Candidate Journals

Today practice got canceled, though I’m not entirely sure why. I had a great time at the sparring seminar tonight, and hopefully what I learned will stick and the quality of my sparring will improve and after that continue to improve.

As this week is quite assessment-heavy, all I can do is take them on one at a time; today it was a human anatomy test, which I’m glad I overestimated how difficult it’d be. Now I just need to plan out various papers and finish my current art project hopefully by Friday and take the other 3 assessments on Friday.

Gladly, I'm feeling much better than I was yesterday, which is good because I was concerned that it would affect my performance in the meet tomorrow. I was also able to get a lot of schoolwork done over the past couple days, which will be useful as this is going to be an assessment heavy week.

Today I had to sort of take it easy (I say sort of because I tend to not do so when I need to) because I wasn’t feeling well. Last night because the linens were getting washed I pulled out my sleeping bag, which hasn’t been cleaned in a good while, and slept on the floor; when I woke up it felt as if there was perpetually water in my ears which both muffled and amplified any and all sound. This forced me and my dad to leave church a bit early, but when I got home I took some Benadryl, did the requirements I could, and worked on some schoolwork.

Although there wasn’t class today, it was a quite busy day filled with mostly running errands and schoolwork. I’m definitely starting to enjoy my creative writing assignments.

Today I missed cross country practice because I accidentally left my clothes for practice at home. I made up the time by staying after school for a while in the art studio and got some work done.

Things are finally starting to settle into routine of going to school and then practice and then class, but this morning the routine was broken by a doctor visit. It was just a visit that I have to go to every 3-4 months to keep an eye on my breathing issues; in some aspects it was better, but in others it was worse. There are too many variables to accurately determine what is worsening some things, and in order to prevent other aspects from worsening as well, my dose for my daily inhaler was brought back up.

Today I had my first cross country meet of the season, and it went pretty decently. It was on a course we’ve never run before, and the humidity made it difficult to breath. Almost directly after I went to black belt class; I was struggling in class because I couldn’t shake the lightheadedness.

Tomorrow is the first cross country meet of the season for my school, and I’m fairly nervous about it as the season just started. We got our uniforms today which makes the meet and season feel a bit more real to me. Hopefully it goes well.

Today was overall pretty relaxed. After I got home from church I went on my run, did my other requirements, and then started going through old clothes to donate them. This took a couple hours but it’s something I’ve been meaning to do for quite a while now. Also, I was able to finish my oil painting.

Today didn't exactly go as planned. I had to stay home from school today because I wasn't feeling well, which also meant that I had to miss cross country practice and multiple classes that you usually can't afford to miss because of the workload. Despite that, I got what work and requirements I could done, and got some painting done.

As I suspect future days will be, today was quite the full day with school, then cross country practice, then leaving for class half an hour after getting home, and then homework once I got home from class, but today was good. I found it funny that in practice we did a 30min run at an easy pace in 95 degree heat and then as soon as practice is over it starts to rain and cool everything off.

Today was my first day of school, and it went pretty well actually, though I’m still getting used to so many things being moved around. It was also the first official day of the cross country season; we have a small team, but I like how that brings us together as a team. Also, because I have the most experience, and the Athletic Director is trying to fill a coaching position while trying to find a cross country coach with more distance running experience, he asked me to help coach the team for lack of better words due to this being my 7th season. 

Today was my last day of summer break, and overall it was pretty good. I got a decent amount of artwork and schoolwork done before going to summer camp and in between that and black belt class. Hopefully the school year goes well.

Today I got some work done on my very first oil painting, which I’m having a lot of fun with. In the evening, I had orientation for school, which overall went pretty well, though I just found out my schedule has me going from one side of the campus to the other after pretty much every class, but I’ll get used to it after a week or two. Also, I got to see the art room (the setup for art classes has moved around a lot in the past couple years, but now it’s back in the room it used to be), and I couldn’t imagine the setup being better; there are only 2 of us in the school (it’s a very small school), and the art teacher set it up so that we still have access to the rest of the room while still being in our little painting areas/corners...

