Junauro Landgrebe: Personal Achievement - Mt. Washington Hike

    Took the boys up Mt. Washington for an overnight trip this past August.  Had to skip it the year before since I was still recovering from a ruptured achilles tendon in January 2013.  We had superb weather and it was a great experience as it marked what I consider the final chapter on the road to full rehabilitation for my ruptured achilles.  Furthermore, I love being outdoors especially with my two boys and was very happy to have the opportunity to get away from things for a day.

    The trip began at 6 am with the three of us piling into the car after I asked the boys if they had everything.  Packing took place the night before and the boys typically do a great job gathering everything they personally need for trips like this.  I don’t even think twice about it since they’re both Boy Scouts and have done these trips numerous times.  So the next morning we drove off after one final check.  Both boys fell asleep and it was around 8 after making a quick pitstop that Jake said in despair, “Dad, did you pack my hiking boots?”  to which I responded, “No. You didn’t put them in the car like I asked you to?”  Two hours into an almost 4 hour car drive to the trailhead and my oldest has flip flops to hike up Mt. Washington!  I was annoyed to put it mildly…

    That’s when the gps came to the rescue and I was able to find a Walmart on route.  We stopped, bought boots, and continued driving to the trailhead….whew!!  We arrived at the Pinkham Visitor Center later than planned around 10:30 am.  When we got out of the car I said, “get your boots on and grab your packs.”  It was at that time that Jordan (my youngest) said, “dad, where are my boots, didn’t you put them in the car?”  To which I said, “are you bleepin kidding me??”  He forgot his boots too!!  I was so mad at that point and was debating whether or not to scrap the trip altogether.  Within a minute or so, I angrily told the two of them to find out how much boots cost at the visitor center and to see if they even had Jordan’s size.  As I waited for them to return I searched the gps and found another Walmart 19 miles away.  To my surprise they returned with some good news:  the visitor center has a boot loaner program allowing hikers to try out high end boots for free -  I couldn’t believe it!!  My mood changed from disbelief and anger to relief and excitement as we geared up and hit the trail.
 
    We began our ascent from the Pinkham Visitor Center on Tuckerman’s Ravine trail.  We climbed 1,700 feet in 2.5 miles and arrived at the Hermit’s Lake campsite where we dropped our packs at one of the 12 lean tos.  We continued hiking the remaining 2 miles up Eagles Head trail and summited Mt. Washington around 4 pm. 

 (1000 feet to go…almost to the summit!!)

 (At the summit!)

    The trip turned out to be a great success despite the initial hiccups.   I really love being outdoors with my boys and it dawned on me that these trips may become fewer and fewer as the boys get older.  I hope this isn’t the case but they’re getting busier and busier every summer.  The initial difficulties with the boys forgetting their hiking boots helped remind me that a problem is just something that requires mindful consideration and patience to find a solution.  The boys found a solution to not bringing their hiking boots and hopefully realize that they need to be more attentive even when they’re tired.  I realize that they’re still young and need some help keeping organized.  Overall, I feel like I handled the problem reasonably well considering the circumstances.  Furthermore, martial arts has helped me find balance and react less emotionally when things get difficult.  Something I’m grateful to have gained.

    One of the bigger aspects of the trip was the sense of accomplishment I feel being able to hike up Mt. Washington after going through a very long recovery with my achilles.  I’ve never had an injury take 9 months to fully recover.  Some people give up doing active things like martial arts and strenuous hikes after sustaining an injury like this.  I feel great about pushing myself through the obstacles, doing all the physical therapy, and getting back into the dojo.  The mastery program has been an integral part of my recovery and the hike up Mt. Washington was truly a great personal goal I feel very proud accomplishing.  I wasn’t sure I would return to karate after the injury, but can say doing so significantly helped me recover both physically and mentally. 

Olivias FINAL post (maybe) 8/18

So I reading Savor. Almost done with it in fact. And let me tell you, hat is one of the driest books I've ever rad. I mean, It is really difficult to get thru, and I love to read. Tough, to be honest I prefer fantasy and fiction in general, and this is far from that. I don’t find the subject of food and healthy eating to be particularly engaging in the first place, but I feel that this book was almost written in such a way as to deter any but the most dedicated and diligent writers. But once I get around my feelings for this book, I can find interesting facts and tidbits in it. Little things that allow me to be able to concentrate on it, and comprehend what it’s trying to tell me. So those are my thoughts on Savor.

I also need to write about how my mending a relationship is going, so might as well do that now. I am trying to improve my relationship with my brother. Everyone tells me that I am super hard on him, and mean to him, and I’ve sometimes been able to recognize that, but mostly I just treat him without a second thought to it, just doing what I feel is natural. For this I’ve had several repercussions by my parents who don’t like me treating him like that or speaking to him in that voice. It also hurts him a lot, and makes him sometimes very wary of me. This is really bad, because though I don’t realize I’m hurting him a lot, I am. I want my treatment of him to get better, which is why I’m trying to improve my relationship with him. It is and always will be a work in progress, but I feel that over the course of the year my treatment of him has gotten significantly better.

In addition, I got to talk about my acts of kindness. I’ve been doing at least three a day, but I’ve fallen behind on logging them. It’s not that I’ve had tons of stuff happening, it’s just that I’ve been forgetting to write them down. So I’ve got to work on that. See if I can remember any and write them down, as well as writing down my current ones. But I have without fail been doing them. In fact, theres this one that Ive done every day for the entire school year. See, on a regular school day, I'm veeeery crabby in the morning. But this year, I made it a constant act of kindness to my family to be cheerful and happy in the morning. And I DID IT EVERY SINGLE MORNING. I am very proud of myself, because it also helps me exercise self control, and I appreciate anything that helps me become better at controlling myself..

Jake's Final Blog Post

I do not expect every one of you to read this fully, for it is a long post, but I would appreciate it if you did. Thanks!

Well, the final day of the mastery program is upon us. Tomorrow will be August 16th, 2014, which is one year after I recorded my first good deed. One year after I wrote my first blogpost, my first goal, and recorded my first sparring minutes. As sensei tells us, how awesome would it be to say, "I got my black belt, but from 8 years of intense training, and a year long mastery program with these requirements.."

Most of you who have done the requirements should now realize, you have done ALL of those push-ups. You have done ALL of those good turns. YOU have done ALL of what it takes to complete this program. And I congratulate you.

I wanted to thank each and every one of you for taking part in this with me, this experience has truly been eye opening, and I am extremely glad that I was able to complete this with you guys.

Now I would like to summarize my good deeds. Every week, I had to perform 20 good deeds, no matter how big or how small. At the beginning of this program, I was merely doing these good deeds without intent, just knowing that I had to complete them in order to fulfill the requirements of the mastery program. However about 2 months into it, I had discovered how happy these good deeds actually made people. One time, I held a door for a family of 5, and the father shook my hand saying I was being a great influence on my generation in the community. I was shocked. After that moment, I began doing these good deeds from my heart, realizing that not just me, but anyone can make a difference by lending a hand, holding a door, and much more. Now not every week was exactly 20. Some weeks it went down to 17, for various reasons. When this happened, I made it my weekly goal to make up those lost good deeds along with the other 20 I had to complete, no excuses. By doing this I was able to keep up my good deeds throughout the year, and now I am proud to say that I have completed 1000 good deeds over the course of this year.

