Why Not Change It Up?

While writing my last post, I became inspired to write on a new topic! I thought of this when writing the portion about my brother and how it was so easy to write about him. I have now decided to write about my family because there is so much to say about having such a big family. I know this decision has probably devastated some of you. But have no fear, I will keep the playlist on here for all you country music lovers!

Some of you may or may not know that I have a huge family. I am one of six children. I have an older brother, John Woodward, who is 20 and attends Virginia Tech. Then it is me and I am the second oldest. My younger sister, Jill Woodward, is 15 and she goes to Bird with me. Then next after her is Jeff Woodward who is 13 and attends Salem Church Middle School. After Jeff is Joy Woodward who is 10 and attends Bellwood Elementary. Finally, is Jan Woodward who is five and also attends Bellwood. Oh and we can't forget about the lovely people that brought my siblings and I into this world, my parents, Kathy and David Woodward.

Big families always seem to get a lot of attention. If it is not the staring then we get a lot of questions and comments. Some of them are not very intelligent. For instance, one person asked me "Are you guys really siblings"?  I did not know how to answer that question without sounding mean because from the picture above, I think that it answers itself? Oh and how can I forget about the infamous comment that everybody likes to make. When I tell people how many siblings I have they just love to say "Well we know what your parents were doing". Are you kidding me? I REALLY do not want to hear that nor have that mental image forever burned in my memory! Thanks, but those comments can really be kept to yourself. Lastly, throughout the rest of my blogs, I hope to show the pros and cons of having a huge family. Hopefully, along the way I will be able to provide some comic relief with my stories too!

Addicting Much?

When our class was first told about having to write blogs, I was not excited at all. I had no clue what to blog about. Most people were able to figure out what they wanted to blog about by the end of the class. I started to brainstorm about things that I do all of the time. Sports were the first thing that came to mind. Honestly, I could not tell you why one player was better than the next though. I finally came to the conclusion that country music was what I was going to blog about. It's definitely something that I listen to all of the time.

Believe it or not, up until a couple of years ago I never listened to country music. It was definitely not the first radio station that I would change it to. It all started the summer  before my Sophomore year. I had just become a lifeguard and was working at the pool with my brother. We would always come in an hour before opening to clean and in that time we would listen to music. Since my brother always pulled the "seniority" card on me, he would decide the station. His music of choice was country. I wasn't all for it at first. But, then I came to find out that country music is very addicting. I would find myself singing or humming the lyrics while on stand. Or when it was just my brother and I at the pool, I would belt out the words like I was the artist and he was my audience. I think what makes it so addicting is that it is a different genre of music altogether. It has a different rhythm and tone compared to other music. Country uses a variety of instruments: violin, banjo, piano, guitar, etc. Country has songs that range from being really mellow to something you can listen to at a party.For instance, "Red Solo Cup" by Toby Keith is a great party song (you might not like it but believe me, the lyrics will get stuck in your head). Most country songs bring this calmness over you and all you want to do is just picture yourself "knee deep in the water somewhere" like the Zac Brown Band would say. Country songs tell a story whether it be about finding love or losing love.

Whenever anybody hears that you like country music, they automatically assume that you are a "redneck". But that accusation is false because there are so many diverse groups of people that listen to country. It could range from your teacher, to a police officer, or even a professional athlete that enjoys this music. Unfortunately, many people won't even give it a chance. Maybe by the end of my blogs, some of you will start to enjoy country music the way I do.