Candidate Journals

Today I had a normal day at school. This week it seems that nothing has been interesting at all at school. After school, I went to King Tiger to do some leadership credits and a mentor session. I went home so I could complete some requirements and eat dinner. Then I went back to King Tiger for a mentee session and sparring class. My MCL is really giving me trouble so I had to wear a knee brace for sparring class. Not to comfortable, especially because my brace is ancient. After sparring, I came home and finished up the requirements I did not do before class. - Lucas 

Today I had a regular day at school. It was pretty bland, not a lot was going on. After school, I went to King Tiger for leadership credits. I stayed their for a couple of classes and then it was time to head home. When I got home, I started doing my requirements. Since I did not get the chance  to run in the morning before school, I took an evening run. Running in the evening definitely has a vibe, however I still prefer to run in the morning. Just remember, people quit when the journey gets hard; not impossible. Stay strong. - Lucas  

Today I woke up and went to school and had a regular school day. After school, I went to King Tiger for some leadership credits. When I came home, I went ahead to complete my requirements. After I was done, me and my family picked up food from Jason's Deli. The food was pretty good. It was starting to get late in the evening and I once again had two tests that I needed to study for. Math and English. I took a couple of hours to study and that was my day. - Lucas.

Today was my birthday, and what makes today even better is that I did not have school today. Isn't that a coincidence. That's a pretty awesome birthday gift if you ask me. When I first woke up, I immediately knocked out my requirements because I knew I had kind of a big day planned. Since I turned 16 years old today, I spent a couple of hours at the DMV taking a road test to get my drivers license. I did indeed pass which is super exiting! It is going to feel really strange being able to operate a car by myself. Especially when going to and from class, not having to be dropped off or picked up. When I came home, I did not have much to do however when the evening came around, I really had to study for school tomorrow. I have and English and AP Environmental Science test tomorrow. I had a really...

Today I woke up and went on a run. I was planning to run 4 miles like I usually do but when I was at the two mile mark, I had to stop and warm up inside my house. I did not expect it to be that cold outside, I assumed that when my blood started flowing, I would warm up. That was not the case. Anyway, I finished up the other two miles when I felt ready. After my run, I went ahead to knock out the rest of my requirements. The remainder of my day was reserved for relaxation. I did not have any obligations that I had to do. - Lucas

Today I woke up and went to class. We worked a lot on our belt level specials. Overall class was pretty good this morning. My birthday is only two days out and because of that, Master Chelley had planned a little birthday celebration in which everyone sung happy birthday and wacked me with pool noodles. Mater Chelley also gave me a small container of candy with a bow on top as a birthday gift. THANK YOU MASTER CHELLEY!!!! When I arrived home from class, I knocked out my requirements. I went to the grocery store with my parents a bit later in the day as well. The rest of my day was pretty relaxed, I did not have anything else going on. - Lucas  

Today I woke a up to a regular school day. no two hour delay or anything crazy. I got a little bit of homework but that was easily taken care of when I got home. I swiftly completed my requirements after school. A little later into the evening, I went to King Tiger for class. Class was pretty good but what was even better was I got to start to learn double stick form 2 after class. That seems like a complicated form. After class, I came home and relaxed for the rest of the evening. - Lucas.

Today I woke up at 6:00 like an ordinary school day. I started to get ready and then right around 6:15, the school calls and says their will be a two hour delay. Instead of crawling back in bed, I took advantage of the extra time and completed my requirements. It felt really good knowing that when I came home I would not have to do any kind of working out. After school, I went to King Tiger to get some leadership credits. I came home to eat and then went right back over to King Tiger for sparring class. After class, I came home and finished up the requirements that I did not have time for in the morning. - Lucas.

Today the school systems were on a two hour delay. Tomorrow, school for me will be the same as any regular day. I'm thankful that there was a 2 hour delay today because instead of waking up at 4:30 AM like I usually do on Wednesday to go for a run, I got to sleep in until 6:30 AM. School was per usual today, nothing crazy happened. I went to King Tiger for some leadership credits as well. After that I came home and did my requirements. The rest of my evening will be spent studying for my chemistry test on mole conversions and stoichiometry of empirical and molecular formulas. - Lucas

Today was a remote school day. I feel like my teachers assign a lot more things to do when we are at home than when we are at school. I had about 4 hours of schoolwork today. Luckily my school is on a 2 hour delay tomorrow, I think a lot of schools in the area are doing the same thing. A bit later in the afternoon, I knocked out my requirements.  I did not really do much else for the rest of the day. I am kind of happy we are going back to school tomorrow because it is quite boring when you do not have much to do for the day. - Lucas  