The hardest part of this program in my opinion, was the physical requirements. Now most of you would wonder, really? This is karate it's mainly physical! Yes, this is true, but I have horrible organizational skills, or should I say "had". Having to do 100 push-ups AND sit-ups, 14 pull-ups, 28 squats, and all of my forms 3 times a week or more, is very hard to suddenly fit into your schedule. I very quickly learned that I had to get with it, or else I would have a huge debt of exercises to complete. So thus, my organizational and scheduling skills increased quickly. Now I know that all of you know the numbers, but for documentation sake, I am incredibly proud of myself in that I was able to do 36,500 push-ups AND sit-ups, 5000 pull-ups, and 10,000 squats throughout this year, along with 150 repetitions of each learned form.

Righting one wrong was an interesting experience. It was awkward, it felt off, and it was difficult. If some of you don't know, talking to your ex can be a very weird situation. Not only does it make you feel weird as you talk to him/her, but it just doesn't feel right. At the end of our conversation, everything felt right, because I was able to apologize and own up to my mistakes, of which she accepted my apology fully.

Together, my father and I were able to raise over 400 dollars for the Alabama project, but unfortunately were not able to participate last year. I hope to join the other participants this year, because I have heard so many great things about it.

In my recent blog posts, I had profiled 3 living heroes. Those individuals were Nicholas Vujicic, Dave Grohl, and Shaun White. I won't go into detail, but I had described why each of them were living heroes to me, and how they had impacted the world.

Earlier in the year, I had achieved my 3 personal victories. They are also in blog posts, but not as recent. I again won't go into detail, so if you want to see those, you can scroll down the numerous blog posts of this program to find them.

At the moment I am reading Zen in the Martial Arts, which is the required reading for the program, and I will complete it by tomorrow. So far I find it incredibly educational, but not in a bad way. I am already beginning to internalize some of the lessons from the book to be used in my own daily life.

And finally, I have had to maintain a public journal (this blog) for the year. Updated at least once a week. At the beginning of the program, I did not do well with this at all. It was to the point where sensei eventually emailed all of us, telling us to step up our game, with no excuses to not blog. From then on I got a little better at being on time, yet there was still some holes in my performance. I would miss a week, or two occasionally, which was not acceptable. In the last 5 months, I believe I was able to maintain my blogging consistently, besides the 3 weeks in july when I was at camp. Now I find that blogging is a great source for letting out emotion and anything on your mind if you are willing to share it to the world.

Again, I wanted to thank each and every participant of this program for joining me on this journey. I was challenged greatly but also had tremendous amounts of fun at the same time. As the last day of the program approaches, I congratulate all of you, we made it.

- Jake Landgrebe

Living hero 8/9

Britney Gengel was a kind, caring, and loving student at Lynn University. She traveled to Haiti in 2010 to work for an aide group, and felt very passionate about the children there. Hours before her death, she texted her parents, saying that she would like to open a orphanage there, to even more help the orphans living there. Hours later, a giant earthquake hit Haiti, killing hundreds. For thirty three days, Britney’s family  waited for news, and finally, they got it. Britney was dead. After grieving, the Gengles decided to make sure Britney’s memory would never be forgotten. With Brit in mind, her parents created the be like Brit foundation, a foundation to raise money to build an orphanage for kids at Haiti. The building was finally completed in 2012, thanks to all the donations sent in by millions of people. It houses 33 boys and 33 girls.

So this entire thing, I felt was really amazing, and I believe that Brit’s parents deserve to be named Living heroes because of it. To go from grieving or your daughter to building in orphanage in her honor, well that’s pretty amazing.

Jake Living Hero Blog Post 3

My 3rd and final living hero is Shaun White. Shaun was born in San Diego, California on September 3rd, 1986. Before I get into all of his life achievements, I want to say that Shaun White was dedicated to the point that nothing could alter his passion for snowboarding/skateboarding. He was born with a Tetralogy of Fallot, which is a congenial heart defect. White had to go through 2 open heart surgeries before he was the age of 1. At the age of 6, which took after his older brother and switched from skiing to snowboarding. Immediately he began to rise through the levels of competition and advancement in his skill, and while he was snowboarding he was also skateboarding. By the age of 9 he met Tony Hawk. Tony took him under his wing and by 17 Shaun was a pro at skateboarding. With his snowboarding, he had received his first sponsorship by the age of 7, and to this day he has 25 medals hanging from his neck. He has 2 gold from the olympics, 13 gold, 3 silver, and 2  bronze from the winter x games, and 2 gold, 2 silver, and 1 bronze from the x games. Shaun inspired me to pursue my passion of snowboarding, and now I consider myself a decently skilled snowboarder. I may not be able to ride every rail at the terrain park, but I know how to get myself around. I remember whenever I thought of the winter olympic games, I thought of Shaun. I consider Shaun a living hero because he was able to stay dedicated to something he was passionate about and now has proof of his success in medals and skill.

Jake Living Hero Blog Post 2

My second living hero is a man named Dave Grohl. If some of you do not know much about him, Dave Grohl is the lead singer/guitarist in the Foo Fighters, and was originally the drummer of Nirvana. Dave was born in Warren, Ohio on January 14th, 1969. I believe he is a living hero because during his time in Nirvana, the lead singer Kurt Cobain committed suicide and had further broken up the band. Every band member was in pieces for a long time, except for Dave. What Dave did, was began writing music, and creating songs, to overcome the mental obstacle of the absence of his dear friend Kurt. Now, Dave is very successful. He has left his mark on the world of how anyone can come out of the dark and be incredibly successful afterwards. And not only did he leave his mark on the world, but he inspired me to become a better musician with the course of musical education I have chosen.

update 8/5

LOTS OF STUFF IS HAPPENING!
 So this is a super duper mega exciting week! Like I cant even contain my excitement I might even explode! So anyways, yesterday I got my hair dyed, which is a SUPER big thing! I have ben talking about getting it done for about a year niw, and have devoted countless hours to surfing th web and chasing good dyeing ideas. I finally setteled on an even shorter cut, with jagged edges, and a blue to red streak. I LOVE IT!!! it makes me sososososo very happy. In addition to that I might be going to comic con next week, so I'm flipping out over that. I mean, I'm a huuuuge geek, and John Barrowman, captain Jack from Doctor Who, ya that dude, will BE THERE! In PERSON!! Like whaaaaat!!!!!! Anyway, in addition to that I've got camp for the next two weeks, at Walnut hill. Its a pretty chill camp, and I like it a lot. Ummmmm, yeah, I believe that's all for the moment, but its all so freaking exciting!

