Forms!

I Just Had a moment in class where I had to step off the floor. I get so frustrated when doing forms. It seems like everyone catches on to them so much faster than I do. As soon as someone says "ok, now go at your own pace" the pace doubles and I'm struggling to figure the 1st move. Sorry - eventually I'll get them, they just take me longer for some reason.

Working together....

hey team,

DTD is off to a strong start!! you are all focusing on the basics and pushing to detail things out during this first phase....workouts will only get more intense! so, speaking of working together, use this journaling opportunity to let others know if you feel weaker in certain areas so team members can step up and support! if you don't say anything, we may not know what's going on inside, and it could lead to more challenges....so, please, say something, cause people are listening!

there's been a few video journals posted, but not many.....the youtube username and password is in your email, so, see you there!!

Mental Meltdown...

I'm pretty good at handling stress and multi-tasking, but on Friday, I just about had a meltdown.  The stress of work responsibilties, compounded with everything else that I have to do and/or responsible for... just about had me in tears.  That doesn't happen very often and when it does, you can bet I'm beyond capacity (x3)....  I honestly don't know where I'm going with this, all I do know is... that I continue to keep my head above the water... and it truly surprises me. 

Open Form

My mom and I are doing good on our open form. We almost have it finished. It looks really cool so far. The music looks great with it. We also have really cool ideas that we can add later. This one is going to be better than last years open form.

I witnessed something pleasantly unexpected today... I'm used to all of us within Aim High doing random acts of kindness and cheering each other on during class, etc... But rarely do I see such kindness outside of class.

Liberty High School had a swim meet this afternoon. The girls had finished their race, and the guys were up for their relay race. The last swimmer in the relay was easily 2-3 lengths behind the other swimmers by the time he'd finished his first lap, and soon he was in the pool by himself as all of the other swimmers were done & out of the pool. It was clear that he was getting very very tired as each stroke of his arms hit the water. But each time he came up for air, his team cheered him on, until finally he reached the end of the last lap and touched the wall. Not only his team cheered for him, but everyone watching cheered for him also out of respect for the effort he put into that swim.

Life and society have taught us that there are winners and there are losers. Period. They never tell you about the ones that never give up, even if they don't come in first. The ones like that swimmer, who never stopped, even when it looked as though he didn't have an ounce of energy left to give. He pushed through and made it to the end.

I honestly don't know which swimmer actually won the race, but I know which one I'll remember... The swimmer that gave 110% and didn't give up on himself.

Fairytale Fans

Once upon a time in a small hut in ancient Japan, it was dark and silent apart from the slashes and occasional screams coming from under the door. Meanwhile, a battle raged outside, a battle of food for survival. The door banged open, revealing a sight of terror to the inside of the hut. The rugged rice fields that had fed the family of the hut for so long were stained with blood and the men of the family were dead on the ground. The trespassing men were stomping towards the hut to make a good job of the family. A young woman between the ages of 15 and 21 heard the men coming and saw the sight beyond the door. Panicking on the inside, she grabbed her only hope, the fan with sharp steel points she often used for air movement. She dashed out into the windy weather to defend the rice fields and deify the history of the country and be a version of a samurai girl. This a fictional story of the history of using the fan as a weapon. It was a version of this story that made me want to try this ancient weapon. The lovely flow and lightweight of the fan make it desirable anyway for an open form but, it was for the history that made me choose this to do my form with. I thought I'd give a little history lesson as well as a background on my open form. I still have blank spots to fill but, the form is turning out pretty good. I have to go for tonight, but next time you see a fan or watch my open form :) try and think about the revolution this weapon had affect on woman's self defense, in ancient times and now.

When work gets in the way

I was rather frustrated last night that I had to miss two hours of my normal training routine for work (fitblast and bb training). At this point, I feel like missing even one hour is too much. That's the way my brain thinks.

Unfortunately, every last Monday of the month, I will at least miss bb training. I'm going to try not to miss fitblast, but sometimes work takes priority and there are things that need to be done by me. The reason I will be absent is because our monthly staff meeting occurs on the last Monday of the month after classes are over at the gym.

The only month this will be different is in May, but then I have to miss a Wednesday training--our Annual Meeting is normally the 3rd Wednesday evening in May.

So now that I know I will be missing these trainings, what will I do about it? My solution will be to work out the Sunday before. Sunday is currently my day of rest (I hope all of you have one of those). The challenge now will be to force myself to match the intensity of fitblast and bb training on what is normally a lazy Sunday afternoon...I may need some help with that.

Hope training went well last night!