Today was the last day my aunt is in town; she flies back to Louisiana early tomorrow morning, but I had a good time hanging out with her and the rest of my family. Also, as a really early birthday gift, my parents allowed me to get some oil paint, and I’ve already started a painting with it; so far I’m really enjoying it and I’m very grateful my parents allowed me to try this new medium of art.

Today was the pretest, and overall I think it went pretty well, though I felt the best about the run than the rest of the physical test. This afternoon though, I was sitting on the floor painting when my dog, who weighs between 45 and 50 pounds, sprints by, tries to jump over me/my work, and runs straight into my head, so now I have a nice little knot/bruise right above my left temple. I used a bag of frozen corn to minimize swelling.

Today I had to do my requirements in the afternoon as my morning was completely booked. I had a doctors appointment at 8:00am to get my physical and to get my shoulders looked at; the doctor still doesn’t want me doing pushups for while, and Im starting to feel bad about it while also understanding that it’s to prevent further injury so I’ll make do. After that I had to go to the post office with my dad to apply for a passport and then ran some various other errands.

Today was overall pretty quiet. I worked on my summer reading and some artwork after requirements, and then went to King Tiger for summer camp and helping with testing, which went pretty well. I also spent a bit of time with my aunt, which was nice.

Today was overall pretty good. My aunt came in this morning from Louisiana and she’ll be visiting for a while. I do feel quite bad that I forgot to journal yesterday, but today I did finish another essay.

Today went pretty smoothly; I woke up early enough to be able to make progress on both my artworks (I’d work on one while the other was drying) and do my requirements before summer camp. I ended up finishing my still life once I got home as I had to wait for previous layers to dry and then varnished it.

A good bit of today was spent on working on my still life painting for my AP Studio Art class; I suspect I’ll be finishing that and hopefully my other art project tomorrow that way I can do my summer reading before the 21st. I’ll be reading And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie and doing 12 informal journals on the book, which shouldn’t take long. I had to wait until I got my schedule to be able to do the reading assignment because there was an incident last year in which I was put into the wrong English class when I signed up for and did the reading for another one, and I didn’t want a repeat of that.

Today was pretty good, with its start being a sparring class. I spent most of my afternoon finishing requirements and helping my dad with various projects and home repairs.

Not terribly much happened today. I got a lot of work done on a painting for school as well as requirements and then worked summer camp to then spend time with my family. Overall it was a pretty decent day.

Today I finished my new skill of painting a self portrait, which was a fun process that gave me a challenge. Now I just have to finish 2 more projects for my art class and my summer reading assignment for school.

Today was pretty long as I was finding it difficult to get myself to paint, and I feel really bad for forgetting to journal the past couple days. My stings are doing better thanks to the Benadryl I’ve been taking but said medicine has just been messing with my sleep patterns. 

Today was a pretty quiet day, though in church I got to have a really good apologetics discussion. My hands were itching from the stings badly enough to where ice cubes and cortisone didn’t help at all and so my mom and I went to CVS to pick up some Benadryl and some Benadryl cream. I’m definitely going to sleep well tonight with the aid of the of Benadryl.

Today went fairly well, though I couldn’t do much art or school work today. So I was helping in the back yard and we must have accidentally disturbed a nest of a stinging insect (we suspect yellow jacket but we’re not sure), and both of my hands ended up getting stung by the same critter.

Today was a pretty relaxed day; after requirements I got a lot of work done on a painting for my art class and then did some baking before going to summer camp. Other than that not much really happened today.

Today my day was thrown off by me accidentally waking up very late. This was caused by the fact that last night I couldn’t fall asleep until 2am due to how much my shoulders were hurting and just a lot on my mind. My shoulders were still bothering me quite a bit today and prevented me from doing as many pull-ups as I would have liked.

Today my ankle was giving me a lot of trouble as it barely let me stand when I woke up. Because of this I didn’t want to risk another injury to that ankle as I hurt I a while back and it’s still giving me issues, so I decided to go on a long walk instead with my brother and dog as the weather was good.

