Another year in the books!!

I made it, folks!!! It is now the end of the Crossfit season (for me☺) AND the end of the school year. It has taken me a while to even begin writing a blog about Regionals because Monday morning bright and early I was thrown back into the midst of teaching 9th graders. While I was REALLY happy with how regionals went, I didn’t have a lot of time for reflection because I was so stressed/excited/anxious about wrapping up the school year. It is a great feeling when you realize that all of your hard work has paid off. For some reason I like to make myself panicked about the fact that this might not happen, and I do this to myself EVERY year in both Crossfit and my teaching career. Throughout the school year, I feel defeated. I am never happy with my lesson plans because I always want them to be better or feel the kids aren’t listening to me when I try to inspire them. With Crossfit, I feel like my progress in the gym is slow and always feel behind. However, this is my 8th year of teaching and my 3rd year competiting in Crossfit and, dammit, I should know better at this point! I found this quote the other day and it really hit home.

“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it” ~Thoreau

I mean, don’t get me wrong...you still have to have a plan for success...but I do find myself busy, moving to project to project, and always focused on what is next that I never really see or feel progress being made. So, I guess this is why sometimes it all hits me and I am completely overwhelmed by how far I have come or how much my students have learned. I was never a high school or college athlete. When I started Crossfitting I thought I would never get a muscle up and I was scared of doing forward rolls and being upside down in a handstand. And, I NEVER thought I would climb a rope due to my deathly fear of heights. So after regionals this year instead of planning next years goals or thinking about how many rest days I should take, I made myself stop for a second just be proud of myself. My friends teased me that I had a huge smile on my face coming out for the WODs and how it looked like I was coming out to a beauty pagent; we all had a good laugh about it. I guess part of that smile was the excitement, part of it was the nervousness, and part was, of course, the fact that I love cameras and attention, but really, what I think made me the most happy was the fact that I made it. Regionals gets bigger every year, and this year I could really feel it!! Maybe it was the fact that the audience was closer to the arena than last year, or maybe it was because Jared got to cheer me on this year, or maybe it was just because I had a date with muscle ups, or maybe it was because I worked even harder than last year, or MAYBE it was that my super awesome friend Anton took over as my coach for the weekend with an offical coach's pass and everything. I don’t know….but it was time for the hard work to pay off, and well, that is exciting and made me smile REALLY big. Well....at least SOME of the time! I was SO nervous about making it through all three days, since that was one of my goals coming out of regionals last year. So, the hour I had to wait after the snatch latter (which wasn't my best event) to see if I would make top 18 so I could have my date with destiny (muscle ups) was the worst. After bombing out on muscle ups the last two years at Regionals, I was basically hyperventilating while waiting for the results. And boy...once they came it...there were lots of tears and then it was time to kick into gear for WOD 6 :) One of the most memorable competition WODs I have done thus far. The best part of it all was that Anton, Jared, and TONS of VCFers were directly behind me metaphorically and physically. It was just plain fucking awesome. Upon returning to school I felt like I was on cloud 9. How could everyone just be walking to class right now? Don’t they know what just happened this weekend? HOW CAN EVERYONE JUST BE ACTING NORMAL??? Anyway, once we finished up the Othello essays I decided to give my 9th graders an assignment called“6 Things I learned in English Class” that modeled after the ESPN articles “6 Things you should know about_______” presented in every edition. This way they could demonstrate what they learned in a more creative way. You know what? Turns out the students WERE listening after all! I decided to put just a few of my favorites in my blog!

Crossfit Inspiration: When Mrs. Ryan tells me her crazy stories about crossfit, it makes me believe in myself as a runner, especially because she makes me feel like she believes in my too, as a student and an athlete. Because of her ability to teach many English classes on top of doing crossfit really well, it makes me feel like I can get better times and records in track, on top of keeping up with my schoolwork, and that’s important.

There are no boundaries: I remember a recent conversation in class about how men are normally stronger than women, but Mrs. Ryan proves this stereotype wrong with her dedication to crossfit. She even competes in professional competition. I admire Mrs. Ryan’s hard work and dedication because I too have interests that are not considered “normal” for my ethnicity, like skateboarding. But Mrs. Ryan has taught me to be myself, no matter what others think.

From teacher to student: This year Mrs. Ryan has also greatly helped me grow as a student and a person in this class. She has a great fun loving attitude and makes everyone in the class feel comfortable. I feel like I can share anything with the class and Mrs. Ryan will be appreciative of anything that I have to say. Her crazy stories are fun while motivating us and showing us that we can accomplish if we really try. Mrs. Ryan has been my favorite teacher this year for those reasons, she is fun and inspiring and helped me greatly become a better writer, analyzer, and person.

And SO....another Crossfit season and school year ends and I sure as hell am smiling! :)