My Year.

What has the I Ho Chuan done for me?

This is a question I find myself thinking about daily.  This year went by in a blur, it seems like yesterday we were having our first meeting and declaring our requirements, and today we're in crunch time getting ready for the banquet in two weeks.

The most difficult thing for me during my I Ho Chuan year was finding a way to make my year extraordinary for me.  I remember about 3 months into the year, sitting down with Sifu Brinker in his office explaining to him that I had already hit a road block.  I didn't feel like I was on the way to completing anything amazing.  I set goals all the time, I complete challenges that I've made for myself every single day, I'm always doing push-ups and sit-ups; my participation and commitment to the I Ho Chuan felt like I was just putting an unnecessary label on my normal routine.  This was definitely NOT what I wanted my year to be about.  I wanted it to be something that I could sit down the morning of February 16th and think, "Wow.  I really accomplished something extraordinary here.  I've changed myself."

It wasn't until a few months later that one I finally realized the one thing that I've been silently struggling with: Getting involved with the team, and taking on a leadership role for a big project.  These were two things that I wanted to change about myself by the end of the year.  Unfortunately for me, I realized that I was way too independent.  I didn't like asking others for help, and definitely didn't like having to rely on others to complete a goal.  It wasn't until I was laying in bed one night that I realized that I've always been like this; it wasn't just this year that I was finding this hard for me.  I'm that one student in school that gets put in a group for a project, and takes all the work and does it herself.  I also realized that that's why people want to be my partner so much for projects in school ;).  But, I knew that this was something I needed to change.  I pushed myself to start getting involved in group discussions on Kwoon Talk, and on the I Ho Chuan google group.  I also started to get more involved with others during our Friday class.  But, the biggest step for me was organizing the Tiger Challenge.  I'd never done anything like that before, and it took a lot of courage for me to step up and volunteer to look after the organizing of the divisions.  When I went home and told my mom what I was doing, she thought I was crazy; and so did I.  But I pushed myself through it, and I found it to be a very rewarding experience.  I had a lot of people compliment me for my work, and it really made me realize what I've pushed myself towards this year.  This was truly the highlight of my entire year.

My school work took a big hit this year.  I find that every odd year of school, I really struggle, and the first half of this year was definitely the worst.  I like to pride myself in being an honour roll student with an above 80 average in all my subjects.  But, that didn't' happen this semester.  I finished with a 72 in Physics, 74 in Math, and 83 in English.  Don't get me wrong, those are still really good marks, but I didn't reach my full potential, and I know that.  But, that's all the reason to work even harder this semester.  I did complete one of my 'sub-goals' that I set for myself after I got my first English essay mark of 75% at the beginning of the year; I wanted to work hard so that when I write my final essay, I'm able to get above an 80%.  I got my final essay mark back yesterday from my teacher: 92%, highest mark in the class.  It's amazing what a little extra effort, and some extra help can do.  I took a 30-1 course in Bio this term, which means that I write one of my diplomas.  Scary.

That's all I have to say for today, I'll be back next week.