Today, school got called off. Instead of doing my requirements first in the day, I decided to do everything that I needed to do that was school related first. After a couple hours of schoolwork from home, I did all the daily requirements. School got called off for tomorrow as well. I kind of hope that school gets called off tomorrow because it is really boring not doing much for the whole day. The gutters on my house have some crazy icicles hanging from the gutters. I think the biggest one I saw was about 3 feet long. I really didn't expect to see huge icicles hanging from the gutters. The rest of my day was pretty laid back. - Lucas  

Today I woke up early and got my run over with. I am 3 minutes away from my goal of running less than 30 minutes for 4 miles. I finished up the rest of my requirements relatively early. The cycle has gotten more intense with an increase in minutes for everything. At about 10 in the morning my parents told me I was shoveling the snow off the driveway. That took a lot longer than I thought. We ended up getting roughly 9 inches of snow; that has to be some kind of record. This will make day 2 of my nutrition challenge, I am eating 100 percent natural foods, nothing that has been in through factory, has chemicals, or fake sugars. One difference I can already tell is my energy level has been a lot higher than usual. Its almost like the food humans were meant to eat, serve us...

Today feels like we are in the middle of a blizzard. When I went to class this morning, snow was already accumulating. there was only about an inch or 2 on the ground. Right now I would say there is about 7 inches of snow on the ground. It is supposed to keep up like this until late tonight. The snow feels like powder, it is so soft. Anyways, I started the 30 day nutrition challenge. My plan is to cut out all artificial flavors and sweeteners, along with unhealthy frozen foods. So I guess that means I am only eating 100 percent natural foods, nothing processed. It might be more difficult than I would think because I can't just go heat something up in the microwave, I actually have to make every meal. I hope all goes well and everyone stays safe and warm through the storm.

Today was a much easier school day when compared to yesterday. I ended up not getting any homework for the weekend. Although some teachers already assigned assignments for Monday just in case school gets canceled because of the upcoming snow. Speaking of which, I hope that black belt class at the Lake Norman location does not get canceled tomorrow morning because of weather. When I came home from school, I tried to squeeze in some requirements before weekday black belt class. After black belt class, me and my family went over to the grocery store to stock up on food for the weekend. I came home and ate dinner and will soon be going to bed to prepare for tomorrow morning's class (hopefully) - Lucas

Today was quite rough. Last night I hardly got any REM sleep. For some reason I had some crazy insomnia. I thought I would easily get over this for the day which I did. Unfortunately school was very difficult today. I guess all the teachers piled on assignments to make up for the couple days of school we missed. After my exhausting school day I went to King Tiger for leaderships and a mentor session. I came home and tried to knock out my requirements before class but I could not get them all finished. I went back to King Tiger for a mentee session and sparring class. After sparring class was when the lack of sleep was really catching up to me. When I came home for a second time after class, I had to finish my requirements, eat dinner, and also study for a pretty big math test. I probably...

I woke up relatively early today. I immediately knocked out my run before I did anything else. Once I cooled down, I continued to complete the rest of my requirements. After I was done working out, I logged on to my school computer to see what needed to be done. I probably spent 3 solid hours completing assignments, listening to lectures, and taking notes. After all of that was said and done, I did not do much for the rest of my day. I hope The roads are good enough to get to school tomorrow.

My school got called off again tomorrow. Its comical that 2 inches of snow / ice will completely wreck school systems for half the week. States in the north often get multiple inches of snow and they still commute to work and school like any other regular day. I spent a lot of my time today trying to clear ice off of my driveway. I never thought of how steep my driveway was until it was coated in ice. I felt like a penguin the way I would start at the top of the driveway to hack away at the ice and then make one wrong step and begin to slide all the way back down to the sidewalk. Without the help of the sun, I think my driveway would still be a sheet of ice. Later in the day I did my requirements. As I was relaxing later in the...

