Happy end-of-March, ladies and gentleman and wow, a lot happened this month so let’s dive right in!

What did I do?

To start off this month strong, we went to my cousin’s soccer game and that was the first day I wore shorts outside.

Yeah, it was kind of a big deal for me.

On March 11th, my church worked with a couple other churches to host their first ever Jesus Night that was a night of teens coming together in a gym to worship, play games, eat food, and have fellowship together. It was a really incredible night and God moved like crazy! There were 700 students there and I think three specific churches that partnered with it.

And on the way home, another amazing thing happened. (If you got the email and saw this excerpt, “In which I share updates on church life, work life, and getting-pulled-over-by-a-cop life. Yes, you read that right,” then you can be excited now because yes, I am talking about that part.)

So your lil goody-two-shoes gal got pulled over on her way home from a Holy Spirit-filled Jesus night. How ironic.

Anyways, story time because now I love telling everyone I got pulled over: so I was driving home with my brother, and it’s dark at this point, it’s only 8:20-ish so it’s not late, and I see these police lights on behind my car. I’m over here like, “It’s not me, my headlights are on, I’m not swerving, I don’t have blaring music, I’m not on my phone, I’m not speeding either, so it’s not me.”

He flashed his lights.

It was me.

So I pulled into a parking lot and I’m about to start bawling because I JUST GOT PULLED OVER BY A COP. Now, important note: I’m seventeen and I have a Washington drivers’ license. And…technically I should have my North Carolina license—but at this time, I was in drivers’ ed to get that North Carolina license so it’s okay.

Anyways, long story short: my license plate tags were expired by a couple days, I got a warning so that if another cop pulled me over for the same reason, I could just show it to that guy so he wouldn’t give me a ticket, and I was given a curfew—no driving past 9pm. (But thank God for 21 year-old friends who can drive me around past nine, right?!)

Moving on from my lil rebellious self—onto my country-lovin’ self.

A week or two later my mom and I drove to Fayetteville North Carolina to see an old friend because later that night, he and I were going to the Max McNown concert I mentioned in my last Recap post!

It was so fun—Max McNown was such an amazing performer and he was just genuinely so happy! It was sweet because a lot of his songs are about or for his wife and he wasn’t bringing attention to her necessarily but rather saying how grateful and blessed he is to be married to someone like her.

I also admired how many times he often acknowledged his hard times but brought it back to the fact that God put him through those times to get to where he is now—and he wouldn’t resent the Lord for that. Just a cool tidbit.

Aside from that, there hasn’t been much else going on! I officially became a Certified Trainer at work and got a pay raise, so whoop whoop—fifty cents!

Here’s a final photo collage from this month’s happenings before we move onto the books I’ve read.

What did I read?

I don’t have as much time to just sit and read as I’d like—and before you say, “That’s not true, Willow, everyone has time to read!!” please don’t.

With school, work, and taking siblings to and fro places, and then having a life where I enjoy my friends, I don’t have time to just sit and read—at least not to the extent where I can get through the book in a satisfactory timeline.

However, I did reread Places We’ve Never Been by Kasie West. (I highly recommend Adalynn LeBrun’s blog, The Humorous Bookworm because every book review post she does, she always has thoughts on Kasie West’s books. Top-notch blog, right there.)

Hopefully in April I can read a book called Unlocking The Last 20% by Tucker “Cinco” Hamilton. It was just released this past March, only a week or two ago, and the author is actually my best friend’s dad! It was so interesting hearing him talk about the process of publishing a nonfiction book when I visited them in September and I’m really excited to read it!

What did I listen to?

Lately, Sam Barber (as he has been for the past three months) has been my number one artist on repeat. So don’t be surprised that his songs are the majority of my top ten.

1. Better Than The Floor by Sam Barber. On repeat. All day. Every day.
2. The Wonderful Blood by Tiffany Hudson
3. Only Want You Jesus by Motion Worship
4. Borrowed Time by Sam Barber
5. Standstill (My My My) by Max McNown
6. You Could Start A Cult by Niall Horan feat. Lizzy McAlpine (don’t judge the name guys, I swear I’m normal)
7. Badlands by Mumford & Sons feat. Gracie Abrams
8. Music for the Soul by Sam Barber
9. Sing Of Your Love by Bethel Music feat. Garett & Kate
10. THANK GOD I’M FREE by ELEVATION RHYTHM feat Lizzie Morgan

We’ve been doing a lot of repeats lately, but that’s okay—I like me some good ol’ classics.

What did I write?

This month has really bummed me with my writing, if I’m being honest. I haven’t done very much at all with work and Young Writers Honors Academy, and then blogging. You might have noticed some missing or delayed posts and that’s because I haven’t had a lot of time to write.

So I’m really excited for summer when I have a lighter school load and hopefully get more time to prioritize writing. Thus, forgive me if I forget a Tuesday or Thursday post or two in the next few weeks!

However, I did have exciting news which I shared a few days ago! I’m being published in my fourth anthology and the second anthology by Skillful Pen Press. I’m so excited for this anthology, and if you want to learn more then go check out the post I made about it!

Read about the anthology and my street team!

What happens next?

Well, the most exciting thing for me is something that’s happening on June 5th—a Sam Barber concert. My dad and I are going together and I’m so stoked, it’s going to be amazing. I love Sam Barber’s music and the venue will be outside! As well as that concert, on May 5th I’m going to a KB concert with Boone and my cousin, Stone which is going to be awesome too. We’ll be down by the stage and moshpitting all night, trust.

Then in the actual month of April, haha, we’ve obviously got Easter coming up which will be great, then on the 18th one of my friends from Washington is visiting! I’m really excited to show her around our town and have a blast with her.

Then on May 1st I have another prom with a friend and so I’ll drive down to his house and then that night we’ll party like two wackos.

That’s all I’ve got for this post, I’d love to hear what you did in the month of March! Read any good books? Do you have plans for Easter? Tell me in the comments!

Thanks for reading everybody, have a great day!
~Willow