian night to talk about how my Elks scholarship helped jump-start my educational and career goals. Literally, six years ago I could not afford to go to college and without the national Elks scholarship, I would have been attending community college near home and it would have been a much more difficult road to where I am now. Thanks to the $6,000 scholarship I received from Elks, I was able to attend a private woman's college (with a $32,000 price tag per year) virtually free and with very little loan accumulation. It was my pleasure to speak to high school students on the verge of graduation about how I made it through and where I'm at now.

Coming up in June: I'm slated to judge two more pageants! I'm becoming a professional!

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Update


John judging Miss Nelson County

Picking strawberries

Visiting Virginia Beach

Eating in Williamsburg

C0lonial Williamsburg
I've been a horrible blogger lately, because I've been too busy! But- some good news- I am graduating! I will have a master's degree next Saturday, and in the meantime I'm anticipating my mother arriving for a few days, I haven't seen her since January. My boyfriend and I have been incredibly busy, judging pageants and traveling everywhere, and we recently had a great photo shoot with a photographer I highly recommend! Soon I'll post those pictures and explain more, but here are some photos from our travels the past month!

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Help me!!

I'm trying to start a program to provide free tap lessons to kids in areas that don't have access to arts programs. It's completely free to vote- and you can do it once every day! The top ten ideas get $5,000 from Pepsi. I really want to do this, please help me!


www.refresheverything.com/laurapennington