Journal - 2nd of Week 12

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to ME!! : ). I turned 18 today. It’s pretty exciting to finally be able to say that I am legally my own person. It’s so strange to think that 18 years have already gone by; all the memories I’ve had, people I’ve met, and experiences I’ve had are all so influential and so many, but yet they don’t compare to all the potential experiences and memories that I can have and the people that I might meet. Thinking of it as of now, 18 years has been a long time, but it’s nothing compared to 30 or 40 or 50 years. Needless to say, I am happy with the way things turned out at this point in my life.

Yesterday I ran my usual route and today, after I finish writing this, I’m going swimming (after that I’m going to go buy a lottery ticket since my mom thinks it will be cool since I can legally do it now). I haven’t worked on my speech yet because right when I got home at 1:30 I fell asleep because last night I wasn’t able to sleep from all the text messages and calls. I want to work on it a little tonight and maybe first period tomorrow so I can talk to Coach Selvidge about it tomorrow since he changed our usual Wednesday Mentor Meeting to Tuesday.

Journal - 1st of Week 12

Happy Easter!! This past week went like this: Monday – open gym, Tuesday – working on English project, Wednesday – relax day, Thursday – swimming, Friday – running, Saturday – tennis. Open gym was pretty fun but it makes me miss basketball; I have to start practicing again because soon enough I’ll be in Ecuador playing there for college. I think after I do my WISE presentation I’ll start playing basketball more often because I won’t have to worry about getting everything ready for the presentation. I have also missed swimming; it really does help me control my breathing and I plan on increasing the amount of times I swim per week since I do plan on continuing this after WISE is over.

            I only have until May 12^th to prepare everything for my presentation. This week I want to get everything written down and over the weekend work on my power point. After that I will be able to practice while I make my poster. I am kind of nervous about talking for that long but I figured that I control my presentation, so there isn’t any real need to be nervous. It should be interesting.

Journal - 3rd of Week 11

Today it was supposed to rain and I’m pretty sure that while I was sleeping in the morning it was raining but when I woke up and went to the tennis courts with my mom, the sun started blazing. I didn’t mind the heat that much but my mind couldn’t play for more than 20 minutes straight; after 3 20 minute games my mom had to call it quits. My dad had dropped us off and he was busy changing my mom’s car battery so he couldn’t pick us up; I had to run home and get the car so I could take my mom home. It wasn’t that much exercise but the sun really was strong.

Well on another note, I worked on my outline for my WISE presentation. I think it’s a pretty good guide for when I sit down and actually write everything that I want to say. I want to show my mom and see what she thinks about it and then show it Coach Selvidge on Wednesday during our mentor meeting. I also want to see Coach Love’s presentation on Tuesday and see if I can gather anymore ideas from that. Although most people, especially Coach Selvidge, think that it’ll be extremely hard for me to talk for that long, I think I have enough material to cover the time period.

Journal - 2nd of Week 11

In the past 3 days I ran, took the day off, and played tennis. The running is getting easier and I can run further without having to stop. On Thursday after I ran, I felt like I could run another 2 miles. I’m proud of myself and I want to keep up the effort. I’m thinking for the last 2 to 3 weeks that I might exercise twice a day instead of just once.

Releasing that there is only 3 weeks left before I have to make my presentation and 2 more after that until school ends makes me think about how fast this school year has gone by and how I am almost done with high school. It boggles my mind to think that in a couple months I won’t be living here and I will be surrounded by a totally different environment. Just thinking about it all makes me think back on all the experiences I had this year and all the things I’ve thought about and the people I met. I’m going to miss it all.

Journal - 1st of Week 11

Well my workout plans for the past 2 days didn’t go exactly as I planned them on Sunday. I ran at around 6 instead of right after school and I ran around my block instead of going to the gym; I started off with high intensity and at a great speed but after stopping for a few seconds to catch my breath, the back of my heels started getting blisters from my new shoes so for the rest of the run I had to run on my tippy-toes. I ran as much as I could but my calves aren’t accustomed to that so I wasn’t able to run for much of it. On Tuesday I ran as well and it wasn’t that bad because I put two band aids on. I ran with my friend who goes faster but in the end we both ran about 2 miles and a half. After that we had the urge to ride our bikes so we rode from her house to the park and rode around the park too and eventually headed back to her house. Yesterday was a productive day and I can feel it today.

Today in my mentor meeting, Coach Selvidge and I discussed what I was planning on doing for my presentation and what day I would do it. We already decided on the week I would present and the time slot but I haven’t decided the exact day yet. We also looked at what was required for the presentation, and as I understand it I would need 2 other activities besides the oral presentation; I was thinking of making a poster and a power point. I’m thinking of focusing the poster to a specific part of the experience and use the power point to guide me along with the oral presentation. Sometime this week I plan on creating an outline for the presentation.

Journal - 3rd of Week 10

Today was a pivotal moment in my life…I broke the strings on my tennis racket for the first time in my life. Hahaha. That’s happened to my brother, dad, and uncle all the time but I never thought I would be able to hit it hard enough for them to break. It was pretty funny and I’m pretty sure I will remember that for the rest of my life. And to be honest, the strings didn’t break because I hit the ball too hard; they were just worn out. Even though I couldn’t use my racket anymore we continued to play for another 2 hours with my mom and dad (I had to use one of their rackets while they sat out).