Jake Living Hero Blog Post 1

My living hero's name is Nicolas Vujicic. He is an Australian motivational speaker born with tetra-amelia syndrome, which is characterized by the absence of all four limbs. He's been traveling around visiting high schools and colleges speaking to audiences about struggling with disabilities and how it impacted his life and still continues to impact other student's lives around the world. He also spoke about how he was able to overcome his disability, and now has a wife and a double bachelor's degree in  accounting and financial planning at Griffith University. I believe this man is a living hero because he was able to get past a massive obstacle in his life, which was mental and physical, and now inspires others to climb over their obstacles by speaking to them publicly at large gatherings.

Nick once said, “Life isn't about having, it's about being. You could surround yourself with all that money can buy, and you'd still be as miserable as a human can be. I know people with perfect bodies who don't have half the happiness I've found. On my journeys I've seen more joy in the slums of Mumbai and the orphanages of Africa than in wealthy gated communities and on sprawling estates worth millions. Why is that? You'll find contentment when your talents and passion are completely engaged, in full force. Recognize instant self-gratification for what it is. Resist the temptation to grab for material objects like the perfect house, the coolest clothes or the hottest car. The if I just had X, I would be happy syndrome is a mass delusion. When you look for happiness in mere objects, they are never enough. Look around. Look within.”

I truly believe that Nick is a living hero, for he has accomplished so much in the first 33 years of his life.

New stuff/Oregon trip. Chelsea H.

Finally, I'm back from my vacation in Oregon and hopefully will be staying put in MA for a while. Ever since May it's been a bit hectic being away so much. I realized I've been away for a little over 6 weeks total since mid May. I feel a bit rusty at the dojo even though I kept up a practice routine but I'm sure my fellow students will get me back to speed in no time.

I had an awesome time in Oregon! I climbed mountains, walked the desert, hugged a giant redwood tree, kayaked 6 miles down some really scary yet exillerating rapids, lifted and busted big rocks, walked around in thigh high fast moving streams looking for cool rocks/gems (a good stance is handy for more than fighting it seems!) Had some great bonding time with my husband and our friends and saw some of the most beautiful landscapes I've ever seen.

The best part? I had the strength and energy to do all this stuff!!! I was amazed at how many times I did something really rigorous and wasn't tired or sore! Also another cool thing? How many times I used a technique from training in traversing the terrain. A strong balanced stance in the fast water, using tiger crawl to climb back up a steep mountainside "trail", conserving my energy and knowing when it was appropriate and how. Woohoo! What a great show of proof for myself that all the small routines and exercises really do add up!

Thanks everyone for helping me become a better martial artist and person. I look forward to seeing how much we all continue to grow in time

Favorite act of kindness gifted to me this week: My husband taking our dog for her walk when I was busy at the moment.
Favorite act of kindness this week: buying more suet for the birds

The Last 4 Weeks/Living Heroes

  The last four weeks I was at sleepaway camp in Maine. It was my third summer there, and this year I decided to do a program called Junior Maine Guide. I spent the first 3 weeks studying for it, chopping wood, canoeing, memorizing a map of Maine, learning first aid how to use compass, and various other wilderness skills. The last week I spent at test camp, with JMG candidates from 10 other camps. There are 21 tests I had to take, 11 majors and 10 minors. We stayed in tents and cooked every meal, and were tested on every meal. This past week was probably one of the hardest of my life, but also one of the best. To complete the JMG program was one of my goals for the Mastery Program, and I am glad that I made it through. Not a lot of campers pass on their first year, and I am really proud of myself because I did. I did a lot better than I expected. I think one of the reasons for this is because of something I learned at karate, which I kept in my mind during these tests. Sensei always says, if you mess up, mess up with power. Mess up with confidence. During my physical and oral tests, I kept my confidence, so even when I didn't know the answer, it at least looked like I knew what I was doing. 
  The only reason I passed ANY of the tests was thanks to one of my living heroes, K Buldoc. K preps the JMG's for test camp, and she's one of the testers at test camp. Thank goodness I couldn't have her, because she's a strict tester. But she's also one of the nicest people I know. K started going to sleepaway camp at age 7, and she did the JMG program in 2 years. Then she became a Maine Guide as an adult, which is a much harder version of JMG. She's been a Maine Guide since then, and is one of the few Master Maine Guides alive today. She's also almost completely blind. It is insane to watch her chop wood- she'll reach out and feel it, raise the axe, and split it right in half better than any seeing person I've ever met. Canoeing with her: she'll tell you you're doing the stroke wrong, and how to correct it, and you're just like "how can you tell"- she can feel the difference in the way the boat is moving. A brain tumor caused her to lose all of her sight in one eye, and almost all sight in the other. She has to use sticks to walk so she doesn't walk into anything, yet she still leads all of our prep trips, and brings us to test camp. She hasn't let her lack of sight slow her down in any way, and I think that makes her very admirable. I certainly owe my JMG certification to her. 
  Can't wait to see everyone! I've missed the dojo so much. See you Tuesday!! :)

JMG CANDIDATES - 2014

check up 7/27

Update on The mastery team, and how its going for me so far.
    Non Physical requirements:
I have read the amazing book Zen in the Martial arts, and wrote a blog post raving about it. I have completed three out of three personal goals (adding more cardio to my life, performing my fan form in a tournament, and leaving a smaller carbon foot print.) I've done blog posts for two living heroes, the dogs helping with the 911 search and cleanup, and Louis Zamperini. I've blogged roughly every week. I have raised over $600 for Alabama
     Physical Requirements:
I've practiced my forms. I've done 100 push ups and sit ups every day. I've done 25 squat jacks, and 15 pull ups each day as well. I have worked hard to learn all of the moves that are required of my if I am to reach black belt. That means I need to memorize the whole curriculum. I'm pretty sure I got it down, fingers crossed.
Anyway, the provocation or this log post is simply that the Mastery program/year long black belt test is drawing to a close, quit soon in fact. In the middle of august, I believe. So I thought I would reflect back and see just what I've done, and what I need to do.

living Hero 7/24

Louis Zamperini was born in Olean, Ne York on  January 26, 1917. After Louis developed Pneumonia in 1919, his family moved to Torrance, California, where Louis would live till he got drafted as an airman in the army. Once in the army, Louis manned a gun aboard the plane Super Man. After a battle, the Super Man was in no shape to fly. In need of a plane, the team was assigned to an undependable plane called the Green Hornet. Sure enough, Louis was in the middle of a rescue mission when his plane crashed into the ocean. Only two other crewmen survived, Russell Allen Phillips "Phil" and Francis McNamara "Mac". They ended up floating for forty-seven days, during which they survived on a few fish, and the birds that landed on the two rafts. Mac died during this journey. Louis and Phil were slowly starving to death, and it was a miracle they had survived for as long as they did. After being captured, they were sent to many prison and punishment camps. The camps were horrible terrible places, where they had almost no food, and were worked ruthlessly day after day after day. Louis in particular was picked on, by a brutal tyrant called The Bird. Finally, Louis was set free when the war ended.

