"The Marines Invaded My Gym Class"

Happy Almost-Friday Day!

WOO! WOO! Tomorrow's Friday! I cannot even handle it.  My crazy week is almost over! 

Daily Gratitude Shout-Out!

Remember that Showcase I was telling you about?  Well, that is now over and done.  It was our last show before State last night. Everyone who performed was truly inspirational and had such grace with their work.  The pieces I was in felt successful, so that made me feel good!  AND there were also many important faces there last night that seemed to like our stuff too.  So… YAY!  Everyone involved, it was a pleasure performing alongside you these past two days, and I know you will all be so happy with what you bring to State next week.  And to those who came...thank you! It was an amazing turn out and I couldn't have asked for a better audience!

Story of the Day

On the wonderful note I left on last night from the Showcase, I was sure that nothing could stand in my way of having an amazing happy, relaxing, breeze-of-a-day today... until I was blessed with a “gentle” surprise.
     In gym, my teacher was so kind to hand the class over to four, buff, angry, tattooed, and highly trained Marines.  I was dying with excitement.  As the class proceeded as usual (running, stretching, warming up, etc.) my heart was all a flutter when I heard the loudest, most booming voice I had heard in my life.  One of the Marines ordered us to sprint to the wall across the gym.  As soon as we started running he quickly started counting down from ten.  No one knew what would happen when he reached zero, but we sure-as-Hannah knew we didn't want to find out!  Once he reached zero we were still running. He yelled at us and said we weren't fast enough and ordered us to “Try again!” and we sprinted back to the other wall.  This went on about five or six more times. Then he taught us how to respond properly, using phrases like "Yes Sir!" or "No Sir!” or "Aye Aye, Sir!"  If we didn't respond loud enough, or with the right command, we'd sprint more.  Well after this went on and on, and a kind few refused to follow the man's orders, so therefore we all had to be punished.  However, instead of more running they gave us crazy exercises that made our bodies work muscles I didn't know existed!  Once they felt satisfied with how hard we were trying and how correctly we were responding we began the training.  Throughout the work-out we did exercises that Marines use to train with during their boot camps.  This is all fine and dandy for them, who are buff and toned and do this every day, but sometimes I wonder if they forgot we were a group of average kids in a high school gym class (for the sake of the story, I'll just pretend they did).  Once we were done with our training we all collapsed on the floor to die.  It was the hardest work out I had ever done in my life; however, I pushed through the pain and finished!  It was the most self-fulfilling feeling (say that five times fast... self-fulfilling feeling, self-fulfilling feeling…) I had ever had in my life, and the sweat dripping down my face and neck was just "pain leaving the body." 
      I woke up this morning craving a good day, and I almost had it until the Marines invaded my gym class. I was sure that I was going to feel worse when it was done, but in the end, I felt better than before!  And then I realized, it was mind over matter.  At the beginning of class, I decided my day was ruined when I saw the Marines, but throughout the training I decided to push myself and keep going.  I decided to make it.  And in the end, I decided to have a good day.  So lest you think you "deserve" a good day, or whatever, just know that yes, you will always “deserve” a good day, but ultimately you decide to have a good day.  Good things may happen throughout your day that make you feel "Yeah! My day really is good!" But terrible things may happen too, and things can go wrong, and it can be SO easy to destroy that happy feeling if you decide to let it; if you decide that you can't learn from it or can’t brush something off.  So, from now on... wake up deciding to have a good day!