5.12 (April 9)

 Change is a large part of life, especially the part of life that I'm going through right now. Within the last 7 months, I have graduated high school, got my first full time job, and in a few short weeks I will start at NAIT. That's a lot. Every little bit of change helps define me as a person, with one of the biggest changes being Kung Fu. Since I started my job, I haven't been as active as I used to be. Part of that is due to timing difficulties (Shift ends at 5 with kids classes also starting at 5), but there is also the physical and mental aspect of it. It's not like I have super difficult job or anything, but after a full day of fighting with tires, getting covered in dirt from the road, and dealing with people who think they know how to everything better than the ones doing it, I'm exhausted. For the first month or so, I would come home and immediately fall asleep because of how much more tiring my day was compared to before. That's happening less now, but it still happens. Now it is more along the lines of " I have been soaked the whole day from washing and repairing tires, I am grumpy and not good to be around others currently." Again, that's not every day, but it is still quite frequent. The change from High School / Kung Fu to Tirecraft has been the biggest change of my life so far, although going to NAIT in January might top it. I would have to say that I have mishandled the direction that this change led me, with my nights now being spent at home not doing much instead of at the Kwoon, something I will be doing my best to change once school starts (given classes/homework are reasonable.) Right now, I only attend the Black Belt class, and the I Ho Chuan class. Come January, I want that to increase to at least all the 5:30 classes and later, and thr 5:00 classes if possible. The only way to accomplish this is to do it, but the only way to do it is to find out when the time comes. 

5.11 (April 2)

 A little over two months ago, I started at Tirecraft. Ever since then, I have noticed the small ways that Kung Fu has impacted me more than I have ever noticed before. I knew that Kung Fu had mental benefits along with the physical benefits, but now that I'm in a new environment with new challenges, it is actually being put to the test. The most prominent example is surprisingly the palm heel strike. Being in this part of the country, vehicles rust fairly easily, and that is amplified a ton in the wheels, as they constantly get pelted with everything from the road. This causes most of the vehicles that come in to have wheels that are nearly rusted to the vehicle. Most of the guys in the shop will automatically for a rubber sledge hammer to knock it loose, which is overkill 90% of the time. One of my favourite techniques to break boards is the palm heel strike, so I knew that I had proper alignment to not injure myself, but also enough power behind it to skip the hammer as much as I can. I also find myself using a modified horse stance a lot. When I get ready to put a wheel back on a vehicle, I get it onto the hoist by rolling it up my leg and then boosting it up to the hoist. Once it's on the hoist, I'll get into a taller horse stance so I can then lift it from the hoist onto the axle of the vehicle. It helps lower my center which ends up getting my power zone to the level of the hoist, which helps a lot with lifting wheels from there. I find the mental part is mostly in work ethic, and how I will do what I need to do to get a good result. This is absolutely something that I got from Kung Fu, and it is a trait that has helped me progress far beyond what others have expected of me at work, and I've even surprised myself with the progress I've made in my position in the amount of time I've been there.

5.10 (March 26)

I've had a lot of things change lately. I graduated high school, I've had a lot of changes to my group of friends, I got accepted into NAIT, and I got a job at Tirecraft. All of this happened within about a month, so it all just piled on me all at once, and it was a little overwhelming at first. Some of the changes were harder to deal with than others, but after awhile everything started to sink in and it started to make sense. In almost every sense, I'm starting a new chapter of my life. I no longer have to worry about getting something done for school and I'm no longer bound by certain people in my life, but instead I have to start being an effective employee and also get ready for my courses at NAIT. There is one part of my life that will be mostly unchanged however, and that's Kung Fu. I don't know what my hours will be at Tirecraft, so I'm not sure if my engagement with the earlier classes will be affected or not. The hope is obviously that I will still be able to be at all the classes, but that may not end up being the case. All of this is to say that no matter what changes I have encountered in my life, I have always had Kung Fu as a consistent part. 