But this is not the only reason that I consider Louis Zamperini to be a hero. The thing is, after he survived all this torcher, he went through a span of depression, alcoholism, so severe he almost killed himself several times, and threatened his marriage. Its amazing, though because he got a grip on himself and raised himself from perdition. He did this by attending several sermons in L.A. After this he started to toar the world, speaking of his experience. He also started a camp for juvenile delinquent boys. he got countless medels for his efforts, and was praised almost every day. Louis passed away just last week, after leading an extremely inspirational and active life.

I found out about him by a required reading book, Unbroken, By Laura Hillenbrand. I would recommend it to anyone.

Living heroes 7/9 olivia

   There are heroes that everyone remembers. Firefighters who lost their lives saving others. men fighting in the army for our country. But there are other heroes who slip under our radar. Quite literally in fact.
   In 9/11, 40,000 people helped with the clean up and immediate response, and got universally recognized for their efforts. Every year we see blog posts and newspaper articles about those people. But even those people had help. You see, just as the police use guard dogs, and blind people use guide dogs, the rescue people used the rescue and cadaver dogs. And people never gave these animals much recognition. 
   I never even knew that there were dogs used in the rescue attempts until this year, when I stumbled upon an article listing some unknown heroes and their accomplishments. The 9/11 dogs were on that list, and I decided to research them further. As it turns out, there was one dog force, called Operation Nobel Eagle.

This was in the care of Officer Jim Lugaila from the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department. He had been a dog handler since 1988, and had a lot of experience. He brought a workforce of cadaver dogs, who are trained to compare odors in order to find human remains, sometimes no larger than a dime. These dogs were implemented into teams that mostly worked eight- to ten-hour shifts, twenty minutes on, twenty minutes off. After the dogs were done searching, they would be watered down and taken to a park area where the handler and the dog could cool off.  The dogs were washed and visited by a vet tech for a medical exam. These dogs worked more than most of the humans. They were constantly out there, often going into more dangerous places than humans dared to tread. And because they were dogs they asked no recognition, and were overlooked in favor of the many human heroes in those rescue attempt.

So ya, these are one of my three heroes. They are dogs, I hope thats okay. But I truly believe they were heroes.

Jake blog post 7/6/14

This week, I had a conversation with a friend of mine about potential. She believes that many people do not see their own potential and spend most of their time not trying to reach their fullest potential. I completely agree with her, because I have a decent amount of friends who just don't see the kind of impact they can have on the world. On a side note, I'm currently on my way to summer camp! Really excited about that. I'll be back on Saturday, then I'll be leaving again on Sunday for another week, and this repeats one more time after that. So 3 weeks total! I'll blog when I get back, have a great week everyone!

Zen. Olivia 7/3

      So. I just read one of the most inspirational and thought-provoking books of my entire life, and maybe of anyone's life ever in the history of the world. Zen in the Martial Arts, by Joe Hyams. It is an amazing book, full of important messages and priceless tidbits of advice, on how to better yourself as a martial artist. But the book is not just about the Martial Arts. Its also how to transfer your martial arts learning to your everyday life. I was so amazed by this book, that I went around on the internet to ind out what others had to say about it. Lo and behold, I found this entry in Wikipedia (Under Joe Hyams):
     
 "His 1979 book Zen in the Martial Arts was built on his many years of studying martial arts with such figures as Bong Soo Han, Bruce Lee, and Ed Parker. He first became involved in the martial arts during his wartime service in the US Army, when he was regularly beaten up for being Jewish. After the war he became a student of kenpo karate and studiedJeet Kune Do with Bruce Lee, as well as becoming proficient in eight other martial arts disciplines. ^[3] Melissa Hyams said the slim book "isn't really about martial arts. It's about life and philosophy, and how to turn a negative into a positive, how to defuse a situation by the way you handle it. That's what he'll most be remembered for." ^[4]"

I found that this passage beautifully describes the book, and leaves me with very little writing left to do. However, I am still digesting the book in my mind, and haven't fully processed everything it has to say. I think I will read it again, in order to better understand it.  Until next time, Olivia

Willingness. Chelsea H.

These 2 weeks as I've been away improving myself I have been taught something I always knew but did not believe/understand/accept which is everything I do is a choice and that every choice affects myself and my world/relationships. It can further set balance or unbalance. In my past I felt some of my behaviors were excusable or unavoidable,that I had no control and therefore I should have not been held accountable/faced consequences. Everything we do has a consequence. As Rafiki from the Lion King says "Oh yes, the past can hurt.. but the way I see it, you can either run from it or learn from it!" In order to learn one must be willing to. Without willingness a person may stay stagnant preventing improvement and growth. Change/new things/ can be really scary but when one is willing to "prune the branches" of their life it gives way for what can be beautiful growth. Im slowly starting to learn there is no failure, only an opportunity for learning and improvement if I am willing.

My favorite act of kindness this week: educating several medical personnel by being a subject for study and questioning.
My favorite act of kindness gifted to me this week: a person taking the time to listen and educate me about anything I cared to ask (that was awesome!)

Jake's Blog Post Saturday June 28th

About a week into summer vacation, I am completely relaxed. No tests or quizzes to stress about, no more homework, just time to myself and time with friends and family. I've been hanging out with friends, watching movies with my family, it's been great so far. However, in about a week, I'll be off to boy scout camp for 3 weeks, for I will be a CIT there with a couple of my friends. That will hopefully be the highlight of my summer, but I do not know if I will be able to blog during that time. This is  because campers are not allowed to use phones, and I am not sure if the rules are bent for the CITs. So if this is so, next week will be my last blog and I will make it up somehow in August. Have a great fourth of July everyone!

Schools out 6/26

Woo hoo! Schools out!!! Super psyched for the summer. I expect to have an awesome one. To kick off the summer, I had a giant party on the island. This is an island that my friend Lauren and I made a fort on last year, but we had no real plans and are not sure how structurally sound it is.... But when dressed up it looks pretty snazzy! Sorry, I couldn't find a photo on my computer to show you guys, so you will have to trust me on this! The party was awesome, and we headed out swimming after s'mores. What could be better? After that, I've stuck around the house. Basically, just going swimming and biking and binge watching supernatural. But later in the summer, I'm panning on building a tree house on one of the other two islands on the pond with Lauren. I'm also going to my cabin up in New Hampshire, which I go to every year. Besides that, not much else is happening, so yeah.

Mental elasticity and toughness. Chelsea H.

Sometimes I feel I focus on the physical aspects of training that I neglect the chance for opportunities to learn mental skills in the dojo as well as in my personal life. Some of you may have noticed I am away yet again ( I miss yall so much!) These 2 weeks I am away I have and will continue to be focusing and practicing refocusing certain ways I think and act to enhance my life and interactions with others. I really look forward to getting back to the dojo and getting to train with everyone once again. My internet access at my current location is kinda limited so unfortunately I am having to rush this weeks entry but am staying steady keeping up with physical requirements (even climbed some big rocks).

