Candidate Journals

One important part of keeping my body healthy that I have been working on is my diet. I tend to eat a lot of snacks at night, which I am trying to cut back on. This is extremely important, even between cycles.

Calculus is getting more much difficult. Recently, I've been taught how to find the maximum amount of error between an approximation and the true integral for a set partition. Thinking about it hurts my head, and I have a test on the subject on Tuesday. I'll be spending a lot of time studying that.

During my mentor session today, we practiced brick breaking on the colored boards. It was the first time I had ever broken the brown board, which is the second most durable of them all. I had great difficulties breaking this board in the past. I'm glad to see that I've been improving over the years.

Today was a day filled with homework and college scholarship essays. I've been writing these essays since the beginning of summer, and the process has been very time consuming. I am almost done with the essays I have now, but by the time I finish them I will have found more scholarships to apply to and more essays to write for them.

Another hurricane has hit the east coast today. I believe I have family in Florida, and I hope they are doing well. Thankfully the hurricane will become a tropical storm as it gets closer to the Carolinas. CMS has closed its schools tomorrow because of this, but I will still be attending school because my school runs on the class schedule of UNCC, which has not cancelled classes.

Today, I had a math test in calculus II. Tomorrow, I have a test in computer science. Studying for these tests have been difficult. However, I've been studying for them like I have for the written test for the cycle; I put all of the information in a Google Sheets document, and view them every now and then. This technique has served me well!

I enjoyed myself at the stick seminar earlier today. Not only did I learn new techniques, but I learned ways to apply them in fights. What I learned with the sticks can also apply to hand-to-hand; after all, the sticks are merely extensions of our bodies. Many of the strikes and blocks we do with them can be done without them. In a normal fight, I'm most likely going to be without my short sticks, so it's important for the techniques to carry over.

It had been several years since I learned how to do CPR. This was a good experience for me. I'm glad that I could potentially use the knowledge I am learning at King Tiger to potentially save lives. What we learn is very situational, but being able to defend yourself in a fight and perform CPR are very important skills to have.

Since this is my final year of high, I am applying to colleges on top of school and the cycle. Dividing my time between the three has been the greatest challenge I am currently facing. However, with the cycle ending soon, I will be able to spend more time on school and college applications.

Today was a busy day. I attended a tutoring session for calculus II in the morning and a college information session for Duke University in the evening. Time was not in abundance today. It's a good thing I did those extra requirements over the weekend.

A large amount of homework was done today, particularly for calculus II. I was told it would be the most difficult of the calculus classes, and I can definitely see why. Each problem can take up to multiple minutes, which is time consuming. At least the homework due Wednesday is done.

Tomorrow, school starts again since the hurricane has ended. I'll miss having the extra time to do more requirements, but time is a finite resource. I'll be back to my daily routine where I do half of my requirements before I leave for school and the other half after I come home.

My writing class today acted as a free period. I was able to work on homework for that class and other classes, which I was very glad for. I have many assignments and projects to work on, so the extra time was very appreciated.

Recently, my brother became a basketball coach for a young basketball team. It was his second day coaching, and he did extremely well. He has always been passionate about basketball, and I'm proud of him for being able to turn his passion into a profession. I hope to follow in his footsteps and do the same for one of my passions, those being software development and taekwondo.

Usually, on Wednesdays, I help out with one the classes at the North Charlotte location. However, due to large amounts of homework, I simply did not have the time to make it to the class. While taekwondo is my passion and I need to obtain leadership credits, school must be my priority.

Today, I visited the Lake Norman location for the first time in years for a mentee session. I remember going to this location in a previous cycle to attend sparring classes on Fridays. Apparently it's been so long since I've to the Lake Norman location that the Friday sparring classes are old news. I'd like to visit some of the other locations to see how they've changed as well.

Because this is my audit cycle, I do not take the written test this cycle. However, with the extra time I have since Charlotte have basically shut down, I am able to look at the written test every now and then to keep the answers in my mind. There are a lot of questions to remember and I don't want to try to relearn them all when I start the next cycle.

There is one week left until the physical and written test. I am continuing to work on my physical requirements and studying for my written test. While I feel like I am ready, I won't study any less. 

Over the past few weeks I've been working on applying to colleges. So far I've applied to four of the five schools I want to attend. With this almost done, it leaves me more time to focus on my current school and the cycle. I've got plenty of studying to do for both. 