Today was pretty good. I woke up at a decent time and got a lot of requirements done; also, I’m almost done with my portrait for my new skill, which I’ll post to the Facebook group when I’m finished with it. I’m also almost done with writing down the questions and most of the answers for the written test.

Today started out a bit rough, but I was able to use my requirements to help clear my mind by almost losing myself in what I was doing. Also, I shifted what I worked on with my art from my self-portrait to a 2-page spread art journal that I had to do for my AP Studio Art class. Thankfully my shoulders decided to cooperate a bit more today than they have been.

Today was fairly ordinary, though I needed to make up the pull-up requirements I missed yesterday despite my shoulders and back being in about the same amount of pain. I got a lot of work done on my painting, which I suspect should be done if not close to done within the next couple of days, and helped my mom make food for lunches for the rest of the week.

I noticed that my shoulders were having a bad day since waking up, but I tried to do what I could during sparring and black belt class. Once I got home I had to take ibuprofen though, which is something I don't really like to do. I did the requirements I could but my shoulders decided to not let me do as many negatives or even move my arms behind me or above my head for very long. Tomorrow, I will try to make up what I couldn't do today.

Today after I got home from King Tiger, I made cookies mostly for my brother as he's mostly been the one transporting me to summer camp. They were chocolate with peanut butter chips, and before I started I checked to see if I had everything I needed. Apparently, I didn't check how much vanilla I had, because partway through using it I ran out, of course with most of the other components already mixed, so I had to go to the store in the middle of baking to get more. While I waited for batches to bake I set up the next pan and then did poomsaes until the timer went off.

Overall today was pretty good. I started off the day with a run, trying to reinstate that into my routine both for the cycle and also for cross country. For some reason though, today it felt as if my body was disagreeing with the run with my bad ankle acting up, my shoulders not helping, and my usual breathing issues, but despite this, it felt good to get out there and run.

Today was a fairly productive day; I woke up at a good time, went for a run, did requirements, and then worked on my self-portrait until it was time to head to King Tiger for summer camp and class. Overall: pretty good day, though not much to talk about.

Today has been a pretty long day that started at 04:30 in the morning as I flew back to Charlotte today at 08:00. My dog was quite pleased and excited to see me home again. When I got inside I just unpacked, did requirements, and got ready to go to class.

Today we were supposed to fly back to Charlotte, but the flight got canceled, so we walked around the city a bit more. I wore my new Dr Martens because we were just supposed to be flying, but I didn't get a chance to change my shoes and since they're not broken in, the heat and almost constant walking caused the edge of them to chafe against my calf/ankle; once we got back to the hotel I did switch my shoes to converse before walking around more.

Today wasn't as hot, and we didn't do as much walking as the subway system has been working in our favor as we went from Central Park all the way to Battery Park and to the Empire State Building. I'm finding it interesting how this city doesn't seem foreign or shocking to me as it tends to for most tourists; it feels like I've been here 1,000 times before. Maybe the fact that almost the entirety of my mom's side of the family is from NY and that'd we'd visit Long Island every few years that makes it seem like a second home despite not spending much time in the city.

Today was the 1st full day in NY, It was filled with walking all over Manhatten; I guess it was a mistake to wear Converse as my feet were definitely complaining by evening, but it's fine. I think the Charlotte heat followed us here as it's been almost constantly in the mid-90s.

I tried to access the site during the trip but my laptop wasn't working so I handwrote my journals to be entered when I got back.   Today we left for NYC; I had to wake up early, but the flight went well. It was my first time on a plane since I was 2, ironically also to NY though that time I went to visit family in Long Island. I tried to get in as many requirements as I could in the morning before leaving for the airports. Even though I went to NY my freshman year for a fine arts trip I nearly forgot how much I liked the atmosphere of the city and what it was really like.