My favorite act of kindness: opening a tightly shut jar for someone
My favorite act of kindness given to me: a positive email of encouragement sent my way.

Jason Mai 6/21/14

Jason Mai
6/21/14

     This blog post I want to talk about self defense, and what self defense means to me. Now we always talk about self defense in class as eating right, treating your body right etc etc. But today I want to talk about real self defense, physical self defense from an attacker with intent to cause harm to you. Now when I talk about this subject with people, people always think I'm paranoid, think I'm crazy, but at the end of the day, it is a thousand times better to think of these things before and have them, instead of dealing with them later. I would rather have thought of what to do if someone came at me with a knife instead of after I have just been stabbed and hospitalized, I know what you are thinking right now, that is crazy talk. It might be, but it's talk that will keep me alert and bring me back home to my family and friends.
     The first thing people will say about self defense that I always hear from people is "You will never need to use it, you live in Wayland." When people say that I kinda go, "Yup, you are right buuuut" firstly you don't always stay in Wayland, what if you go to that concert in Cambridge? another that is that because we live in a world, where anything can happen, at any time, to anyone. I might live in a good neighborhood, and yes my chances of having to defend myself is slim but guess what, there was a murder a few years ago on my street. A man killed his girlfriend with a knife, it was a hate crime. These are the things that keep me on edge, because we do live in a dangerous world that many seem to forget.
     The few things I think of in self defense situations are, intent, alertness, fitness, and how far you are willing to go.
     First thing is intent, if someone attacks you, you must have 100% intent in achieving your goal, no matter what it may be. It can be as easy as intent to run away, to as extreme as the intent of taking someone's life. You don't have to like it, in fact you shouldn't like it, but if it needs to be done, it needs to be done. Now this may seem harsh and brutal, but wait until I talk about how far you are willing to go, before you judge.
     Second thing in self defense situations you need to know is awareness (alertness). Is the guy sitting next to you uneasy, how is that guy looking at you as you take money out of the ATM. Basically awareness was pretty well summarized in the article about the girl who got stabbed. The few things I do to keep myself aware are simple, first identify your location, know where you are, know where certain places are if you need to run. This is good even if you don't need to defend yourself, just so you don't get hit by a car. Next you should identify people around you, is someone following you? Does someone look nervous? Do you hear shouting? Identify any threat, and be ready for it. Don't have headphones in, don't be checking your phone, but also don't be giving the potential attacker reason to think you are dangerous.
     Third thing is fitness, if you can't strike your way out of a wet paper bag you are done for. I don't care how trained you are, or how many YouTube videos you have watched. If you don't have intent and fitness you will not survive. Can you fight someone after having to run? Can you take on multiple opponents if needed? Can you survive a 5 minute fight with someone? Most will think "Oh I can do that, it's easy" but no, anyone who has ever been put in one of these high stress situations when you need to deal with emotions, stress, thinking about what you need to do, and doing it with intent, you will be tired.
     Now the last thing and probably the most controversial is how far you are willing to go. I suggest looking at your local self defense laws in the state, because yes I'd rather be tried by 12 than carried by 6, but there is a limit and you need to recognize it. I don't want to kill a man who was just pushing me and I could of easily defused the situation however I also don't want to try to subdue a man with a knife if he can easily kill me. Once you look at your self defense laws and have a good understanding of what you can and cannot do (basically common sense) then start with a plan. Think of scenarios and how far are you willing to go? If someone is trying to kill you with a knife? If someone is trying to beat you with a stick? If someone breaks into your car? If someone has you at gunpoint. Think realistically, don't try to disarm someone with a gun to your head, if you can easily give him your money and run, it is not worth it. Self defense isn't about proving yourself, self defense is about getting home safe. It is always good to have a general understanding of how far you are willing to go, in different situations. However this does not mean to map out every single thing you do if this specific thing happens. I use to do that, but then I realized, a confrontation is always moving, it will not go your way, it will go however it wants and you must adapt. So don't see someone sketchy and be like "Okay as soon as he comes at me, I will block with my right, then come in with a jab, grab and take down." All these things will confuse you and distract you, Just have a general understanding of how far you are willing to go, then if it happens, don't think about it, do what you need to do. Let your inner animal take over as I like to think of it. Because if a school shooter came in and started shooting up my school and killing my friends, and I get close to him. I sure as hell will bit into his neck and kill him, if necessary.

     Last thing I want to mention before I finish this up, these things I say are in no means reasons to start fights or going looking for trouble just because you think you can handle it. At the end of the day the best self defense weapon is your head and your words. If you can defuse a situation with no one getting hurt, that is 100 times better than having to hurt someone. Avoid sketchy things, don't put yourself in situations where you will get attacked or hurt. Don't piss off the wrong people, don't hit on a girl whose boyfriend is a roid raged jacked 200lb man of steel. If you are smart enough, it is possible to go through life without ever having to fight, but sometimes it is inevitable, and when it is, that is when you must be ready.

Thanks to anyone who read this, haha.

Jake' Blog Post 6/21/14

School ended on Wednesday, and believe me I am incredibly happy. It gives such an enlightened feeling, like a burden has been lifted off your shoulders. Anyways, I went to a party the other night, and it really was a lot of fun. Not only because it was a party, but also because I could just feel the friendship between everyone there. I've never really felt that before, because in past years I've only had a few close friends. But this year, I've been friends with countless people, and still have a few really close friends. So even though some of those close friends weren't at the party, I still felt like I wasn't alone and could have a wonderful time. And a wonderful time I had. I had to leave about halfway through for an hour or so, and when I got back everyone was excited to see me back. It was a great experience and I couldn't be happier to have been treated and accepted with as much friendship as I was at the party. Anyways, happy summer everyone!

Completed Personal goals 6/20

One personal goal down, another about to be finished

So I have completed both my personal goal of competing in a tournament with my fan form, as well as half my goal of the carbon free school and summer days. I am currently a day away from going 20 days to school without the use of an engine (whoop whoop!)  I had a lot of trouble, because my bike began to hate me, and refused to not have a flat tire. That meant that I had to use my brothers bike. Also, some days, it was just to rainy or windy to bike, it was awful.  I am about to start my 30 days of going no where with an engine in the summer. Hopefully I will be able to complete more than 30 days, as it seems rather easy, but who knows. I also finished my goal of competing with my fan form (hip hip hooray) so That was fun. I got first place there, though I do not believe that I deserved it. I wasn't holding the fan strongly, and my stances were off. But oh well. I still got first!! Anyway, talk to you next week! bye.

