Happy Easter!

I went to check out Monday morning class. I was nervous so I chose to watch instead of participate. I'll start joining in this week. It'll take me a bit to get the dust off but I'm looking forward to not being a bench warmer anymore. I'm sad to be missing the meeting April 9th, but this is my first weekend class for my second course and my first course ends April 12th. So far I've surprised myself. I don't want to toot my own horn but my average is 95% so far, so I'm going to go ahead and toot the crap out of that. I totally didn't think I could do it and I'm proving myself wrong. I know I'll struggle more with some of the other classes because they are a lot harder, but now at least my confidence level is up to keep going and get my diploma. Right now I have a blue belt and a diploma hanging in front of me like a donkey and a carrot, so even if I'm going pretty slow, at least I'm moving forward and haven't given up.

Happy Easter everyone! See you at the kwoon!

Fighting For Change

One of my personal requirements is to learn how to argue against xenophobia and racism to get my point across without allowing my emotions to take over. I become very emotional when it comes to animal and human rights. This does not help me when trying to sway someone else's opinion on the topic. People respond more to facts when it comes to such sensitive topics. Trying to read and figure out what is true and what is not true is very difficult but one thing is for sure, I am so grateful to have been born in Canada. I can't believe how much I take for granted. The simple fact that I was born here gives me way more opportunity than I ever would have in the majority of the rest of the world. I sit here right now truly grateful.

My first month of university has been interesting. One things for sure. I. am. exhausted. I have registered for my next course and have switched to the weekend courses so at the end of March I have an overlap where I will have a final exam, final written assignment and a pre course assignment and readings but once I get through that mess I will be able to attend Thursday nights.

I'm still struggling to find my routine, but I'll get there. It may not be as obvious to the rest of you, but I've come a long way with some of the mental aspects of kung fu and am pretty proud of myself. Now I just have to get my butt back in shape.

Right now. I am happy.

See you at the kwoon.

What's Happening to the World?

While coming back from school one day, Josh and I were getting on the LRT. We watched about 20 people go to sit down, look at something and move. We looked over and saw a man collapsed on the floor of the train by a seat. We took a look at him, saw he was breathing, tried to talk to him and got no response. We waited to get out of the tunnel so we could call for help. As we were sitting on the seat across from him, we watched about 15-20 more people see him and keep walking. Finally while we were on the phone with transit services another young man stopped to see if this guy was ok. Between him and Josh they got this man's attention and were able to get him sitting up. Transit alerted passengers of a short delay. While 2 people boarded to help this man, I heard several complaints around us about the wait. They were right by us and could see what was going on, so I couldn't understand all the complaining. After everything was said and done, I was so sad. I watched at least 40 people walk around this person without even taking 2 seconds to see if he was alright. It did end up he was extremely intoxicated, but still a person that needed a hand. A PERSON! I also recently read about police services getting phone calls recently from people complaining their tv show was interrupted by an Amber Alert. Are you kidding me?! What is going on with people that we can't even stop for a minute or two to help someone?

Poorly Balanced

Ok, so things haven't gone so great yet. Had my first week at university and oh my goodness, my brain will not retain anything. It's been a very long time since I've been in school and had to do so much reading and book learning. I'm very A.D.D when it comes to reading dry material from a book and trying to concentrate has not been easy. Legislation. Is. Boring. and unless you are a lawyer, can be quite difficult to understand sometimes.

I have extremely little logged so far. I haven't been balancing everything properly. I need to do better in making kung fu a priority. I'm super stressed out about passing my course because it's not cheap, and financing for the rest of my courses rests on me passing. Being audited at work by 2 separate auditors and doing a full time job in 3 days a week doesn't help, but I shouldn't put my training on the back burner either. I need to balance my life better. I finally have my insurance cheque from my car accident and have an inexpensive, old Buick going in for an inspection tomorrow so hopeful that will work out and I will not have any reason to not be in Monday morning class as I will be able to get there. Being in the kwoon regularly at least once a week should help with engagement. I think I may have bit off more than I can chew. Yikes!