Today in the morning, all the snow on the trees had melted and was dripping on the ground which made a lot of the snow on the ground melt away as well. School got called off tomorrow so I will not have to worry about that. Later in day the towards the evening, the temperature dropped below freezing again. This means all the residual snow and wetness on the ground got turned into ice. As I was walking through my neighborhood on the sidewalk, I slipped and fell on some black ice. I heard it is going to get down to around 15 degrees tonight so there will most likely be the same amount of ice everywhere as there is right now. Stay safe everyone, watch where your walking, don't slip like me. -Lucas

I chose to sleep in today and when I woke up I was greeted with about 1.5 - 2 inches of snow.  Luckily this snow is great for sledding so I will probably see what hills I can find. I quickly finished my requirements and I ended up running on my treadmill. Surprisingly I ran my fastest time for 4 miles. I managed to shave close to 3 minutes off of my time. Once again hopefully everyone stays safe through the storm. - Lucas

I woke up and went to black belt class. The zoom meeting was not working so Master Marcus led our class this morning. Today we focused on our takeaways. I previously thought there was 10 takeaways that we needed to know however Master Marcus informed us that there is 32. I don't know how there is 32 different ways to escape someone's grasp on you but I will be eager to learn about them. We practiced 1 - 14 today. After class I came home and did my requirements. luckily this week we stay at the same minute amounts for everything. After my requirements I did some chores around the house. I am anticipating some harsh weather to come our way, hopefully it sticks until at least Monday. - Lucas

I woke up today and went to school. Today was Friyay, unfortunately this does not mean anything except the weekend is near. I came home and did my requirements and then went to class. I hope something magical related to the weather happens. Snow would be great but really anything that gets students out of school would be wonderful. Regardless what we get, hopefully everyone will stay safe. today marks the 1/4 of the way done with cycle for most; today marks the 1/8 of the way done for me and all the others testing for their masters or above. I feel like the cycle has been a lot less difficult ever since I started to embrace it. We know what is in store for us so instead of dreading or not looking forward to the obligations that the cycle brings, might as well embrace every challenge that gets thrown your way. -...

Today I woke up and went to school. Nothing unordinary or extraordinary happened, so I guess you can say my school day was pretty ordinary. I went to King Tiger to do some leadership credits and help out with a couple of classes. After that I went home to eat dinner and then went back to King Tiger for sparring class. I feel like every time I go to sparring, either we practice something new or learn something new. After sparring class I came home and finished my requirements and studied for the rest of the evening.

Today was my regular Wednesday schedule. I woke up at 4:30 (AM) and went on my run. I was relatively slow because I am still recovering from my knee "injury". Anyways, when I got back from my run which was freezing cold, it was 24 degrees outside. Luckily I like the cold weather. When I got home I got ready for school. Typical things happened at school. After school I came home and started doing requirements. The rest of the evening was uneventful, hopefully will feel better tomorrow for sparring class. - Lucas

Today I woke up and went to school like usual. Nothing to eventful happened at school. After school I went to do some leadership credits, that is going to become my new schedule. After school, go to King Tiger. When I got home I finished requirements. Nothing else eventful happened. Hopefully tomorrow will be more exiting than today. - Lucas

Happy Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. School is not in session today so I got to stay home and not worry about school.  I woke up and started doing requirements. The cycle has upped the intensity, we moved on from 3 minutes of basic exercises, to 4 minutes, along with 8 minutes of kicks. I do not really have to much to say. I will be spending my day relaxing and preparing for my chemistry test tomorrow.

So far my morning has been pretty good. I woke up and went to class, we practiced a lot of self defense in that class. I am feeling pretty good about myself, I feel like I know everything pretty thoroughly. After class I jumped right into my requirements, I started with those very early because I am leaving to see family very shortly. I am going to Greenville SC. I will be back by Sunday at noon. Quite a busy day. - Lucas

Today was pretty eventful, at school I had three tests, English, History, and AP Environmental science. All of which, luckily were pretty easy compared to some of the tests that were given in the past. When I got home from school, I started with the requirements. My knee is still giving me trouble, Hopefully that mess clears up soon. The rest of my night will be used for recovery. - Lucas

Today was pretty alright, I woke up to go to school, not a lot of interesting things happened their. When I got home, I started doing my requirements. I noticed that my knee was feeling a lot better today but still nowhere near back to its original capabilities. I finished up my requirements and then went to sparring class. All was good, I got home and began to study, I got a couple tests tomorrow. After I finished studying for about an hour in a half, I iced my knee. Yesterday when I iced my knee, I used and icepack, today I filled up a bowl and added ice cubes to it. This made the whole process way more intense. Hopefully it will be feeling better tomorrow. Until then, - Lucas.  

Today was quite a struggle. I started my day at 4:30 AM to knock out my run. All was good until I stopped running. Once I finished my 4 miles, I was cooling down a little bit and then my knee really started to hurt. I didn't really think much of it until I was getting ready for school, that's when my knee really started to hurt. This was not really any ordinary pain, I could tell it wasn't my bones or my cartilage, it felt more like my tendons, and ligaments. It was really strange because if I was standing normally, everything was fine, but as soon as I twist or bend my knee, it feels like every fiber and every connective tissue were screaming to quit moving. although like I said it was very strange because I could stretch and turn my knees as long as my knee was...