Jason Mai 6/16/14

Jason Mai
6/16/14

     This week is finals week, school is literally over after this week. I am super excited, the summer has a lot to bring, I am going to Peru for 2 weeks, I am going to a concert that my friends are performing at, I will be making money and having fun with friends and stuff. I will be making movies and going to classes.
     Which reminds me of a topic I wanted to talk about, I believe teachers deserve more respect than they get. A good teacher can change a student forever, a good teacher can breed successful people. A video I wanted to share with you guys is this one, called "What do Teachers Make?" By Taylor Mali

Unexpected things. Chelsea H.

As I checked my calendar today it made me realize how close we are to the end of this yearlong program and how many things I still need to finish. It also made me think back to the many unexpected events that have affected my family and my health, some of those times I had serious thoughts of ceasing training as well as lack of self care and maintenance of my daily exercise routine. We all made a vow not to quit, and through my various supporters I have always managed to carry on and catch up.

I still have not finished reading savor, I find it a bit boring but I'm trying to not let that stand in the way of learning from it. I guess I just need to sit down and treat it like a textbook like when I was in college and just get it over with.

I still have not confirmed a 5k to do yet but have been keeping up with my training for one.

Perseverance and tenacity are what I am learning from this journey and I thank all of my RMF mates for the constant learning opportunities.

Favorite act of kindness this week: finishing up a long awaited painting for a cousin who is a big fan of my art.

Favorite act of kindness I received this week: A friend asking me out for lunch and delightful conversation.

Dealing with injuries (personal goal)

June 14,

Two Thursday's ago,  I was walking normally down the street on my way to a gig when I suddenly felt a "pop" in my left knee.  This sensation was followed by some awkwardness around the knee cap without significant pain.  As the night went I could tell it wasn't 100% despite being able to do the gig without any real limitations.  Went to see my chiropractor who is amazing and after he did some tests mentioned that it was a bit loose.  It occurred to me that my tight left ankle probably had something to do with it.  More specifically, as a result of rupturing my achilles tendon 1.5 years ago my left calf is still weaker than my right.

One of my personal goals for the mastery program is to rejuvenate my achilles tendon and calf as much as possible.  This incident with my knee reminded me that in addition to stretching the area,  I also need to strengthen it on a daily basis.  My goal is to do 100 calf raises in two sets of 50 which is going to be a real challenge.  I can just get up to 30 with the final reps being extremely difficult and small in range.  In comparison, I can lift much higher and doing more reps with my right leg.  As a result of doing these exercises for the past week and half my knee seems to be getting better.  I'm closely monitoring how it feels.

In addition to the above,  the another aspect related to this personal goal was returning to karate 7 months after surgery.  Sensei Paul mentioned that all of us would question whether or not to continue at some point on the road to black belt.  This happened to me last summer before returning in August.  I'm glad I did!! The other piece of this goal is to do a rigorous backpacking trip with my boys this August since I wasn't able to do that last year.

Finally, I've also had to back off pushups for the past few weeks since my right shoulder has been somewhat problematic as a result.  Pullups haven't been an issue and I'm consistently doing at least 30 a day.  I'm going to ease back into pushups and see how my shoulder responds.

Bottom line is that as I get older I have to watch how I push myself making sure to keep a balanced perspective on what and how I'm training.  As frustrating as these injuries have been, I also look at them as an opportunity to learn more about myself through observing both my body and mind.  Being frustrated with the situation doesn't do anything but generate negative thoughts which aren't helpful to my goals. 

Hopefully this post hasn't seemed like a big rant. 

JL

Jake's Blog Post June 12, 2014 "Making It Count"

I really need to stop making false promises.

I think as another side goal along with my 3 other goals,  I will try to find away to remind myself to post on time from now on.

Tomorrow is the start of finals, and the last 4 days of my freshman year. And let me tell you, it went by so fast. I remember walking in the front doors of Natick High School for the first time, getting my first lecture from the choir program teacher, my first school lunch outside ever, it all feels like it was just yesterday.

My mom tells me that when she was younger, things seemed to go by at a snails pace. To me, it's just about the opposite. I'm sitting here with 4 days left in my freshman year of high school, and it feels like I was a 5th grader just a few days ago.

Going through this made me realize that to some, life can go by incredibly fast, and that is why we have to cherish the moments that define us forever. We have to make every moment count and need to savor the memorable ones. Even though I was quite nerdy (and still am), I miss being in middle school. Back there, the only things I had to really care about was getting in my homework on time and what days were fantastic Fridays (they were these party things for 5th and 6th graders). Now I have to worry about more homework, keeping my grades up, learning how to drive next year, preparing for SATs, Work, the list goes on.

From now on, I need to make every moment count. And I'll start by blogging on time. However to do that, I'll need to find a way to successfully remind myself to blog. Till next week,

- Jake

Jason Mai 6/10/14

Jason Mai
6/10/14

     I don't really have anything to write about this time, but I need to write so I will. The end of the school year is approaching, fast. After this week, it will be finals and after that we will be done. I've been falling behind on my schoolwork these past few weeks because summer is near, it is a horrible habit of mine. I always start of the school year strong, and near the end I stop trying. It's not that I don't care about my grades...I just don't want to do anything, but I really need to just focus and get through this week and finals without doing too much damage to my grades.
     Over the summer they're are a few things I want to do, and will do. For one I want to make a short film with some friends. I also want to work on other filming opportunities, jobs, things for the dojo etc. Get back into teaching as well. I also wanted to make some money to save up for a car, since I've been driving recently I've seen the benefits of having a car and I think it would be great if I can save up $2000-$3000 for a car. It might be a crap car...but hey, a car is a car. I will also be going to Peru for 2 weeks, hiking into the remote villages of Peru and helping the kids their, an experience that surely will change my life. I need to start preparing for that, buying gear, training.
     Peru I think will be good for me because I need to learn what it is like out their, in the world. I know what it is like, and I am not ignorant, but until I experience it, I am ignorant. I'd like to think I can take care of myself, but who knows. I guess only time will tell.

catching up from Texas. Chelsea H.

Some of you may know I had to make an emergency trip to Texas racing there to see my Grandpa before he died. I got to Texas on the 18th of May and he died in the early morning on May 20th. I had limited/non steady internet access during my visit (may 18th-June 5th) so was not able to post my writings until my return. Here are my posts from my missing weeks.


May 18th
This has been quite the week. I've recieved news from my family that my Grandpa has not been doing well physically. He's been coughing up blood, is short of breath and his kidneys are shutting down rapidly. Last night I got a late night call that the doctors were sending him home and putting him on hospice. I quickly got online and booked the fastest flight to Houston I could find for the 18th. My in-laws are currently visiting, they flew in on the 17th and while sad that I have to leave (I hadnt seen them in 2 years) they understood.

My favorite act of kindness this week: cleaning my home super clean for the arrival of my in-laws.
My favorite act of kindness given to me: my mother in law teaching me how to use my sewing machine properly.



