I figured it out!! Personal victory #1?? ;) Anyway. I'm Scotia. This is my Mastery Team Blog. I am currently a brown belt, and I have been at Revolution Martial Fitness since 2009. I decided to do the Mastery Program because I knew I wanted to get my Black Belt someday, so I seized the opportunity. Now that I'm halfway through, I am noticing some definite changes. Physically, my capabilities are much better than when I started. I noticed this especially about a month or so ago when I forgot my belt. I had to do 90 pushups anyway, so I decided to get it done before class. Some of my classmates (thanks guys!) decided to do some with me, so we started pushing away. After a few minutes, I took a break and one of them asked me how many I had done. 40! Never before had I done 40 pushups right after the other without resting. I was really proud for a minute, and then I went back and finished my pushups. Other things have been better too: pre-Mastery Program, I couldn't do a single pull-up and I can now do 7 without putting my feet on the ground. My grappling has improved. My attitude towards hard workouts has also changed. Before the Mastery Program, I would not look forward to tough workouts and would complain about my sore appendages for days. Now, when Sensei says "Your arms are gonna hurt tomorrow!" I am glad, because I know I am getting extra time to fulfill my requirements. Imagine my surprise when I noticed I had developed arm muscle! :) In school, I am one of the only kids doing the pushups on my toes, but I think that's just laziness on the part of my peers. My homeroom teacher is the Wellness (gym) teacher, so I was telling him about the Mastery Program, and we ending up getting my whole homeroom to do 25 morning pushups. I definitely got some glares for that! :) As for my goals, I now have almost $600 towards my goal of $1000 to pay my part for sleepaway camp. I'm not sure if this will get in my way for funding for Alabama, but I'm going to try to balance them the best that I can. I already have some ideas. Right now, it's a blizzard out and I'm about to go do some pushups. Life is good. :)