I accidentally missed yesterday's entry, which I feel bad about, so this journal is both a journal a sort of anecdote. Yesterday a keyboard (as in the instrument, not a computer keyboard) came in but I knew something was off when someone just pulls it out of a sedan, but because Amazon doesn't use solely UPS I thought it was fine. Because I was up in my room working on a painting, it took a few minutes for me to get an opportunity to go bring the keyboard inside; one of the first things I noticed was that the doorbell never rang. Then, when I went downstairs to bring it in I notice that the delivery guy left it in the literal middle of the driveway. Once I brought it in with my brother's help, we notice this gouge in the side of the box and that there were random screws...

It feels so odd to be back to my regular schedule. I feel as if I still should be and almost still am at Camp Grace; maybe that's just me missing the camp that is becoming increasingly more like a second home every year I go. One thing I definitely gained from this year is that although I still don't know what I'm going to do after this year of high school, panicking about it won't help; in fact, it'll just waste time and energy so I need to work on trying to not fret about that. I'm still readjusting to my routine not only for being back from camp but also to how I need to adapt my schedule to fit in both my school work and cycle requirements.

Today I feel slightly more recovered and got in a few more requirements than I have been. I spent most of the day painting as I'm using painting a color portrait as my new skill since I've never done one before and I have to do a self-portrait for AP Studio Art; it's going better than expected, but I won't talk too much about it as I need to save the material for the essay I'll write. Also, my dad and I took a trip to Guitar Center to look at keyboards to replace the one that we used to have but had to get rid of.  Also, because of my back and shoulders, I have been instructed to not do pushups, planks, or anything that requires my arms and shoulders to hold myself up, so the negatives (as I'm not able to do pullups yet) I've managed to do have...

Today we packed up and drove back home. From sheer exhaustion, I don't remember a good bit of the day, but I already miss camp. At one point I was tired enough to where I could barely stand (my legs and knees were giving out from hitting a wall of absolute exhaustion). 

Today I'm still exhausted, but there was too much to get done for me to be able to focus on that. One member of our group had to drive up to New York, and another had to suddenly leave after lunch due to one of his roommates going missing (he found her later in the afternoon but couldn't make it back to camp). Now our group went from 11 people to 8, and today is the "big clean." I had to beat out the rugs in the dining hall because the sand and grass gets everywhere, and I was told to use the mop sticks outside to do so. One of them ended up breaking. I must've been hitting the rugs harder than I thought. directly afterward I had to take a shower as I was covered in water (from other people cleaning rubber mats), dirt from the rug, and sweat...

At this point, I've completely lost track of what day it is save for the calendar in my watch. The member that left yesterday for work is back for today, but everyone still had to pull extra work as we are still down one person. Tonight was skit night with an ice-cream social afterward, causing me to get back to the cabin at around 2 am. There was one girl that we had to cut off from any more sugar or caffeine due to the severity of the sugar high she was on. Overall it was fun, but I'm exhausted from both the work from constantly being around people who always want to talk about something. This much social interaction is draining me, and I need a break from it.

Last night was the first full night of sleep I have gotten all week and yet somehow I still feel as if I did not sleep at all. 

Once again I could not get a full night of sleep, so at 05:45 I just decided to get up early to work on a couple of requirements and set up the dining hall early for breakfast. I'm already losing track of what day it is due to the combination of sleep deprivation and the sheer amount of things that have been packed into a single day. I'm really enjoying the sermons Pastor Tom Wycuff is giving during the chapels; it is a series of wisdom and godly wisdom with yesterday's sermon being about identity and tonight's being about what we allow ourselves to speak and whether or not it's helpful to others or not because of how destructive or helpful our speech can be, and I'm finding what he's talking about to be quite helpful and applicable to my own life.

Today was an interesting day at camp, but it felt as if an entire week was fit into a day. I'm definitely not adjusted to working the 18-hour days yet. At around lunch, my group that basically acts like a group of 8 older siblings, discovered that I am quite ticklish and have been jabbing me in the ribs at random times since. Overall it was a busy and long but fun day; it definitely didn't make the day easier when I was unable to get a full night of sleep due to not being used to the cots yet which caused me to wake up every hour or two.