May 25th
I feel very fortunate that my husband has a good job and was able to supply the money for the expensive last minute flight. I flew in on the 18th and my sister drove me straight from the airport in Houston to Beaumont where my Grandpa was in the hospital. When I walked in his eyes widened, I could tell he was happy to see me. Always the quick witted he says "What happened? did you go to the store to get bread and end up in Beaumont?" I laughed and told him I came to visit him because I heard he was sick. We chatted for a bit but I could tell it was taxing his energy quite a bit, which surprised me considering he was always very active even when I had seen him last in December. As he coughed he tried to conceal the blood with his napkin but was not aware of the red tinge on his white beard. I left the hospital late that night and came back early the next morning. The hospital discharged him that afternoon and a transport ambulance took him home. By the time he arrived back to his house all of my other family members were there (thankfully he had a large house so everyone had somewhere to sleep) I saw relatives I had not seen in many many years. We propped my grandpa up in his bed and tried to do our best to make his comfortable once hospice left. Once he got home he started to get worse quick due to not being on IV fluids and blood transfusions. I knew from my paramedic training it would not be long. That night as everyone got sleepy I placed a chair next to his bed and stayed up with him. My sister rested in a chair in the room in case I needed her. what a rough night... His breathing became more and more labored, at one point in the night he began saying "I cant do this anymore..I cant" it was heartbreaking to watch him suffering. I began praying for God to please take him soon, to alleviate his suffering. on May 20th at 3:50am I could tell from his movements and breathing that he was about to die, I called my sister over and told her to gather everyone. My mom who was in the closest room was the first to come in and my sister came in next as the others were coming downstairs. My mom, my sister and I were there as we watched his last breaths. 2 minutes after he stopped breathing I checked for a pulse in several spots and did not find one. TOD 3:55am.

Fortunatly my Grandpa was a well prepared man and had already had his funeral planned and paid for which made thing really easy. The funeral was held on May 23rd with full military honors. He was a Marine who fought in WW2, during the service two Marines in full dress uniform stood at attention and folded the flag from his coffin while a bugler played taps, it was just like he wanted it.

Favorite act of kindness this week: Staying up with my Grandpa
Favorite act of kindness I recieved: My sister being in the room with me



June 1st
The amount of greed and yelling I have seen over the past week has been unlike anything I have ever seen before. I have been trying to find my balance of grieving healthily while letting the copious amounts of negativity around me roll off my back. My Grandpa was a very wealthy man and had left a will that was very structured and well laid out but it didnt stop some members of the family from trying to swindle/steal from those who were rightfully willed items/money/jewelry/land/etc. I guess the saying is true..."Mo' money Mo' problems!" but it wasnt all bad. There were also some very touching moments I had, things I will remember for the rest of my life. I savored the time I got to spend with some of my favorite cousins. I met people I had not seen since I was a young child and also formed a friendship with one of the most bad-ass motorcycle cops in Beaumont. Life...you sure are interesting!

Favorite act of kindness this week: carrying dusty/heavy furniture
Favorite act of kindness I received: My cousins and I getting together with away from the chaos for a home cooked dinner at one of my cousins apartment.

June 8th
This was my last week in Texas and was really the first time in the past few weeks that I have been able to just chill with my mom and sister. We drove back to Deer Park and kicked back for a few days. We spent time at the beach, played bingo (my mom won one of the rounds! big money woohoo!) and I snuggled my sister's pomeranian Kali (she's such a diva) I also got the opportunity to do 2 classes at my old dojo which teaches Combat Hapkido from Grand Master Chris Yaeger. It was alot of fun seeing him and all the old instructors(I even learned a few new techniques so watch out! haha) but I missed all my Revolution Martial Fitness peeps so very much. I'm very happy to be back to my little condo with my husband and dog. I got a very grand welcome when I arrived home.

Favorite act of kindness this week: Giving my husband a massage to his pained shoulder.
Favorite act of kindness I recieved: A social worker sitting next to me on the plane helping to calm down during rough turbulence on the flight home.

Statement of faith 6/8/14

So today was my confirmation day at my church, and we are a very very liberal church. Here is mine:

Um, so I don’t really know how to begin this, which makes sense since I’m 14 years old and think that it would be silly to come up with a final idea about faith at this point. I hope that this is really just the beginning of the thought process and that I’ll continue to think about this stuff over the years.  However, After all the preparation for this moment that going to this church has given me --two years of confirmation classes and lots of conversations, this is what I think is important so far.

1. Community.  Lots of people think that church supposed to be for religion and thinking about God, but it’s also for community, for hanging out with people who give time and effort to things like giving back and community service (and chili cook-offs and hat-making.)  Right now, the spiritual stuff isn’t very important to me, but the community stuff is. I get to sing and see my friends, and sometimes the sermons include things that are of interest to me, too.  I like to do the Youth Group events like Canobie Lake, laser tag, and sleep-ins, but also the service stuff like serving the Open Door dinner for the Natick Service Council.  And I think that even the pure fun stuff involves giving—we give our time, so do our parents, we hang out and connect. There is an underlying current that here is a group of people who come to this odd church with so many weird habits, and these people all are of like mind, and come here on their own accord. It’s got a great sense of community, with these people, many of whom I see only once a week. That’s important.  

2. God stuff.  I believe God is a spirit or energy— I don’t think that God is there to smite people when they do wrong. I don’t think there is a God at all. I believe that everything is connected, and everything has this spirit or energy or aura. Its a very Hippie belief, that everything gives off vibes, but I think its true. Anyway, I haven't figured out much about it yet, so lets move on.

3. Lastly, The Faith thing. I think that everyone needs to believe in something, something that they can blame when things go wrong. That belief keeps them sane, gives them a reason to stay in this world. People can believe in anything, from their family, to music to god. But its that belief that keeps them from sinking into insanity and oblivion. I found an example of this in my favourite book, The Fault in Our Stars. For those of you who haven't read it, its a cancer book thats so much more. "I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we’re all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we’ll ever have, and I am in love with you." (Augustus Waters, The Fault in Our Stars) Augustus believed in his love with Hazel Grace, and thats what kept him from tumbling into the Despair.

Artist Project 6/1/14

In Wellesley middle school every year the eighth grade does a project in English. This project is called the artist project. It is when every kid picks an artist , and they have to research that artist, and his or her style. Then they must create a piece of art that is either a book cover of one of the books w read this year, or that ilistraits a character trait needed to be a good member of society. Here is mine: 

My artist was Banksy. I portrayed courage, and the ability to say whats right no matter what. This is protesting children getting to used to and comfortable with violence at a young age because of the media.

Junauro Landgrebe

Hi all,

I apologize for the infrequency of my blog posts.  To be honest, I'm not much of a writer.  That being said, I have been keeping up with my requirements with the obvious exception of blogging on a weekly basis.  Sensei Paul is fully aware and we have an understanding.

