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" Hey y&amp;#039;all! If my greeting wouldn&amp;#039;t already indicate as being the case, I&amp;#039;ve been feelin&amp;#039; a little bit country recently. Now, I know you guys know that I&amp;#039;m all about my country music and southern pride, but this past week my sentiments for both have been magnified greatly as I attended CMA Fest and the CMT Music Awards. It was so amazing! After many years of begging my mom, I finally convinced her that we could go! If there is one thing college has taught me, it&amp;#039;s how to effectively win an argument with the parentals... hehehe ;) The week was absolutely exhausting, since I only got averaged about 4 hours of sleep each night, but it was entirely worth it.  It was really cool to witness an awards show in person. There were so many amazing collaborations among artists from different genres. Jason Aldean closed the show with the help of rapper Ludacris, and Justin Bieber even made an appearance at the show! While the CMT Awards were definitely memorable, I&amp;#039;d say that the highlight of the week by far was getting to meet some of my favorite country stars. I camped out on a lonely street in Nashville one night, so I could get passes to meet Martina McBride, Kellie Pickler, and Lady Antebellum! My plan worked amazingly well, and they were all so sweet when I got to meet them! A lot of people thought I was nuts for choosing to camp out, but I&amp;#039;ve come to learn that life only lends itself to so many once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, and you must take advantage of them. The remainder of my time in Nashville was spent attending nightly concerts where mega-stars like Taylor Swift (AHHH!), Miranda Lambert, and Keith Urban performed. There were even guest appearances by Season 10 American Idol winner, Scotty McCreery, and runner-up, Lauren Alaina. I got several opportunities to see Scotty throughout the week, and boy lemme tell ya, he&amp;#039;s so stinkin&amp;#039; presh, I&amp;#039;d sop him up with a biscuit if I could!    I must admit, I was pretty sad to see this wonderful week come to an end, but hey, I&amp;#039;ll be back soon enough when I land my dream job with CMT as a broadcast journalist one day. ;) I&amp;#039;m so pumped to see what the remainder of my first summer as a college student has in store for me! &amp;quot;I may be crazy, but it keeps me from going insane.&amp;quot; -Waylon Jennings No worry beef curry, XOs, and all that other jazz, Katie :) "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.seventeen.com/life/school/advice/a14482/country-music-festival/>