The journals made during camp were handwritten as I had no access to the internet for the entirety of the trip.  Today I left for Camp Grace. This entailed an approximately 2.5-hour ride, but I was in a van with 3 other people while my dad rode with one other person; most of the ride was spent sharing stories, making jokes, and playing various road-trip games, which made the ride feel shorter than it actually was. As soon as we got to the camp we set up our bunks and got to work helping at the camp doing just about anything we were instructed to do. At 8:00 pm we attended chapel 

I know it's been a while since I've written a journal entry since I have already written my 30, but I figured that it would be fitting to give an update since the overnight test is tomorrow. Lately at school I have been swamped with school work as it is nearing the end of the first quarter, and I have had to miss 2 cross country practices this week because of it. I know I have prepared as much as I could have for the test to tomorrow, but I am still very nervous about it because of how much this test means to me. I have wanted to become a black belt ever since I was little, long before I had even heard of King Tiger, and I just don't want to mess it up when I have my opportunity to succeed. Is it possible to over-practice for this? I...

This week I went on a mandatory field trip this week in which we left Tuesday morning and got back this afternoon. We went to a camp owned by Young Life called Windy Gap; we go to this camp every year, and it is both a competition among the classes and a time for plenty of praise and worship for God. Windy Gap is in Weaverville, NC, which is just south i believe of Asheville. At this camp there is no cell service or WiFi so I was not able to log anything until today, and I actually kind of liked that separation from the media for a few days because we were able to grow closer as a high school without the pressure of the media, and I was able to have some time to myself in which I wasn't worried about what I need to do, what I haven't...

Today was kind of on the stressful side because for the mandatory trip my high school is going on this week, they decided to make a change in the dress code only last Thursday concerning the length of the shorts that we can wear. Before it just had to be modest, but now shorts have to be mid-thigh length. Yes, I know this is kinda random, but the change feels arbitrary since what it was before was just fine, and my dad and I spent a good portion of the day trying to find shorts that fit this new dress code, and none of the stores sold anything that fit it since the shorts also can't have any rips or tears in them of any kind. Today I also got a lot of work done on essays; now I only have to do the white belt challenge, community service, and new...

Tomorrow morning I leave for a school trip and won't be back until Friday afternoon, so this morning I did laundry, cleaned my room, and packed. There is no cell service or internet at camp, so I will not be able to log anything on the website until I get  back.

Today was pretty relaxed. I got my requirements done and worked on essays. Due to there not being class, I was able to sleep in on a Saturday for the first time in months, which I really needed after the busy week of school that I had. Other than that nothing particularly interesting happened.

Even though I had a lot of things due today, it was actually a pretty calm day. This is in part because we will be gone on a mandatory trip from this coming Tuesday and we get back on Friday afternoon. It felt really weird to not have a lot of book to bring home for homework. With there being no class tomorrow due to it being Labor Day weekend, I am kind of excited to be able to sleep in on a Saturday for the first time in months, especially after the long day I had yesterday.

Ok, so I love art and all, but my art teacher is starting to make art kind of stressful for me. During class we have to work on big projects, and outside of class we have to work on sketchbook assignments, which is fine, but each week we are given a list of 5 topics that we have to sketch and we pick 4 of them to draw. My teacher then collects our sketchbooks every 2 weeks; my art teacher is expecting both quality and quantity from these sketches as they are supposed to be good quality, have accurate perspective/lighting, must fill the page, and must appear to have taken 40min or more to complete. Everyone in my art class has been working really hard on these to make them look good, and here we are stressed because there are just too many assignments due in such a short amount of...

Today I finally finished all of my leadership credits. I am glad I got those done because that frees up a little time to get homework done since school is getting to be quite busy and/or work on essays for the cycle. Another reason why I am glad to be done with leadership credits is that now others can get those credits because I was starting to feel bad for constantly asking to do warmups because even though I knew I needed to get them done, I was starting to feel like I should let others catch up on their leadership credits, and now others can catch up on those credits. Overall today was a good day and I hope to have another one like it tomorrow.