Today was almost identical to yesterday. I woke up, went to school, all the regular things happened at school, my school days remain being relatively uneventful. I came home and did the daily goals, (requirements). I have really started to practice my tornado and 540 kicks. The only thing holding me back is dizziness. I will get extremely dizzy only after a few kicks. Hopefully the more I practice, the better everything becomes. All was good for the rest of the evening. - Lucas

Today I woke up and went to school. Nothing spectacular happened, Just a regular day of learning. When I came home, I got through with the daily requirements. It is almost like a mental brain break to come home and be active before jumping right into homework. After all my requirements were finished, I did homework / studying. The rest of the evening had nothing eventful to it. - Lucas

Today I woke up at 9:30, this is very much sleeping in for me, usually I wake up rather early on weekends. When I woke up, I wasted no time getting to my requirements. I got those knocked out pretty early in the day. That means the rest of the day was left for completing homework and recovery time. Nothing else eventful happened, the rest of my day and night was pretty lowkey.

The day started at 5:00 for me. I was at the track by 6:00 to start my run. surprisingly I actually like running in a neighborhood with hills rather than on a flat track. I feel like my lower legs got fatigued easier when they hit that ground at the same angle every time. In a neighborhood, there are hills which prevent this from happening. Anyway, the pretest was continued, we finished up the physical requirements, and then went directly into class / pre test poomsae test. After all of that, I came home, grabbed something to eat, and then started with the rest of my physical requirements that the pre test did not cover. After all was complete, I had a pretty leisurely rest of my day and night. Until next time, - Lucas

Today I woke up like normal and went to school like usual. I went on with my day until I got to chemistry. We had a test in that class as I mentioned in my previous journals. I thought it went pretty ok, I got my score back later in the day, I got a 106% (all questions answered correctly + extra credit questions.) I was super stoked about that. I finished my school day with a smile and when I got home, I started with the daily requirements. Got all those knocked out and then headed over to King Tiger for the weekly black belt class. I got home and relaxed for the evening because I will be at the track at 6:00 AM for my pre-test run. Good luck to everyone on the pre-test tomorrow. - Lucas

Today was extremely eventful. My day started at 4:30 in the morning. I got up this early because I planned to knock out my miles before school. I decided that I am only running in 4 mile increments a couple times a week, because that is the distance I will be required to run for the pre and final physical test. I ate a bit of fruit and then began running. I finished up at around 5:40. I got myself prepared to go to school and then off I went. School was nothing fun, just teachers doing their thing (assigning assignments). I got home, and got to work on my requirements. After a little while, I went to sparring class, it was a blast. After sparring I was left with a couple hours to study for my chemistry test tomorrow.

Today was almost exactly the same as yesterday. I woke up at 6:00 and went to school. Nothing interesting happened their, just the usual things. I came home and that is when I started on my requirements. I like to start with them as soon as I get home from school so I can have the rest of the evening to do things that need to be done that is not related to TKD or school. I do not really have much homework ever because I took a study hall this year and was lucky enough to have the period towards the end of my school day in which if I were to get homework in one of my classes, it will have been already assigned making study hall at the end of the day helpful. While I was doing my requirements, I found out that if you keep your face...

Today was the first day back to school from winter break. The teachers decided to not make it easy for the students as I was greeted with a chemistry test on Friday. Other than that, everything that usually happens at school, happened. When I got home I began with the daily requirements. After I finished nothing else really went on. I am no longer sore from the initial brunt of the cycle. I heard that the flu has been rapidly spreading so I hope everyone stays healthy. - Lucas

Day 3 has arrived. I woke up early today to immediately begin with my requirements. Most schools start back up from winter break today, however, my school does not start until tomorrow. I do not really have much to do today because I finished everything I need to do today by 10:30(AM). I guess that means more time for recovery. Most likely will be playing chess for a while. until then, can't wait for school tomorrow. - Lucas.

Hello Everyone, my name is Lucas and I am on my audit cycle and will be testing for my fourth degree black belt at the end of the cycle. Yesterday was the first day of the journey, I woke up and went to the weekend black belt class. After that, I  went home knocked out the daily requirements. The first day is always a wake up call because you know the next day you are going to be sore, and if you aren't, then that means you probably need to fix your form while doing exercises. On the days you do not feel like completing your requirements, just tell yourself, the minutes that you spend training add up to less than 45 minutes (Not including your run). Today, I woke up early and starting completing all of the daily tasks. Can't wait for what this cycle bring. Until next time - Lucas.