Candidate Journals

My day started off with a lot to do then I got some real sad news  From a friend ,my heart in weighing heavy for her. So sometimes you think things are so important then you realize they're not.

Finished all my mentee sessions! My mentee is going to test on Thursday, I can't wait. Finish all my burpees, I'll still do them, but that one less thing to do. Been studying this week to prepare for the pre-test, I am super pump to get it done.

Today I got to celebrate my birthday with my family. I worked out with my husband, went to the movies to see The Lion King with my kids, then watched and snuggled TV with everyone. It was a fun, chill day!

Today was my first day of school. I was on a new campus. I'm in a class with all my friends. Everything is pretty chaotic because it's a new year. I will do requirements after school.

It has been a super long week full of craziness the cycle is tough and its supposed to be tough. The easiest thing for me is the pomsaes and self defense and the hardest is the run. The hardest thing about the run is finding time to do the run and sometimes knowing you have to run everyday even though you are tired. Easiest thing about pomsaes and self defenses is you just have to remember it and do it strong. 

I got my Tonsils out and now I am working on my written exam and essays.  I hope everybody has a good Tuesday!!!

Today was a chill day so I got a lot of requirements in. It rained a lot today so we did not do much but I did go  to the pool for like 30 minutes but then it started to thunderstorm. After, that we went to a fancy restaurant and the food their was really good.

Today, I started mixing up poomsae, so figured that was enough for now. Today was a doozy of a Monday. Work was hectic. I did manage to get in 40 pushups throughout the workday though. Tomorrow is fast approaching. Studying the color belt study guides would be appropriate this week. 

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.

Hot day at work , took a little  Bit out of me. Water, water  Stay hydrated. In all and all it was a good day.

Today I did The cycle in the morning and then me and my sister hung out in then basement. After that I went to my friends house well my sister went school shopping. After that I went to my friends house, had tae kwon do, and had dinner. Now I am at home typing this.

I don't do well with testing so I'm super stressed about pretesting on Saturday. I had an okay class tonight, but I really need to step up my self defense game. Tomorrow's my birthday.

This has been the first day in days that i finally had WiFi. I already did what I had to do here in Peru now I’m just waiting on some things to finalize. 

Long day at work.  The patient workload is essentially tripled on Mondays because of the weekend and I’ve been very whiney all day.  I need some motivation and energy!  I know I will feel better once I get started on requirements, just need to get started.

One more week until school starts and I am super excited! Working alot of hours this week, so I got to make sure I rest this week. Hopefully I have time to write some essays this week. I need to finish my book essay and start my Kwan essay.

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.

It was great to work out with Master Tucker this morning. We worked on self defense, poomsae, and miles mostly. Some self defense is better to practice with someone rather than alone. It adds a level of reality that is unmatched. What a nice park!

Today was another normal day.  I finally got to mow my grandparents lawn, and I did some cycle requirements as usual, and even finished one of my essays today, but overall it was pretty boring, but that's OK because I know I get to play some golf this week, as well as doing Tae Kwon Do.

Wish I could  Count some of the stuff I do at work as requirements.????‍♂️  Oh well. Was thinking about taking it light today,  so I up my sit ups and push ups.????‍♂️????

Today was a chill day. I had to go to art class with my friend and than came home and made banana bread. I was supposed to go to get my school supplies, but that didn't happen because we had guests. 

Today I met Master Dege at the Mint Hill Veterans Memorial Park and we trained for about 3 hours.  Lots of requirements done!  Came home and had to nap for an hour, then walked my dog for another 1/2 mile and finished the afternoon with more pushups, situps and 5 minutes of jumping rope.  As always, pushups and burpees are my biggest challenge.  I'll keep working on them.  

For the last few days I have not done a journal entry. This is because I have had family in town. during the week I have gone to Carowinds, The White Water Center, an escape room, and on a hike. I got a lot of my miles in for the cycle and hope to start blogging more often.

I meant to journal before midnight, but I got caught up study. When to sparring and black belt class on Saturday. Sparring was great, we did two on one sparring which was fun. We haven't done it in a while. Got kicked in the face, but there are worse things to happen in life, and it was pretty funny. I want/need to start practicing head shots, I just want to make sure I can do them without hurting someone. We practiced kicks in black belt class. I am really happy with my kicks!. But I still need to stretch more. I went running today and I do not know why, but I really pushed myself today. I ran the mile in 9.4 minutes, which is about average. But for me, that one of the fastest miles I ran.  

