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  • kimkin85 11:02 am on March 5, 2010 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , racquetball   

    Week 9 – Racquetball 

    I never thought of racquetball as inherently dangerous, and I never intended it to be my adventure for the week. But as things turned out, it was certainly the most exciting part of my week. I haven’t been exercising since my oral surgery because I was told not to. It was easy to tell why, since even after I stepped down off the heavy pain meds and could walk without feeling dizzy the surgery site would throb at the slightest increase in my heart rate. But a friend wanted to learn how to play, so another friend and I agreed to show him how. I figured that as long as I didn’t push myself too hard I would be alright–after all, my mouth was feeling much better and I was able to take the stairs again without my mouth hurting, which is a definite step in the right direction! So four of us headed to the court Wednesday night to play. I took a conservative approach to the game and didn’t run around as much as I usually would and thought I was doing a pretty good job of protecting myself from myself when I was quite suddenly reminded of the true dangers of the game. As I turned to watch my friend return my serve, the ball was coming at my face too quickly for me to even duck. Miraculously, it hit me in the safest place possible–the middle of my forehead. Considering I had glasses perched on my nose and stitches in my mouth, pretty much any other point of impact would have spelled disaster, so my first response was to laugh with relief, which unfortunately for my friends probably looked like crying since the impact had made my eyes water. They offered to let me quit, but I’m too stubborn for that. We played another 15 minutes, until Christina, the one who had hit me, had to go to a meeting. I fully intend to play again next week in spite of this tendency of mine to be a magnet for sports balls of all kinds (the last serious incident was a volleyball in the back of the head back in high school gym class). I won’t let a little thing like fear of bodily harm keep me from having fun, though I’ll probably want to work on honing my reflexes so I can continue to protect my mouth while the surgical site heals.

    Oh, and sorry about the improper numbering on my last post. I think I’ve got it straightened out now, and we should be good to go for the rest of the year!

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    • Affinity 9:12 pm on May 2, 2011 Permalink

      Thanks for sharing. Alayws good to find a real expert.

  • Berton 2:19 am on March 5, 2010 Permalink | Reply
    Tags:   

    Week 9 – Adventure Fail 

    Well, this week I did have a pretty exciting evening out with some friends.  We went to this AWESOME restaurant called Chino Latino for a friend’s birthday.  About 20 people or so there, and the main course was a roasted pig.  As in, they roasted the ENTIRE pig.  I tried some pig cheek, skin, lots of weird parts.  It was very delicious.

    But that isn’t what I consider my adventure for the week to be.  Nope, my adventure this week was all about failing.

    For the past nearly three years, I have been a teacher without a license.  I have taught English as a second language in Japan for a year, and for close to two years I have been a preschool teacher for 3 and 4 year olds.  But my desire has been to go back to school (or alternate license program) and get my teaching license in elementary education.  This year, I applied to a variety of graduate programs, Teach for America, and St. Paul Teaching Fellows, all with the desire being to further my career in one of my dream jobs.  And it just so happened that this week, I would hear back from every program I applied to.

    I didn’t get accepted into a single one.

    School always came easy to me.  Theater was something I excelled at and that drove me.  I love playing board games, video games, etc.  And I am damn good at those things too.  So failure is a hard thing for me to swallow.  Not really at sports (since I suck at them in general, I accept losing in that regard).  Maybe it is because I have two older brothers who always won when I was younger.  Maybe it is my stubborn nature.  But success has usually a part of my life.  I am not trying to talk myself up or anything.  There are many areas of life where I suck (again, look at sports).  But in the aspects of life where I tried to achieve success, I usually did.  So to have a multitude of programs all tell me that I am not good enough at the moment to move forward with this dream of mine, that fucking kills.

    But after talking about these events with my fiance, and thinking about it, I can’t change their minds.  At least, not at this moment.  All I can do is keep moving forward.  One step at a time.  Maybe take a few more classes in college to bulk up my educational experience.  Volunteer at an elementary school, or try to get into substitute teaching.  Maybe next year, apply to twice as many programs.  All I know is that I can’t give up on my dream.  I need to keep reaching.  One day, I WILL be an elementary school teacher.  And the moment I walk into my classroom for the first time, that feeling of euphoria for me will make all of this hardship worth it.

    Now, just cause I have a positive outlook doesn’t mean I am ok with their decisions, haha.  I am pretty pissed off at the world right now.  But that is what friends (and beer) are for.  And Spider-man…and my fiance Becky.  And a few more things…like snow boarding, heavy metal music, the Nintendo Wii…man, there are lots of things at my fingertips that can cheer me up.  I think I will go do some of those things.

     

    • yearof52adventures 3:15 am on March 5, 2010 Permalink

      I don’t want to call this an adventure in failing. Instead, let’s think of it as a foray into new possibilities. I don’t always subscribe to the adage that things happen for a reason, but knowing you I know good-great-best things are forthcoming. And I’d like to celebrate that.

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