Today I had my first cross country meet at Westminster Catawba Christian School in South Carolina. I honestly don't know I made it in time to take black belt class tonight, though it was with only a couple minutes to spare, and it really stresses me out quite a lot to be running that late. I also got the email about extra credit for attending the King Tiger 5k and helping at Ms Wendy's House, which I did both so I just logged the credits today, which I'm hoping is what I was supposed to have done. After the busy day I had today with also having tests and quizzes today and studying for some tomorrow, I am completely exhausted and I hope I will be able to focus on what I need to tomorrow.

Today I had to leave school early for a doctor's appointment. This appointment was a follow up for a previous appointment that took place last November. The story behind this is that I was having trouble breathing during a lot of track and xc meets, so eventually we get around to mentioning this the doctor when i got my annual physical in the summer of last year where I was told I had exercise-induced asthma and then referred to a specialist. Then in November, the specialist said that he thought that the issue was with my vocal chords doing the opposite of what they were supposed to do (they were apparently contracting and restricting my oxygen intake when I inhale and releasing any air reservoir when I exhale). Today he ran a test that he couldn't run before due to lack of equipment the would measure the amount of a certain...

Today I was planning to get up early and take my dog to Reedy Creek Park to walk the trails to get in some miles and then go to church, but I accidentally slept through my alarm since I couldn't get to sleep until 01:30 am because of how much I was coughing. It was too late to go to church, so my dad, my brother, and I still took my dog to the park to walk him through the trails, and he was quite excited at first until he walk went on and he became more and more tired. In the last .75mi. or so, it took quite a bit longer to walk due to how tried my dog was; we gave him plenty of water, we stayed hydrated, and everyone was happy with the walk.

Today I helped with the Junior Tigers' makeup testing and in black belt class we had the Pre-Test, although we only did kicks and the physical portion, excluding the run. I enjoy helping with testing, and I think that on the Pre-Test I didn't do half bad and there is still definitely room for improvement. I just hope that my work will pay off on the Physical/Written test on the 15th of September (unless the date has changed) when I have to show improvement.

Today I was hoping to get more work done for the cycle than I did, but I definitely got plenty done in my classes. For example, in my AP U.S. History class, went through the first chapter in its entirety in one 45min class period; this was made somewhat simpler since we all had already done work that required us to read through the book first, there are only 6 people, including myself, in the class, and my teacher taught in a way that was very straight to the point, so everyone knew that we needed to make notes of all the separate points he was making. In my Physics class, we finished the chapter and started review for our first test, which is on Tuesday. Pretty much all of my other classes were just as busy and productive, and I quite like it to be that busy so that I...

Once again, today went pretty ordinarily. Practice was interesting, to say the least, with plenty of hill and speed work. Class went pretty well too, but there were some things like certain kicks or forms that I feel like I could and therefore should be better. They were just minor things that I messed up on, and I try to convince myself that it's ok to be human and make mistakes sometimes, and usually it kind of works and I'm fine until I actually make any kind of mistake, where I end up finding myself focusing on the fact that I messed up and almost nothing else. The problem is that I expect perfection of myself, and when I don't attain that standard of perfection, I end up being quite brutal with myself, and I say/think things to myself that I would never even consider saying to another person because of...

Today went pretty ordinarily, but cross country practice was definitely interesting. Yesterday, my coach told us that we were going to use the weight room from 3:30 until 4:00. So my team mates and I are waiting in the hallway waiting for my coach to get there since we are not allowed to use the weight room without a coach or some kind of supervision present for safety reasons. 3:20 and then 3:25 roll around and Coach isn't there. We are used to our coaches running late since they have other jobs. 3:30 come around, and we decide that since others are already in the weight room and since someone volunteered to supervise until our coach get there, it should be fine to do our warmups and ladder drills until one of our coaches get there. We ended up doing this for half of the time that we could be in...