The days always start with high hopes for specific accomplishments and finish with less. I have high hopes for tomorrow being different. While it will be hot, it will be good to train with Master Tucker. Some things are much better practiced with a partner. Motivation, intentions, and encouragement go a long way, but reality sometimes gets in the way. Here's to a productive day tomorrow and good sleep tonight!

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.

Today, I went to sparring and BBC. We did lots of forms and self-defenses. I saw the movie Lion King in live-action. It was a great movie. I loved seeing Simba as a cub. He was so cute. I loved seeing all the animals and I want to interact with those animals someday. Wasn't able to do a bunch of requirements, but still some. Will do more tomorrow. I also did a mentor session. Because Luis my mentor is gone temporarily, I have had some temporary mentors. I thank everyone who has mentored me and helped me grow in general. 

Today was a great first day in Florida. Went to the beach for the whole day but before had an amazing breakfast. At the beach took so nice pictures and had an amazing time looking at the sunset. What a great day.

The body needed some rest today got up this morning to go to work only felt about 75%.  Start off doing my walk at work today it end up being a slow walk. Then after  lunch I felt a bit better and got some miles in.????‍♂️????‍♂️????‍♂️????‍♂️

I wasn't able to stay for black belt class today.  Had to go to see my father in Rehab.  This is the 4th medical facility he has been in since his original heart catheterization on 6/20/19 and hopefully this will be the last.  He is starting to walk down the halls with assistance and do some routine daily activities, but most importantly, he appears to be in good spirits.  The past 2 months have been really stressful and I find that all I want to do when I come home from work is sit.  I'm in need of some motivation and Master Dege is going to help me out with that.  We are meeting at a park tomorrow morning to train hard, log some miles and whittle away on requirements.  Fortunately, my drive to north Charlotte is so long she agreed to meet me in the middle- 19 minute drive for...

Today was a normal Saturday for the most part.  I went to sparring class as well as black belt class, and got a fair amount of cycle requirements done.  I didn't get to mow my grandparents' lawn because of the rain though, but that's OK because I can hopefully take care of that tomorrow.

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 is the day where I go to Florida. I spent the day packing and doing requirements because I knew I would not be able to do them tonight. Currently, I am at the concord region airport and now boarding the plane, flight got delayed multiple times so I’m ready to get on the plane. 

We practiced nunchucks in black belt class. Master Marcus gave good advice on how to get better at nunchucks. He says nunchucks are a broken weapon and to focus on the broken stick that you can control. I think you can say the same thing in life. You got focus on what you can control and change. Life is going to be unfair sometimes, and your going to face challenges that are out of your control. But the great thing about life is that you have the ability to change.

Today I feel blessed and humble I got quite a few cards from the summer camp kids saying Happy birthday.  The made them a few days a go,   But I kept forgetting to pick them up and finally did today.  But brought joy to my heart and make my eyes leak.????

Today was a productive day. Worked out, trained Kidz Camp, got mentored, and took BBC. I plan to hit the pool tonight and get a hot pretzel from the Auntie Anne’s food truck ????????????

Today was not as productive as it could have been. Tomorrow will be better. Maybe I can fit a few pushups in at work. It's a little easier in jeans than a dress. Only a little since the wrists are the same. Worked on double stick 2 with Master Cavazos in my mentor session after class tonight. Kind of makes me feel like a white belt again. I should dig out that video and watch it a few times. I should probably also get out study guides so I don't embarrass myself with the pretest. Thanks for the encouragement Master Randle!

Today I went to my school orientation. I am going to 8th grade. It turns out my mentee goes to the same school. I mentored my mentee today and I went to Black Belt Class. My mentee is a junior Tiger so I learned some of the Junior Tiger curricula from him. We did a lot of Forms and Self Defenses in BBC.I need to practice High Yellow and Red Belt self defense. I also need to work on side kicks. I really hope school doesn't get the way of the cycle too much. I also signed up for a computer elective, which I am excited for. I think we should have a place to chat with other black belt candidates on this website. Texting and calls! 

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.

