Everyday there was something new and amazing this week !
OSCARS
When I got back to school on Monday I was told that I won the Oscar award for ‘Canada’s Next Gold Medalist’. I missed the red carpet award ceremony on Friday since I was in Trois Rivieres at the TKD Canadian Eastern Championships. It’s basically just a fun event to build school spirit. All the students nominate each other for wacky categories. Some of the categories were as crazy as ‘most likely to be Politician’, ‘most likely to be Canada’s Top Model’, ‘Best Facial Hair’, ‘Most likely to be a millionaire’, ‘most likely to be the next Canadian Idol’ and a bunch more.
LINK CREW
I applied and was selected to be part of the LINK Crew at JMSS. It’s a program designed to help new grade 9 students as they start high school. All the feeder schools coming to JMSS next year came for a day to see what our school is like. The LINK Crew leaders were all given a group of grade 8 students for the day. We had to give them a tour of the school, we answered all their questions about high school and did a bunch of ‘ice-breaker’ exercises to make them feel more comfortable. In the afternoon they watched the show of our high school play called ‘Back to the 80’s. There will be a lot more work to do with the LINK Crew and if you do a good enough job with them during grade 10 and 11, then you can apply to for credited course in grade 12. This is a good course if you want a career that involves organizing events, counselling and dealing with people. I am so excited about being a part of this program!
BACK TO THE 80’s MUSICAL
I was part of the stage crew. I would have loved to be in the play but the cast has been rehearsing since October for it. I gained so much respect for these guys. They rehearsed and practiced more than most teams do for their sports. Their rehearsal hours and practicing on their own time is insane. I loved being a part of it even if it was in a very small way. I learned so much about what is involved in producing a play and I made some great friends. I was teased by so many people since they weren’t used to seeing me in this type of thing but I really don’t care!!! I had a blast and loved every second. There is a musical side to me that is coming out more and more. I love to play the guitar, write songs and sing. It’s just something that I’ve kept to myself but now I’m feeling more comfortable about performing in public. Our school has been great for that. My guitar teacher Mr. Stoodley is awesome at pushing you out of your comfort zone and my drama teacher Ms.Simards is amazing. We had 4 shows this week so the hours were really long. The cast has a huge amount of talent both in acting and singing. Great job guys!
Everyone did a great job but I have to admit I was so happy and proud of one of my best friends Kelsey Hayes. I was so excited to hang out with her back stage and share the experiene with her. I love seeing her perform. She puts in as many hours with her vocal lessons of all different styles and drama lessons every week all year around as I do with my sports. She pushs herself past her limits and comfort zone and I admire her confidence and presence on stage. She has huge dreams and goals and I know she will be able to achieve them. SHOW THE WORLD KELSEY 😉
Kelsey and I are actually working on a music project together but I’m keeping that a secret until later…… it’s going to be amazing!
More Powerful Words
I’ve actually started to wear another new bracelet too!
‘Difference Maker’ means that you are willing do to all the little things that are sometimes the hardest but those are the things that make the difference in your success. What are you willing to do to make the difference in your desired results? Do them! It’s also important to make a difference in other peoples lives just by being a nice person.
If you’ve done all the training (physically and mentally) and you’ve done all the ‘Diffference Makers’, then you have the confidence to actually enjoy what you do and you want to ‘Show the World’ and be proud of what you can do. It’s NOT a conceited thing at all!!! It’s the ability to enjoy it instead of stressing over it. When you enjoy something, you do it better. When you do things better, you tend to enjoy it more too 🙂 If you are too stressed at competition then you are paralysed by fear. I learned these concepts while training with the TKD National Team sports psychologist last year and it really affected me. It’s amazing how a few little words can have such a huge impact on how you try to live everyday. Whenever I don’t feel like training I just look at my bracelet and I remember why I’m doing certain things. When ever I hear “show the world” I get a spark and fire in my heart and eyes. I like the colour orange since it’s an energized colour and it makes me happy.
JAVELIN TRAINING
I had a productive javelin training this week. I couldn’t make it to as many sessions as I would have liked since I had to be at the play every night until after 9:00 but I’ll make it up on the weekend. You can feel a difference in the dome these days. Outdoor track season is just around the corner so there are more people and energy is high at the track. I can’t wait to train outside again but the weather got so much colder suddenly so we were back inside. I love it when Bill sends us videos of our throws so we can see our own mistakes and also what we’re doing right. He is teaching us so many things that it’s hard sometimes to adapt to it all at once. Sometimes I feel like I take one step forward and then two steps back but I know it will improve in the long run. I’m just thankful he is patient with me. I’m really trying my best and I’m determined to get this!!!!
Track and Field also started in the mornings before school so that is good extra training time for me too. I will probably do the other throwing events for school track as well. I just hate the early morning practices since I get to bed so late every night.
TAEKWON-DO
Then the big event that I’ve been waiting for happened lol….. I learned the first of the three 3rd degree patterns. I was shocked that I learned the whole thing in one hour. Now I just have to spend the next few years perfecting it ( not that a pattern is ever completely perfect lol). I find myself going through the pattern in my head all day and I’ve even caught myself going through some of the motions as I walked down the halls at school. I’m so afraid that I’ll forget it. Mr LeGrow is away for a few days so I won’t be able to train with him again until next week. There is a huge TKD tournament in Connecticut this weekend that I really wanted to compete in but it gets too expensive to travel and compete in every tournament. I know most of the competitors from this tournament will be at the PanAm’s in June as well so I will see them then. Good luck everyone!
Although it’s been hard to balance the time to do everything I knew it was only for a couple weeks. Even though this week was absolutely exhausting… I am so glad I got to be involved with all these things because it’s all about the expereince and I really did enjoy every minute of it! Next week things will be back to normal and I have to get caught up with my actual school work 🙂