The day started at 06:00 when I had to get ready quite quickly so that I could take care of what I needed to and then go to my neighbor's house to take care of her dogs since I am dog sitting them while she is away. I decided to not count this as an act of kindness because of the fact that I get paid to do this. This morning I also had to correct my class schedule since I was put in the wrong math class. After that my day went pretty ordinarily, and in practice my coach had us run 3.5 miles at the pace we would run in racing 3.1 miles. We then did another mile's worth of speed/hill work and a cool down. After practice my mom picked me up and brought me directly to King Tiger North Charlotte so I could help with the color...

Today, I went to church, and my pastor just got back from an 8-week sabbatical to survey other churches and to study on his own and I really quite liked the sermon he gave today. After I got home I wrote up my empathy training essay from went I was mute for 12 hours last Friday. I found it surprisingly easy to write a full page, but the hardest part of writing it for me was just getting started. Once I got started, I was fine, but I just found it difficult to start the essay without it sounding awkward (I just wanted the different thoughts to flow together nicely). School started last Thursday, which means that tomorrow starts the first full week of school, and I don't mind school; sometimes I wish it wasn't so monotonous though.

This morning went pretty well, although I felt much more nervous, panicky, on edge, whatever word you want to use to describe it really, and I ended up tripping on the brick stairs on the front of my house and my knee landed on the corner of one of the bricks. The reason why this happened is because, I was already panicking, rushing, and with that combination, something like that is bound to happen. I think that part of the reason why I was like that is because last night, at around midnight when I was trying to get to sleep, I heard 3 shots from a weapon that sounded like a rifle come from the general direction of my street (I live in a cul-de-sac), and then I woke my dad up to tell him what I heard, and not even a couple minutes later, both of us heard 6...

Unlike CMS, I started school today on 16 August 2018, and I am glad that I memorized my schedule (seeing as I have all 8 eight classes every day) before going to school because I accidentally threw away my hard copy of my schedule that I received before school today since I missed orientation due to being sick. At this point you might be wondering, "How do you accidentally throw away something that important?" Well, the schedule got mixed into other papers that I didn't need and was throwing away, and I didn't notice this until sethat veral minutes afterwards. I am pretty happy with all of the classes that I'm in, though I know that they require quite a lot of work. Cross Country was definitely interesting with doing speed work consisting of 400 and 200 meter repeats (1 lap and 1/2 lap sprints) on a track that has no...

Today I chose to complete my 12 hours of being mute for my empathy training essay, and I thought that since on days that I'm home doing work or just have alone time, I am already pretty quiet for hours on end, I figured I would make it something that I'm not used to, by choosing to be mute on a day that I have school, but don't have anything that absolutely requires me to talk. I chose today because my coach for cross country decided to not give us practice, and there is no class for Tae Kwon DO on Fridays at the North Charlotte location. The day went well and actually pretty smoothly, but I definitely did have a number of people ask me why I was silent, and I would write out why, and I also had a couple people try to get me to talk during this...

Today I was feeling mostly recovered from being sick yesterday; this morning though, I thought that it wasn't better, but as the day progressed, I noticed that I felt significantly better. I was even well enough to go help with class, which surprised me, but my mom didn't want me to go to cross country practice today because I was not 100% better. As far as getting stuff done, I would have like to have gotten more of my requirements done, but one positive is that I finished my reading for school, which took longer than I anticipated.

For pretty much all of yesterday, I couldn't stop sniffling, but I thought it was nothing. Then this morning it was worse, and my throat hurt quite badly from the mucus dripping from my sinuses. I don't feel terrible, but I am definitely sick. I am disappointed with how little I got done, and when my dad got home he told me that I couldn't go anywhere, so I had to miss cross country practice, orientation for school (which starts on Thursday, August 16 for me), and I had to miss class tonight. Hopefully I feel better tomorrow.

Today had an early start with a doctor's appointment 07:45am to get my physical so that I can participate in cross country. Today was also the first day of practice, and though we don't have enough people to score as a team, we can score individually. I don't mind this because I actually like having a small team anyways since you can bond as a team much more easily.