My mentee has gotten all her stripes and is ready to test! I don't think she knows that she has been an awesome mentee. We prettty much have mentor sessions 3-4 times a week and she may complain here and there, but she always come and does them. Also, she only comes for the summer, but she's a fast learner and knows all the material. We have two more mentee sessions left, I can't wait for her to belt test. Went to Tiger World, I love going.  Went to the gym today and worked with my trainer. We did a weight-in and took measurements. I'm down 12lbs since May, gain muscle, and lose some inches. It's crazy that I started the year weighing 168lbs and now Im down to 141lbs.   

Had a good day at work,  Had a stop on the way home to pick up apart from my old car Got home late but still got my requirements in even after cooking dinner from my wife.

I trained 2 kids camps and 3 adult camps today. I’m tired. Can’t wait for black belt class tomorrow night! 

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. 

It's a better day when pushups aren't the last thing on my list for the day. I found myself doing kicks slower than usual today and thinking more about my technique. Not that I do my kicks fast other days. My walk/jog partner has other plans for the next two days so I will have to dig up some different motivation to get some miles in. I have an earlier day tomorrow, so it's time for some zzzs.

Had a nice easy day. I got my college books, and cleaned up my room. 

I was excited about a part I order today was showing up then I was  Disappointed when I got it. You can't go by the  Picture you see on a website,.????????‍♂️????

Today was actually kind of fun. Had a lot of laughs with the summer camp kids and my friends/co workers. Created a game that the kids have a lot of fun with but at the same time some get hurt but most are over dramatic.

Tonight was a struggle. I’ve been training a lot this week both for my job and TKD and it was a STRUGGLE getting to class. I did make it to assist, be mentored, and take an adult class so that was good. Now off  to bed ????

Its a very crazy day we are doing games, its a lot of fun getting to know more and more about the kids. we are playing lazer tag with the campers. We watched Detective Pikachu, it was a really good movie and everybody enjoyed it. We did not do class because the computer update took a good part of our day. We played a lot of games today and we are getting ready for the junior tigers testing. I am going to be helping with the junior tigers testing. We got a new game today called spot it. I hope you enjoyed it have a nice day bye!

I have been doing what I can before my Tonsillectomy. I'm so nervous!!!!!

My day was a casual day at work. Today was pay day and my check looked nice then came home and worked out hard. Black belt class was fun because it was a mini Saturday class which I felt on Sunday.

It was nice to look forward to a new female adult in black belt class today. I hope she continues to come train with us. Pushups are doing a number on my shoulders. I keep hoping they feel better after I get used to doing so many, but I am still at sets of ten with much time between and not getting in as many as needed. That will be a challenge for me to complete them. Nothing new there, but I haven't even started on pull ups yet. Tomorrow is another day, and tomorrow will help me get closer to my goal.

My sweet coworkers, in their attempt to help me with requirements, will just randomly shout out “Burpee Break”!! When we hear this, we all have to get up and do five Burpee’s no matter where we are. My nursing team LOVES “Burpee Breaks because we all feel better after we do them, and bonus for me, I’m logging requirements! Having support at the dojang, at home, AND at work is a blessing for sure!  We met a new adult student in class tonight, Ms. Pam!  Such a friendly person!  I’m looking forward to training with her!

Today I went shopping at a store called Lidl. The prices there are very good. I also went to class today and got mentored. We did lots of kicking, but no as much as Saturday's class. I currently am working on side kicks.

Long day . Did a lot of yard work,  wishing I could count  That as part of my requirements.????????‍♂️ Had a awesome black belt class , kicks kicks ,????

It was nice to have a day off. I got to take my dog to the dog park. He is super friendly with people, but he gets a little scared or aggressive with other dogs. He did better today and I was able to let him off his leash. My co-worker asked for my shift tomorrow, so Ill be going back to the park again.

Had a good day at work, had to do some rework on my wife's car again , thing I got a bad part. Will see tomorrow how it runs. Had a good pmaa class tonight,  thank you sir.

Burpees are getting easier. Progress!! Had a good day, played kickball with the older kids today at camp. Did lots of poomsaes and self-defense.

Today I went to summer camp at the Raptor Centre. It wasn't as hype as I thought it would be today because on Mondays everyone is busy. What I thought was cool was that I met a friend from pre-k. What I'm looking forward to is helping out in class and helping the color belts. 