Hurricane Florence has halted both school and taekwondo classes for me. While I am unable to leave the house, there are plenty of things to do within the house. Homework, cycle requirements, and chores don't go away, even amidst natural disasters. I have not gotten the bad end of the storm and do not need to evacuate, so I am able to stay on top of the things mentioned.

Today, I learned the fifth staff form. It has a similar pattern to the fourth staff form; go forward, turn left and right, turn around and repeat. This makes the poomsaes easier to remember, but easier to mix them up. This is where practice becomes really important. I can't mix the poomsaes together during testing!

Today, my writing class was completely cancelled. I was able to head home early because of it. I would have loved to have some extra free time because of it, but instead I had to devote the time to household chores. There's never a dull moment when you're on the cycle, even if you're not doing cycle-related stuff.

There's a lot I need to know for the cycle; hapkido forms, staff and stick forms, the list goes on. While all of this information is useful for me, it is also useful to others. There are some things that my mentee needs to learn, and she plans on learning them from me. This makes me want to make me want to know what I need to know even more than before.

I renewed my membership at a local fitness center. This way, I can run miles on the treadmills there rather than concrete. I will still practice running without the treadmill every now and then, since that is what we will do during the physical test. Today, I ran 1.5 miles in 15 minutes. While this is the pace at which I need to run, I will need to build my stamina so that I can run for 4 miles at the same pace. I plan on running on days where I do not have as many classes, meaning Mondays, Fridays, and the weekend.

Today during my mentor session, I went over many poomsaes involving weapons, including double stick form 1 and bolo form. It's been a long time since I've done either form. I remembered most of the bolo form, but the same could not be said for the double stick form. Many things have changed in both forms, so I'll need to pay attention to those whenever I do them.

Tomorrow, I will be training to run 4 miles in 40 minutes. Historically, running is what I have struggled with along with pullups. However, my pullups are starting to look better. I'll see what my running is like tomorrow after black belt class.

Today was a good day to do some extra requirements. I finished my requirements early in the day, so I decided to do more as the day passed. I am making progress in the amount of burpees and pullups I can do at once, but I still need to continue training. I ought to continue doing cycle requirements after the cycle so that I don't regress again. 

On Mondays, I have the second smallest amount of classes, beaten only by Fridays. I also do not go to King Tiger on Mondays. Because of this, I am capable of doing a large amount of homework and studying on Mondays. The cycle is not the only important thing I am doing, and I'll need to balance doing work for both.

The pretest took place today during black belt class. I did well in some areas; namely pushups and situps. However, I need to work on my v-situps and burpees. I need to be able to do more of them in a shorter period of time. Thankfully, I now know that I need to work on these two things.

Today was the first time I helped with the adult class at the North Charlotte location. The class is a lot smaller than the classes I'm used to, which makes it easier to help individuals. It's been a while since I helped out with a class, and I forgot how much I enjoy it.

Because my classes are spread throughout the campus of UNC Charlotte, I am able to record the distance I walk as part of my cycle. Today's distance was 1.81 miles, but this was because of an unoptimize d route. Once I optimize my route to my classes, my distance will decrease. I'll make up for this as I train to run 4 miles in 40 minutes, a requirement for my physical test.

Had it not been the owners of the North Charlotte location, I would not have been able to test on this cycle. I am a third dan, and it has not been three years since I've gotten my belt. However, I was given special permission to join this cycle and the next cycle so that I have a chance to get a fourth dan before I leave for college. I know I've said it before, and I will say it again, but I want to thank Master and Mrs. Evins for giving me this opportunity. 

Today is the last day of the cycle where I don't have to worry about school. Starting tomorrow, I will be going to school, leaving less time to do my requirements. Theoretically, I could do some of my requirements at school. That would be a lot of explaining to do for my teachers and fellow students. Depending on how much time I have at home, I just might do it. Maybe I could even get some of my friends to exercise with me.

I have two very important tests coming up; one of them is for the black belt cycle, and the other is for my history class. I am finding it very difficult to study for both of them at the same time, but the black belt test is after the history, so I will be able to focus on it after I take the history test.

During school, there was a protest on campus related to the recent police-involved shooting. The protest happened to be at a building I go to very often. I was there the day of the protest, but I must've left right before it started without even realizing it.