I am quite pleased with how today went. I got to go to church this morning with my dad, and when I got home, I completed two more essays, so I have three total completed essays, and I am also pleased with everything else I got done. In Sunday School, we learned about how a behavior can be passed from one generation to the next due to children learning what they see and how it can also stop when one generation decides to change it. In the church sermon, the pastor spoke about what the relationship between a parent and their child should look like. As far as essays go, I completed the role model and one of the living hero essays today, and a few weeks ago I had already finished the essay about how Tae Kwon Do can be applied to my own life, though I might go back...

Today was quite productive; I went to sparring class, which I enjoyed since we got a great workout and lots practice with improving the technique of our kicks. After sparring class I went to go help out at Master Richie's house, and we got a lot done there. I am glad I was able to get a lot done at home also, and I hope tomorrow will be even more productive.

Today was pretty ordinary, but I had a meeting for cross country at 3:45 this afternoon. In that meeting I found out that there are going to be only 2 other people on the team, which means that we can't score as a team because you need 5 total people, but we can race individually if we can't convince people to join. I also found out that the coaches for this season, who coached Track last school year, had never coached cross country before, so I am going to bring in an old training schedule from last season as guide since my coaches said that they were going to refer to me and my teammates, who have also been running cross country for a few years, on what to do for practices. Our seasons start on Monday and we will have practice every week day except Fridays and meets are going...

This morning started off pretty ordinarily with doing requirements and reading for school, and after lunch I called down to the North Charlotte location to find out what time testing started for the Junior Tigers since I wanted to help but didn't know time it started. Doing push ups and sit ups in my living room is always interesting since my dog usually sits by me or tries to sniff my face and I usually joke with my parents or my brother saying that my dog is just helping me count. At around lunch time I was feeling somewhat cooped up so I just tagged along with my brother on running errands that would typically seem mundane.

I was quite pleased with what I was able to get gone today. I made a decent amount of progress with my requirements, I got plenty of work done on my reading for school, and I had to get another new mentee since the other two that I had gotten just did not show up when they said they would. I also got schedule conflicts for school resolved. Despite what I got done, my last journal was not published to the website even though I got the email notification that it did, and I am not sure what to do about that. I hope that gets resolved, but as a precaution I will take a picture of this post, of the email notification of the last one, and future posts so that I have a record of the journals that I write and if need be, email this photographic record to...

Today, I was pleased with how much I was able to get done, but I did find it quite challenging to stay focused on what I was doing for any extended amount of time. I ended up starting a quick painting that didn't take much thought since I have had the idea for several days, but to me the idea seems a little cliche for my taste. I decided to paint despite having limited time because for me, just the act painting presses a figurative reset button that allows me to either calm down when I'm stressed out or it helps me to focus on what I need to get done; it all depends on what I need at the given time. Hopefully tomorrow I am able to focus on what I need to do a little bit better.

Today was nice and productive; although I didn't complete all of the requirements I was wanting to, I was able to make a decent amount of progress on my book reading for both school and the cycle. Hopefully I get more done tomorrow, and knowing myself I'll probably miss something, but there's always room for improvement. Who knows? Maybe (and hopefully) I won't miss something.

This morning I went to church and found today's lesson quite applicable, and church usually goes until about noon but ended early today. The rest of the day was pretty calm as I completed requirements and worked on my summer reading for school.

I was definitely more satisfied with the amount of training I got in this morning with sparring class and black belt class right afterwards, and I'm glad with the amount of reading I got done for school when I got home.

Today wasn't nearly as productive as yesterday, and I am quite disappointed in myself for that because I feel that I could and therefore should be doing better than I am. Hopefully tomorrow, I get more done.

I just started ready my book for the cycle, and I've already read about 2/3 of it. I would definitely recommend Living with no Excuses: The Remarkable of an American Soldier by Noah Galloway. Now I just have to balance reading this book with reading the books that I have to read for school, which starts on August 15 for me.

After seeing the daily goals for each of the requirements, I am somewhat upset with myself because I miscounted how many of each requirement I needed to do, and in doing this, I have done too many of some requirements at one time, and too few of others. On the bright side, now I know this information, and I can distribute my time and my requirements better.