Today has been fairly normal. However, for the first time, I made a to-do list. Of course, I have to do cycle requirements. I also want to spend only 1 hour on social media, unless I am using it for productivity. Because school is coming up, I have been using Duolingo to practice Spanish and Khan Academy to practice math. I also want to read my book for the cycle. Pro Tip: Take notes on your book. Your future self will thank you for not having to read the book again. I will help with class today at 6:45 PM.

I'm at work on a Monday morning and just made my coworkers do Burpees with me.  My colleagues in high heels declined to join.  There is strength in numbers!! 

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.

I sure slept good last night. Today was a relatively quiet day. It seems I have been packing to leave, or to come home, so often lately that it is good to sleep in my own bed for weeks in a row. It is nice to visit, but it always takes a night or two to adjust. Tomorrow is back to work and getting up with an alarm clock. The weekend goes by so fast.

Comic Con was fun. Being able to cosplay and taking pictures with people was so fun. I’m excited to go back in December. I plan to dress like Storm again and add on to my cosplay. Sad I miss black belt class, I heard it was great!!!

Today was Sunday which means it’s my chill day so that’s what I did. Today, I went to go see the new “Hobbs and Shaw” movie and it was good. So what happened.... just kidding I’m not gonna spoil it but then after that went to my step dads house and chilled their for the rest of the day. Still got some stuff in but not that much. But tomorrow is back to the grind.

Today has been a pretty lazy day. I didn't do that many kicks, as yesterday's Saturday BBC had many kicks. I need to work on my sidekicks. Another topic I want to talk about is the fact that people are calling the cycle a grind. It is not a grind, the cycle was made for us to master all techniques of Tae Kwon Do. 

Good day knee is feeling better.   Back on track on my requirements. Was  hoping  to do some work on my old car , but had to order some more stuff .????

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.

My day today was very fun. Got up early and went to work and then took black belt class. After black belt class, I went to my friends house for the entire day.

Today I was planning to take a rest day. But still need to do some  Requirements. Got up this morning and the knee was not in a good  way , had to slow my walk down , hope it's better tomorrow. ????‍♂️

Went to Charlotte ComicCon today, so much fun!!. I went dress-up as Storm from X-men. This was my first time cosplaying. I was super nervous, but I loved it. Can't wait to got back tomorrow. 

Today I went to BBC weekend and sparring class. We did a lot of kicks, over 300. I slept a little late yesterday and woke up feeling cranky, but I got through everything. Also today is the cycle start date! This day was a great start to this challenge.

I had a great Saturday black belt class at Grand Master Evans's school today

Master Evins really loved ALL the kicks today in BBC. I’m scared I won’t be able to move tomorrow ????. It was a great class though, since that’s my jam. Sparring was a sweatfest too. Lots of kicks and sweat were had during class. Plus I was 30 years older or more then all the participants in class. Nothing like working out with teens, tweens, and boys to keep you young. Also if I hear one more thing about Fortnight today I may scream ????

Great Black Belt class today.  I’m going be very sore from all the slow kicks, but I really needed those.  Slow kicks make you really pay attention to technique.  Now I’m off to visit my father in the hospital.  This is his 6th week as an inpatient. Next week if all goes well, he’ll transfer to a rehab facility.  

i have fallen behind on my stuff but i'm catching up!!!

Today was a very chill day. Went into work so I can get credit for the white belt challenge, the kids in that class are funny. Then came home and worked out then ate dinner.

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 was pretty quiet at work, so very productive. I met two of several new teammates. I also walked/jogged 4 miles with my friend today after work, thanks to the downpour. We both prefer to walk/jog outside when possible. Today, the sky was dark and the radar showed some cells that would likely catch us, so we stayed close to the building. We are fortunate enough to have an option for when we have weather interference. One of the buildings has a good sized loop that is our second choice, but our first choice rather than ugly weather. So feeling the first raindrops, we opted for finishing up inside. We went several times around and GPS seemed to be tracking it pretty well for a change. Her goal was to reach at least 10,000 steps and my goal was 3 miles. Once we had each reached our goal, since it was...

Yesterday and today I was reminded that doing 500 kicks in one day I might not have been the best idea. My back has been sore for the past two days. I’m sure it has to do with other things too, but I think I just trained too hard on Wednesday for too many hours. You live and learn.  We had a great black Belt class tonight and I’m rest for a big TKD day tomorrow. 