The main focus for the mastery program at this time is to finish writing a number of instrumental music compositions I've been working on.  This has been a bit of challenge for the reasons mentioned above.  I've been playing guitar for the past 30 years and have always been more of a "player" than writer.  One of my personal goals is to write 6 pieces by the end of summer.  So far I have 4 that are almost done and need to start a couple more.  The good news is that I've been in a creative zone for ever since my teaching load at Northeastern slowed down last month.  I'm confident I'll be able to finish all 6 pieces on target. 

My other personal goals are in progress.  One of them is to hike to the top of Mt. Washington for the first time after injuring my ankle in January of 2013.  This will be the final piece of a lengthy recovery that has been going great overall.  Returning to the dojo after the injury was the first step.  I wasn't sure about returning since I had some concerns about injuring myself again.  I've never been one to let fear get in my way and can report that returning to the dojo was both  a physical and mental victory.

My final personal goal is forming as we speak and I'll blog more about it when I'm certain it's feasible.

That's it for now.  You'll be seeing a lot more blogs in the immediate future!

JL

Jason Mai 6/1/14

Jason Mai
6/1/14

     The film festival is over, I had very mixed feelings about the film festival but now that I've had a few days to think through it, I think I've concluded how I feel all together about it.
     So first things first, the film festival itself was very very fun, I got to hang out with the people I've worked with all year, I got to hang out with all the other directors, actors and actresses, I saw past students who have made legendary student films or are star actors. It was fun knowing that night, was our night. Something I don't feel a lot. 3 movies played, and mine was the 2nd one played. After the last movie and into intermission I was confident I would win "Best picture." If I am completely honestly, I thought I would win it, but I didn't, this is how that played out
     After intermission was the awards, best website, editor and cinematography were the first ones, and I took them all. I was very excited and I got a generally good feelings from everyone, saying mine was the best, etc etc. I basically got so confident because everyone just loved mine and told me it was the best. Finally when best picture came, we lost. Our cast was destroyed. I felt horrible. I also was so stressed throughout making my movie, because all my actors suffered for their craft, we put hours of work in, we worked in the worst conditions. I didn't want to disappoint my actors, the hours I put in versus the hours of the person who won put in. I honestly just don't think he put in as much as I did, and it feels horrible. To work so hard towards something only to lose it to someone who did less. I wanted to feel happy for my classmate, but I couldn't. None of my actors won awards even though the did an amazing performance, and spectacle the movie that won, just won too many ridiculous awards. I was pretty bummed out for the next few days, and tried to drown myself in social activities to forget everything and let it go, but now its a Sunday night and I can really reflect on it, and I sad that we didn't win, but at the same time there are several things I need to respect.

1. I made a freaking movie! That isn't an easy task at all, so I should just be happy that I did that at all

2. I did win some awards, I can't be that angry

But I guess I'm very competitive and I have the "Happy but not satisfied" mentality, which for me is good, in my opinion. Today I watched a video by one of my living heroes, Eric Thomas.

And the video just connected with me so well, it was exactly how I felt. Also Eric reminded me of a few things, there is no point in me pouting, complaining or crying about it. At the end of the day none of that changes anything, what does change is my effort. I need to take this experience as a learning experience. Failure is a part of success, being able to push through failure and work through it is what separates the great and the normal. I can't deny me being angry or sad about the outcome of the film festival, but ultimately, this experience should make me a stronger person, and from it. I will win next year.

Jake Mending Relationship Blog Post May 27, 2014

In this blog post, I will be describing how I mended a broken relationship I had with a good friend of mine. About 4 months ago, a relationship I was in with someone ended, and in the process, some rude and offensive phrases were said, mainly from me. A month ago, I contacted this person via email and began conversing with her once again. After I asked how she was doing, I proceeded to give her a detailed apology for my actions and the words and phrases I had said to her during the breakup. Thankfully, she saw that I meant the apology and accepted it. We then went on to become friends again and have been talking every week since then to this day!

On a side note, I wanted to apologize and mend a broken relationship with this blog, for I have been lacking on my blogging requirement once again. I have just been considerably busy recently. After the MCAS testing next week, I'll be more available to blog. Till next week!

Jason Mai 5/26/14

Jason Mai
5/26/14

     Yesterday I went hiking with people from my school that I don't normally hang out with. I really enjoyed getting to know them, laughing with them and sharing memories with them. They're my Peru group, the people i'm going to Peru with, going to remote villages high up in the mountains and stuff. What I experienced yesterday is what life should be like, what I mean by that is just how stupid cliques are and grouping people into categories, people should not be referred to as nerds, losers, jocks etc etc, we all are human, we shouldn't judge each other because we don't understand each other. Yesterday was an example of that, I was hanging out with people I didn't really know, I was struggling and sharing experiences with people I didn't really know, but I enjoyed them. I wish I could be friends with everyone in school, I wish I could connect with everybody and make everyone happy and make them laugh but life just isn't like that huh, people aren't all nice to each other, and its sad.
     Today I learned that I'm a super vulnerable person, and I guess I'm okay with it, I learned it kinda is part of being human but it sucks, I'm really bad at opening up to people because I'm scared, scared of being rejected, scared of the lack of control. I'm better with it now, but it can be hard. I was just thinking about this because of this Ted Talk, its very deep and connects with me on many levels its awesome.

Olivia Blog Post for week of 5/11

Olivia Blog Post for week of 5/11

So today I want to talk about something that has happened to me and another friend who is a martial artist (Not at RMF, her father teaches her.)  Actually, I take that back.  I really don’t want to talk about it at all, because it makes me mad and is embarrassing, but think that I should.

What happened to me is that I got some really inappropriate texts from a phone number I didn’t know, although I figured out who it was.  (Like, suspended from school level of inappropriate if the school ever found out.)

What happened to my friend is that she was downtown with friends and a guy made inappropriate gestures to her.  (same level of inappropriateness.)

So that is basically gender-based discrimination, and it bothered us both as martial artists because here we have been training for years and years to be independent and take care of ourselves, and something like this happens and it becomes blindingly clear that some things you can’t defend yourself against, and that just makes me mad.  I couldn’t just march up to the kid who texted me and punch him the next time I saw him, because it happened over vacation and I didn’t see him for days.  And my friend was so startled that she just turned and walked away and she was so mad and scared because it didn’t even occur to her to use martial arts on him. She felt helpless, and it really shook her sense of security and confidence.

 And even worse, other guys that are friends, and were with the perpetrators at both events didn’t really stand up for us as friends. I thought that I’d earned some respect from some of these people and so did my friend, but these acts showed me that all was not as I thought it was.

Although really, how can we really train to defend ourselves against some dude who thinks sexting is funny? It’s not, it’s degrading and demeaning and disrespectful, and the only thing I can do is turn off my phone and walk away, and that makes me feel weak. And I hate that.

And worse, no matter how well I am trained, some guys are going to be big and strong enough that it doesn’t make a difference and I am still vulnerable. 

It takes away an illusion of safety.  And I hate that, too. I hate the thought that I could lose any street fight, it really bothers me. So anyway, this is my post. See y’all next week.