5.9 (March 19)

 1 year and 9 days ago, on June 15th, 2022, I did something I previously thought impossible. I got a girlfriend. Today, on June 24th, 2023, She broke up with me. To say this has me devastated is an understatement. This was my second relationship, but the only I consider successful, with the previous one lasting only a single month. I had learned so much during our relationship, not only about her but also about myself. This was the first time I ever felt comfortable truly opening up to someone. She was one of the very few people who I knew I could share anything with, good or bad. Whenever I was feeling down, I’d go to her. Anytime I couldn’t sleep, I’d think of her and I’d be out in minutes. During every minute of the day, I’d be thinking of her. Now, I’m not sure. I know there will be some sleepless nights coming up, and I know that I’m not going to be the person I was for awhile. This comes shortly after I wrote my English Diploma Essay, where I extensively talked about her and every little thing she has done to make me who I am. This also comes  9 days after our first anniversary, a day that I had been looking forward to for months. As a gift I had originally wanted to give her my old Apple Watch, but I ended up damaging it, so I couldn’t give it to her. I still wanted to give her a watch, so I ended up buying a new one for her. I thought this would be a great gift, so we could do more stuff together. I think this is where I messed up. Today she gave it back to me and said that she felt she wasn’t able to give to me in the same way I was giving to her, not just in the physical gift sense but also in the emotional sense. This is the part that hurts the most. By trying to do my best as a boyfriend, I made her feel like less of a girlfriend. That was obviously never my intention, but it’s what ended up happening. I’m not going to post this blog to WhatsApp, so I know most people won’t see this, and I’m okay with that. To those of you who do see this though, I want you to now that I’ll be okay. It will absolutely take some time, I’m not sure how much, but I will be okay in the end.

And Dana if you somehow manage to see this, I’m sorry I made you feel this way.

5.8 (March 12)

At last years Tiger Challenge, I was one of the judges for the kids. I didn't judge the adults because I was competing with them due to a lack of black belts that signed up to compete. This year, a lot more signed up so we were able to have our own division. That means I was able to have my first full day of judging. This came with a lot more pressure than I realized. On one of my first rounds of the day, I meant to put up a 6.5 score. What I put up at first was a 6.6, raising an extra finger. Then I put up a 6.9, forgetting that my other hand was up and raising more fingers. Not the best way to start the day. After a few more rounds, the nerves of judging finally started to go away, and I didn't make any more scoring mistakes after that. This was a really good experience for me over all, and one that I look forward to in the next Tiger Challenge.

5.7 (March 5)

 We're always told to never compare ourselves to the person next to us, but to the person we were yesterday. I took that a little bit farther, and compared myself to the person I was a year ago. At last years Tiger Challenge, I earned two bronze medals, both of which were in divisions with only three people, meaning I had to at least get 3rd. This year I earned two bronze, and one silver. This year, there was more3 Black Belts competing, which means all the divisions I was in had more than three people. To me, this showed that I had improved a decent amount since last year, but I still had a ways to go. The division that surprised me the most was the continuous sparring division, one that I have never entered in before. I did a lot better than I thought I would, considering I was a rookie in that format. This was the division I ended up finishing second, giving me the silver medal. Sparring hasn't been my strongest skill for awhile, but I think that might be due to only ever competing in point sparring. Now that I have entered and placed in continuous, my sparring confidence is starting to climb back up. This is giving me high hopes for next year, and how I'll do then. Overall, I'm glad I entered in what I did, because everything that I did taught me a little bit more.

5.6 (February 26)

Last weeks Spring Cleaning was something that I've missed doing the past few years, and now that we've started to do it as a school again, I'm seeing all the benefits that come from it. The biggest benefit for me was team building. My group included Toudai Thelwall, Toudai Repay, and my father, we've all known each other on the mats for a while now, but doing this as a group helped us build a bond that we wouldn't have been able to during class time. I think part of the reason that I've struggled to fulfill my requirements the past few years is because I haven't been able to build the same level of bond as easily due to the pandemic. Now that we're back to doing things in public as a team again however, I believe that a whole lot of things are going to come a lot easier for me.