Had a very good day for a for a man that is getting older. Even went on line and   Bought a new engine from my old car.????????

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 was very tiring but fun at the same time because at the summer camp its science week, so the experiments were fun. The classes after summer camp went by very fast but still very tiring. Learned some new stuff at black belt class so that was fun.

Had a good day at work.  When I got home and got the mail i was not too happy , taxes are due on the house ,they went up again.????????????????????

Got my pinky kicked in sparring, its really bruised up. I cant really think about much right now because OMG MY PINKY IS SWOLLEN!!!! Done for the night, going to bed.

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.

To think this is only another beginning. There is a long way to go and it will surely go by fast; in some ways, not fast enough, and in others, too fast. I guess the same is with life. Don't wish it away and cherish the moments. I had a pretty good day at work today, but it seems there is always some type of fire to deal with. Today was no exception, and resolving this one took until the end of the day. Thankfully, the outcome was a good one and all things considered, another happy camper. My workday ended with a yoga class. Aah, I needed that. Then home for taking care of other things. Here it is, almost midnight again and still plenty to do. Tomorrow is another day.

My day was good. The summer camp was fun because we did science experiments. The classes after we’re also really cool because of the yellow stripe.

Got a lot of requirements done at 9Rounds today! I did so many push-ups the day before so my arms/shoulders felt so weak when I was holding the pads. When I got home, I walked my dog and practiced some ASL.  A comic book convention is coming to Charlotte this weekend and I'ms so excited to go.   Also got a free ice cream at chick-fil-a! 

Had a good mentor session with master Evans today, Was able to get some extra requirements in. Started to tear down the engine on the card in order some parts for it. Have a good day.

Today we had good friends come with us to the pool.  It was a fun time. Then I went to King Tiger for 3 hours. I help with 3 classes, took a class, and got mentored.  My hips were so open and my kicks felt great by the end of the night.  Tomorrow I have a dentist appointment and have to train a lot of boot camps.

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.

Not sure what I did to my shoulder. Maybe my arms are at the wrong angle, or just trying to do too many at once, but my pushups did not feel very good today. On a better note though, I am feeling better with the first four Tae Kwon forms. I reminded one of the ladies I work with, who I worked with when I was on my first black belt cycle, how we used to do pushups in the office. I was recently talking with the other who I worked with then, but I don't work with any more. From then, she did 30 pushups every morning. She told me that now she does 60. 

Was able to get in some extra requirements in today. I know I will be taking Saturday off. Will try to get some more In tomorrow.  Always trying to stay ahead.

When running this morning. I got a new app called Zombie Run, hopefully it will keep interested in running. Today and yesterday I've been practicing the ASL alphabet by spelling campers names. Its pretty fun, and it been helping me remember all the signs. The campers went to see Sing at the movies today. Most of kids (both king tiger kids and other camps) were singing and clapping along with the movie. I worked on self-defense and hopkito with Master Natasya. After work, I went to the gym with my mom and worked out. We haven't done that in awhile, but I really enjoyed it.   

Pull ups have always been a struggle for me. If I am not consistently working on them I lose my strength quickly. With that being said having not been able to use my core and back for over a month, so pull up game is not strong. Today was back and bicep day at Boot Camp. I needed to keep reminding myself that my strength will come back in time and I do you to just be patient.

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.

I guess I'm back at it again. Kind of... It was easier than expected to get the tracker all caught up. It seems harder to get motivated to get stuff done this time. You would think it would be easier after having done it several times previously. I have had some family issues to deal with over the past few months, but it has been really nice to have the opportunity to spend so much time with my younger brothers and their wives and kids. I do not get that opportunity very often, and appreciate it even more lately. I do not get many requirements done while I am there, but did walk from the Museum of the American Revolution to my brothers house in South Philadelphia in ridiculous heat. That was probably not the brightest idea I've had and I saw some parts of Philly that I would likely have...

My day was a regular day at summer camp.Went to work, then did classes, then came home and worked out. This week, I am on my White Belt challenge.

Today I was extra tired for some reason.  I went to my grandparents house in Davidson for a while before returning home.  I took a short nap and woke up afterwards to do some more cycle requirements.  I'm so excited for my birthday tomorrow! :)

Had a nice day. At work was a light day.  Got home and get my requirements done,  Did the adult class, And the PMAA class. Good day. .