5th Phase and the Start of Fall

So we're in the final phase of our journey to our black belts. The kids are off to school once again and I'm just hoping the weather stays somewhat amiable until after conditioning day on the 8th of next month. I'd be lying if I said I'm not ready for it all to be done. Seventeen months of preparing and stressing and making sure the numbers are there and documented, special trainings in the wee hours of the mornings (which we will always be thankful to Brandy for, no matter how tired we all our those mornings), BB training classes until 9pm, etc. Military boot camp is only 6 months long and we've been in our own boot camp for nearly 2 years now. It's really been tough, but well worth it. I've never had to work hard at anything else in my life, nor have I wanted to, quite frankly. I mean, if stuff comes easy to you, go with it, right? But this past 2 years has been anything but easy, so maybe that's why it means so much to us all. I still don't know if I can survive the conditioning day... I'm not really stressed about breaking bricks, and I'm stressed about the curriculum testing day, but we went through it with the Collective Synergy group, so I'm okay with that overall, I just need to continue working on technique. The conditioning though, only a select few DTD testers got to participate in that portion last year, so that's the unknown in the puzzle. I like knowing what to expect... The unknown surprises they throw in there for us make me nauseous and quite honestly, I hate that part. I don't mean 'dislike' or 'would prefer another avenue', etc ... I hate that part. Period. But I now know the glass is also half full, because if I can do something that difficult and not know what's coming at us, we can do anything. :)