I’m kind of bummed about tomorrow because I was suppose to go to open gym for basketball but Coach changed from the usual 7-9 to 3-5 and I have to go to the dentist to see when I need my wisdom teeth taken out at 3:30. Well I have to things I can; I can either go to the gym from 1:30 to 3 or I can wait until I get home from the dentist and go workout at 6 or 7. Seeing as I need to put forth more intensity, I think I’ll go right after I get out of school so I can assure myself that I get a good work out done. Now I have to figure out if I’m going to do an arm workout or a leg work out along with cardio. I think I’ll do arms tomorrow and then legs/abs on Tuesday.

Journal - 2nd Week 10

Today I realized something: if I tone down the intensity of my workouts, my breathing problem increases. I played tennis with my parents this morning and it was pretty fun but it was exhausting and I’m not used to that because compared to basketball tennis doesn’t require that much physical activity. In a way it makes me want to work harder so that next weekend when I play I’ll feel like before, when I used to play basketball almost every day during basketball season. I am also starting to organize my week.

Since this week wasn’t the strongest, meaning filled with the most intensity, I think I should compensate for it this upcoming week. I guess I gave myself too much freedom this week and I took advantage of it so this upcoming week I’m going to set up a structured workout each day and make sure I accomplish it. I really want to finish off strong.

Journal - 1st of Week 10

Yesterday I had my mentor meeting and Coach Selvidge brought up a good point. He asked me what I was going to do to present my project. All along and especially during the 3^rd quarter exam video I have been thinking about what things I would say but now that I think about it I need to find a better way to present it because knowing me, I don’t think I can just stand up there and talk for 45 minutes. I need to find a better way to organize and display my WISE experience. Hopefully after I see Coach Love’s Model Presentation I will get some ideas and start creating my presentation.

This week has been a bit stressful. Many people I know haven’t been extremely happy, mainly because of the accident and I also had millions of thoughts running through my head. With all the revelations I have been having and things I have been feeling, I can’t seem to really motivate myself to have an extremely demanding workout. The past three days I have worked out but only minimally. I’m trying to figure out a way to resolve the emotions and thoughts that I am feeling so I can get my head back on track and finish of my workouts strong.

Journal - 3rd of Week 9

Yesterday was a hard day. It definitely didn’t go as planned. My plans were to get home from the beach then go to open gym at 7 and that would be my exercise for the day. I got home from the beach right on time to make to open gym but the news I got once I reached my friends house, changed our plans completely. Her close friend and mine as well got in an accident that night. The strange thing was that he was at her house with his friend, the one who was in the accident with him, just a few hours before it happened. We had all been having fun and laughing the whole night, so to hear that he got in an accident was like a low blow from reality. So instead of open gym, my friend Katarina, who is extremely close with one of the guys who got in the accident, and I went to the hospital to see how they were. When we got there, the one who was driving, Allan, also Katarina’s close friend was awake, but Daniel the other one was asleep. In the end they were both lucky, especially Allan because if it wasn’t for Daniel he would have caught on fire and died since he was unconscious while it all happened. They both broke their wrist and while Allan got a few burn marks on his legs and a few bruises on his head, Daniel, who already had a torn ACL, broke his arm, his wrist, and his ankle. The good thing is that they made it out alive. Unfortunately being caught up in the moment and not only wanting to visit them and see how they were doing but also going to support Katarina, altered my plans and I wasn’t able to get any exercise in for that day.

Journal- 2nd of Week 9

This weekend I have played tennis with my parents both Saturday and Sunday. It’s been fun and I, as well as my parents, have started to notice that my technique is getting better and becoming more consistent. Sometimes I think I should do other things than play tennis on weekends, but then I remind myself that this way I can improve on my tennis skills and enjoy quality time with my parents before I am off to college.

I discovered something this weekend; I don’t have to have everything planned out and follow a strict schedule that’s been planned months before; I can just think to myself which activity, be it running, swimming, weights, or any other one, as long as I get it done that day. This way I can assure myself that I will put more intensity into it because that’s the activity I want to do. In a way that’s the outlet I want to use that day.

Journal - 1st of Week 9

This week has had its ups and downs. To begin with, there were a couple days where I had ZERO desire to workout. Thursday I was suppose to go to a basketball open gym with my friend in Coconut Creek and we were half way when we decided that we would rather go back home and walk around the neighborhood; although that is exercise, its not at the level of intensity that I want to workout at.  Another thing that wasn’t on the up side was that I have to prepare myself for an extremely important test in May which gives me around 6 weeks to prepare, meanwhile I still have my regular homework and an AP test to get ready for also plus keeping up with my workouts. It’s been a bit stressful just thinking about it but I figured if I concentrate completely on these things, I’ll be able to manage.

On the up side I just back from a workout where the intensity was exactly where I wanted it to be. Today was suppose to be my relaxing day but since I didn’t technically do anything productive yesterday I worked out. Another good thing is that I am starting to really enjoy running. Last good thing is that I created a schedule to organize all the things I need to do in the next month. J