Today was my last required mentor session. However, I will still be going to my mentor just like I have been so that I can stay on top of my poomsaes and self-defense. I'm mostly confusing myself between similar forms, such as staff forms 3 and 4, but I will practice them so that I will do well on my tests.

I went running today with my dad to perform a mach-test, and I am indeed able to run the required distance in the required time. Next time, I will try to complete the run in a shorter amount of time so that I will feel more prepared for the real test.

Late nights are kicking my behind. I've been staying up til late practicing poomsaes (including my creative form) and writing my ki energy essay. Writing essays has never been my strong suit, and this 5-page essay is difficult for me.

My grades in my college are looking great, despite the fact that I’m on the cycle. I have not gotten a single grade below a B, and most of the grades are A’s. I can’t believe I’m almost 1/8th if the way through the 11th grade, let alone almost done with the cycle.

Many of my requirements are now complete. However, that does not mean I am not doing them, even though they are not going in to the website. With most of my requirements complete, I am focusing on the written exam and my ki energy essay, as well as my v-situps and pull ups.

Over the weekend, I was in Wilmington, North Carolina. Yesterday was my uncle’s wedding! While I was away, I worked on my creative form and my written test. I’ll do my best to finish learning all of the questions for the test at least a week before the exam.

Even though the physical and written tests have been pushed back to the first of October, I am going to continue studying for the written portion. I have all of the answers, so now all I have to do is memorize them. I will also be practicing what I need to do for the physical test. The v-situps will probably be the most difficult part, but I know I will be able to pass both tests.

Today, during my mentor session, I worked on my Pal Gwe forms. I know that I know them, but I keep mixing multiple Pal Gwe forms together by accident. I’m also mixing them with similar Tae Keuk forms. When I work on poomsaes, my focus is on those forms so that I can get them looking the way I want them to look.

I had a surprisingly full schedule over the past couple of days, so I did not complete as many requirements as I would’ve liked. However, I plan to do extra requirements throughout the week at home while focusing on my schoolwork during my free time at school.

My math homework is complete for the week and most of my physical education work is done as well. This means that I can focus more on my requirements. Since I have completed the set amount of certain requirements, I can focus more of my time on the other unfinished requirements and the ki energy essay.

Schoolwork is starting to pick up. My history essay is due tomorrow, and I have math and physical education assignments due Friday. I have finished the essay, and although I have worked on the other assignments, they are not complete. I plenty of time during school to work on them tomorrow, so the plan is to finish the math at school and the physical education assignments when I get home.

Right now, my main focus is mentor sessions. The next time I see them, I am going to set up more times to work with them. That way I can get them finished and learn what I need to know before the deadline. There aren’t that many poomsaes that I need to learn, and I have learned all of the self-defenses I need to know.

Yesterday, I went out with my father to help him with his job as a D.J. We were gone for hours, and when we came back home it was well past 10:30. I lost a lot of time that I could have used to do requirements, but he gave me that time back today. Thanks to that, I was able to do extra requirements today.

Most of my classes are on either a Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule, a Tuesday-Thursday schedule, or an everyday schedule. However, my math class only meets on Mondays and Wednesdays. This means that I can the time where I would normally be in class to work on other classes’ homework, such as the history essay. Once that essay is complete, I will work on my ki energy essay.

I now have an essay to write for the cycle and an essay to write for school. The school essay is about a history document found in a text book, and the cycle essay is about ki energy. I’m going to work on the school essay during the hours of free time I have during school tomorrow, and finish it over the weekend. I will then finish the ki energy essay that I’ve already started. I also have the community service essay to write, but I can’t write that yet.

Yesterday, I only had two classes; history and engineering. Today, I had three classes. Those classes were seminar, math and engineering again. All of my classes are in different buildings, so it was difficult to learn where all of the buildings were. The teachers excused late students because of this, but this will change next week. I'm starting to get homework in my classes, so doing requirements is going to be a little interesting from here on.

Today was the first day of my college classes, and it went very well. My teachers were nice to everyone (even the students who came in late) and the classes were entertaining. Hopefully these will last tomorrow and the days after. I also have a new phone, so I will be able to track how far I travel at school and not round down to two miles every day.

