The funny thing about starting this blog is I have no idea how to start it. I tried starting it almost a year ago and I still couldn't figure out how to do it. After re-reading our friend Lauren's Wonderful Blog Post from last year, it kind of helped ignite the fire that I once had to write it. Plus, you realize you spent a lot of time with media geeks, so blog writing is just 2nd nature. Now that I'm here, writing it, I realize I never really lost the "fire". I honestly just have no idea what to say or how to start what I'm trying to say. Which is may be why I'm sort of rambling at this point? Let me start off by saying...We miss you Shannon. We all think about you every single day. I often kick myself for that year after college that we let go by, only seeing each other a few times. For someone who played such a huge roll from the beginning to the end of my experience at WCU, I sure should have made more attempts to come and see you. There are probably people that I need to go and visit with now, that I haven't in a while. What I would give to 
back to 2009 and take a broadcasting that introductory broadcasting class with you again! If it weren't for you, I would have never had the guts to get in front of a camera and profess to the entire class that I have "spunk" and my favorite color is brown. (Maybe that's a "you would have had to have been there to understand", joke) None the less, I still laugh about that and tell that story to everyone when the thought of me getting in front of a camera comes up. Just so you know, I've gotten a little bit better! You on the other hand, what a natural! My eyes get really tiny when I smile for a photo or video, so I'm just not camera material.
You were my "always put-together" friend. You had a perfect smile, the confidence to introduce yourself to people you didn't know and your clothes always matched. I, on the other hand...well...I had braces, my confidence level was very much lacking and my on-camera personality was so sad. You were the counterpart that I needed, the friend that God put in my life to help lift me up and remind me that I may not be put together yet, but that's okay! You loved me for my quirks. Plus, do you realize how much laughing we did? So. Much. I knew that we were going to be great pal's when I confessed to you that I secretly wanted a pair of overalls...and a week later you brought me a pair from your Mom's store. I rocked those on campus, often. My fashion forward attempt to bring back overalls was a failed mission, but none the less, your support will always be remembered. I always admired you because from the
beginning, you always sort of knew what you wanted to do. You always said what kind of field you wanted to work in and what type of things you wanted to cover early in. While you could have been bored out of your mind in those news-classes...you took full advantage of producing fun and exciting outdoor stories for all of our campus media outlets. I had absolutely no idea what I wanted at that time. People would ask and I would just say,"broadcasting..preferably something with National Geographic." Ha. Turns out folks right out of college don't get great jobs like that in a crashing market. Time passed and I finally figured out my niche, got my braces off and developed skills and hobbies that I could call my own & finally figured out what I wanted to do. Thank you for being someone I could look up to. Thank you for being that someone I could look at and think "That girl is happy. She knows what she wants and she loves Jesus, life and the occasional ice cream cone, I want to be friends with that girl". Sleep overs that turned into dance parties and photo sessions will be always be a favorite memory. If I had known that when you graduate and join adulthood that dance-party sleep overs would slowly deteriorate, I would have been pretty sad...so I guess I'm glad I didn't know and that we were able to live in that fun bliss for the time that we did.
Sometimes I'm not sure if I have completely grasped the fact that you aren't here with us anymore. In some ways, I feel like you still are. Sometimes I still knock on the prayer door and say hello, so I hope you hear those when I send them up! I plan on sending a few more up, so be listening. Oh, I don't know if you know this, but kept this video of you from our trip to Kentucky! I'm glad we went into that CVS to get band-aids and a glitter mic to report with, the essentials...ya know? Of course we had just gotten done eating ice cream and while doing so, we introduced ourselves to other people sitting in the food court who were at the same convention we were at. We became Facebook friends and still are to this day. I needed someone like you Shannon Christy! I needed someone to knock the confidence into me. I've made so many friends because you helped me get over that fear. You know what the great thing about Kentucky was? Our group fought like brothers and sisters. It was boys against girls and you were team Shannon and Morgan the whole time. We were tired, poor and grumpy from all of the conferences we had to attend in that short week. I'll never forget it. Well, I'm not sure what the other people on that trip have to say, but I'm so glad that week happened. We really got to know each other and I now have some really great friends because of it. Remember how Tucker and I used to always disagree on everything, like brother and sister level disagree on everything? Well, Tucker...he's one of best friends now! Maybe it's because we aren't stuffed into a small studio and office together for hours on end, trying to navigate through programs and video like we knew what we were doing. Well, maybe it should be more like..."like I KNEW what I WAS doing." I definitely didn't 75% of the time! We have plans to get ice cream this weekend in honor of you! You would laugh, I think.Another thing that I think about is how extreme you were and how un-extreme I was...and still am. Haha. I guess being "extreme" can mean a variety of different things. I loved the video that you did for WCU, you know the one where you won the Flip Cam? I would also just like to point out that, in that video you caught a clip of the one time I did do something "extreme" and ended up with a dinner plate sized bruise on my leg. The "Extreme Sledding" that we did on the hill behind the dorm rooms.
You thought it was awesome and immediately wanted to go to the bathroom to see how big the bruise was so we could tell people about it. I, just wanted some Advil. Haha. I loved it though and I loved that day. We had a bunch of our friends together enjoying a day off in the snow. What more could you want? We didn't let that ruin our day, we got dinner in the food court right after and finished it off with....(any guesses?) Yes, an ice cream cone...on a snow day no less!
I guess this blog post turned more into a letter to you. I was pretty nervous about writing it, because I didn't know if I would say the right things or tell the stories the right way. I hope that I did. You were an amazing friend, you did life the Shannon way and that was awesome. Thank you for letting me be part of it for the time that we did have together. I don't think people get that kind of "time" anymore. Being at Western was such a special time. I got to spend 4 years, learning...making friends and doing things that made ME happy?! What!! That's so awesome that we got to do that and that we were able to do some of that together. I didn't realize what a blessing going to college was until it was over. Like most things, though, that's how it goes. 
Oh, in case you are wondering, Sal is good. We still hang out on a pretty regular basis. He does a lot of push ups, I'm not sure what's up with that, but he does! He loves his family, and he really just has it going on. Jon is being a badass and going to graduate school at Elon starting this fall. We got breakfast not too long ago and he's still being the same awesome Jon that he always is, maybe just a little smarter with all of the school he has under his belt now ;) Tucker, you know him...he is being his entrepreneurial genius self, Justin is making waves in untapped markets, seeing and grabbing at potential in places that one day, will make him stand out bigger than all of us. Rachel seems to be loving life and it flourishing in ways that I don't think she even realizes. She is still
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