Over the weekend, my phone shut off unexpectedly and wouldn't turn back on. Because of this, I am not able to reliably track the distance I am traveling at school. I know that I have walked at least two miles because of the buildings I walked to, but I know that I walked more, and I would've liked to count that distance.

Today I did my empathy training and went blind. My mom tied a bandanna around my eyes when I woke up this morning. She and my dad have been helping me through my day. Some parts of the day were a lot harder to do, such as eating, doing requirements and doing requirements. I was able to navigate through my house with relative ease, but only because I knew where everything was.

Today was the sparring seminar that I paid $45 for. It was definitely worth the money, as I learned a new way to spar and learned about some techniques I should practice. I also had fun learning learning the techniques with my friends from the North Charlotte, along with new friends from other locations. I honestly expected more people to show up from North Charlotte, but the class was still fairy large nonetheless. 

Today at school, we talked about or class schedules. Because of the early college program I’m in, I am taking college classes on the UNCC campus. That means I will be either walking or take the bus to all of my classes. I prefer to walk while I’m on the cycle, but once it’s over I could take the bus every now and then so that I could have some extra time in between classes to study.

Doing extracurricular activities is difficult while in school and on the cycle. I’ve wanted to work on a passion project for the past couple of days, but the other things I need to do take priority over it. Although I don’t have much free time to work on it anymore, I do find some time every now and then. It’s not every day, but it’s better than nothing.

Sparring classes have been going really well. I've been told that my kicks look a lot better since I started taki g the classes, and I can see and feel the difference. One thing I know I need to work on is chaining multiple kicks together and knowing what to doin the clench. My mentee sessions have also been going very well. My mentee is is looking much better on the things we've worked on. It's nice to watch them grow and be part of the reason for that growth. 

The walking I'm doing at school is beneficial. I'm able to get miles for the cycle extremely conveniently. At the same time, though, I'm not able to do other requirements. It's an interesting trade-off, but I think it's worth it. I won't have to take extra time to go to a gym or walk around my neighborhood. I'm able to walk three to four miles a day, which is usually more than I do at a time anyway.

Taking class on a college campus is going to be awesome. Not only am I going to have more free time, but I’ll be walking to many of my classes, meaning I can count my travel distance to the cycle. Just today, I walked over 4 miles! I’m probably not going to be walking 4 miles every day, but something is better than nothing. I've also been working with my mentee, and one of the major improvements I'd like them to make is on their rolling. I used to need major improvements on my rolls as well, so I'm going to teach her the same way I was taught.

The soreness in my legs is coming back. It started after sparring class yesterday, and the pain messed me up while I was running miles today. Usually, the pain leaves after a couple days, so I’m not that worried about it. I’ll be starting school tomorrow, so my schedule for getting requirements done is going to heavily change, but since I’ll be taking classes on a college campus, I’ll be doing a lot of walking that I can convert into miles for the cycle. That's going to bother my legs, but I won't have time to care about that.

The most difficult color belt self-defense, and the main reason we stay up all night during testing is red and high red belt self-defense. The hip toss, different feet being in front and the sweep are the most difficult part for me. My mentor and I worked on it today, and I am sure we will continue to work on it in the future. If I give it my all and don't give up, I'll be able to do well on the test.

One of the the most difficult challenges for me when it comes to what I need to know is my self-defenses. Thankfully, I have an awesome mentor who is helping me with them. He helped me with 2nd Dan one step self-defense the other day, and today I was helped with 2nd Dan specials. Now that I can practice these at home, I'll be able to thank my mentor when I pass the testing.

My mentee has not been to King Tiger, so I cannot get any mentee sessions in. However, my mentor is there every day, so I’m able to work on the things I need to work on. My self-defense was one major thing I was having trouble on, and we’ve been working on it for the past couple mentee sessions. I do feel bad for my mentor’s other mentee, who has to attack me for 2nd Dan self-defense.

Today was a good day at King Tiger. Right before I started sparring class, I was asked to help out with a Junior Tigers class. Right after that, I was asked to help with a family class. I was then allowed to go into sparring class and the black belt class afterward. I’m glad that I was able to help my dojang when it needed help and get requirements for the cycle at the same time.

I don’t think the fire alarm likes us. It went off during summer camp again today, but we knew there was no fire, so we made the kids put their shoes on before going outside. The problem should be temporarily fixed because the alarm was disabled. Hopefully there will be a permanent solution to this problem soon.

Today, during summer camp, the fire alarm went off. I was in the middle of a mentor session, so I was barefoot when I went out the building. It was a hundred degrees outside and the ground was at least ten degrees hotter. There was no fire to my knowledge, so we went right back inside, but only to hear the fire alarm again and head back outside. The cause of the dual fire alarm is unknown to me, but that was the highlight of my day.

Today was a pretty good day. I went walking with my mother after work. It was very relaxing getting to just walk and look at some of the buildings I don’t usually come across. I also confirmed that Master Knight will be my mentor, so I’ll be training with him during summer camp.

Today, while I was running, my leg started to bother me and I got a headache. I had to walk part of my three miles for the day because of it. When I got home, I felt much better. I hope this sort of thing doesn't happen on the day of the test because I would like to have a not-terrible-but challenging time.

Yesterday, I competed in the Kukkiwon Cup. I came in third place during the competition. I practiced right before I competed and the poomsae went very well. It was the best one yet. I'm proud of the medal I got and hope to do better in the next tournament I'm in.

My mentee has been doing better since our mentee sessions have started, but there are a couple errors that she tends to make. While everyone makes mistakes, I am determined to make her poomsaes look as good as the ones that will be at Kukkiwon Cup. I know she has the potential to make her poomsaes flawless, so I'm going to make sure it happen.

I've been practicing Koryo poomsae for the Kukkiwon Cup for the past couple days. I've gotten more feedback on the poomsae and I'm working towards making it better before Saturday. I'm a little nervous that I'll make a single mistake and how much it would cost me, but if I work hard and stay positive, I'm sure I'll be okay.

For the past couple days, I was thinking about who my mentee should be. Today, all of a sudden, after summer camp's class, Alex asks me to help her with her self-defense. I asked her if she would like to be my mentee for the cycle, and she agreed. We agreed to meet daily after leadership classes. This will get most of my mentee requirements done before school starts.

My requirements have been recently getting more difficult than at the start of the cycle. My body is in constant pain and cramps more easily than before. At the beginning of the cycle, I was able to run over three miles straight, but now I'm barely able to run two. Hopefully my body gets used to this amount of exercise before testing.

The pain in my foot came back last night, but it was nowhere near as bad as it was the night before and it only lasted a couple minutes. This made today's sparring class easier than it would've been. It was, however, still difficult. I got some tips for sparring and I learned that I cannot perform Tae Baek at the Kukkiwon Cup. Instead, I'll be performing Koryo.

Last night, my right foot was in unbearable pain for two hours straight. It woke me up while I was sleeping, and I have no idea why. This morning, my dad gave me an ankle brace to wear throughout the day, and the back of it was digging into the back of my ankle. I took it off when I got home, and there's still a mark where it was. I hope the same thing doesn't happen tonight.

Today, Master Knight surprised me during summer camp class. After leading the warm-ups as usual, he had me stay in the front of the class and had me test some of the students for their black stripes. I then broke the class into groups and we practiced physical activities; push-ups, burpees, etc. Today was my first time doing this and it felt great. It made me extremely nervous, but I would like to do this once a week or so.

The leadership credits I've been getting have really helped me as a young instructor. I'm able to learn a lot of things that I would not normally pay attention to, such as the order of the warm-ups and what they're called. I'm also learning the color belt curriculum, which has changed since I became a black belt.

The black belt classes always become more rigorous during the cycle, and this cycle is no exception. Master Evins is going to make we pass. I was able to get a lot of requirements done, so it wasn't bad at all. Since school starts in the second week of August for me, I'm going to as many classes as I can in the month of July.

Today was a really good day at summer camp. The kids were having lots of fun, which means I was having fun. I'm glad I got a break, but I'm also glad I'm back. I'm still trying to work on a project for the summer camp's Board Game day, but I don't have much time now. It will, however, get completed for them to enjoy.

Today was the last day of my 4th of July break. Tomorrow, I'll be working at the North Charlotte King Tiger location. It will also be my first with a job and on the cycle at the same time. I'm interested to see how things will go.

After about a week of struggling with this website, everything seems to be working very well. I'm ahead on my requirements and I'm working on the essays. I finished reading A Long Way Gone for my book report today, and it was a very interesting book, but I'm not sure if I mean that in a good way or not. Nevertheless, the essay will explain more of this.