Grading over, on to new patterns

I hate the days when we have to grade for new belts. I'm extraordinarily shy, and it's nerve-wracking for me to get up in front of people. I am such a perfectionist about myself and especially representing others. I love my instructors, so when I represent them by performing in front of a Grand Master, I want to be the best. I don't think there is anything wrong with that, but I'm afraid of being a disappointment, I guess.

Anyway, grading started with my mom being recognized for a huge donation of items that she made to the school for our garage sale. We have a fund called the Rainy Day Grant that helps when the student can't afford to pay for a grading or one of the 6 tournaments required for black belt grading. This was our first garage sale and my mom donated pretty much her entire ebay store stuff to the school. Thanks to her, we made over $800! So she was given a plaque and it was a complete surprise, which she told me after that she would "get me" for. My mom scares me.

Then my daughter received a huge honor. In all the years that the school has been open, no one has ever been to class every day from one grading to the next... until now. I was doing really good with her, until I had to miss class to work the runoff election back in April (or May, whenever that was). But my daughter went, and any day I couldn't go, she figured out a way to be dropped off and picked up. So she got an award for that, which was totally awesome!

Then we did Demo Team patterns. This was the worst part of the day for me. Again, I don't like to be in front of people. But the Excellence Club instructor, Timothy, decided that the high belt E.C. is going to be the school's Demo Team now. I don't WANT to be a part of the Demo Team, but I don't want to quit E.C. either, so I guess I'm stuck with it. Kinda like being in the Split's Club. OMG, I forgot about that- that's how grading started, with the S.C. doing a pattern in the splits. I was asked to take over the S.C. recently, so I had to do the pattern and it ended up looking like poo.

UGH, I feel like I forgot stuff. Okay, like a month ago at E.C., we were told we would be doing creative patterns. This genius I know decided... oh wait, I already wrote about that in my blog post, "Summer". So Friday night, I was laying in bed, so nervous about doing the creative pattern, and going over it and over it in my mind and I could NOT sleep. Then the alarm went off at 5:40 (AM!) and I was up and practicing. I would get ALMOST through it and totally blank out. So my husband gets up about an hour after me and he says I'm too worked up about it, I need a release. I love my husband dearly and passionately, but all that 45 minutes did was make me more frazzled, cause then I was rushing around trying to get everything ready and the kids up and everything so that we could leave by 8. I wanted to be the FIRST person at grading, so that I could run through my pattern there and make sure I started in the right place, etc... So I was THE first person. The instructors weren't even there, so I couldn't even get in the building. Then once they got there, everything was all so... trying to get ready... I never got a chance to practice it with the music. So by the time it was time for S.C. to get into the pattern I designed, I was already in tears. I blamed in on lack of sleep, but really, it was mostly nerves.

So when it came time to line up the students for S. C. and they all started acting like the children that they are, I started getting frustrated on top of it. When THAT was over, I felt a little less frustrated, but still upset about the creative pattern. So then came awards and after that was Demo Team. My daughter was #2, and she was AWESOME! I can't wait to pull the video off the tape this week at work and post it on my Facebook page. I went after her. It was a DISASTER. I got to THAT point (the one where I had like 30 seconds left in the entire song) and my mind went blank and I stopped. Like an ass, I just stopped. It was SO embarrassing. I was so thankful when it was over. I wasn't nervous again until they called my name for my belt grading. My belt was green, grading for blue stripe. I thought I did the patterns fairly well, but when I went back and looked at the video tape, I was pretty disappointed. It was just a crappy day for me, I guess. Then I went up to do my board break (BACK KICK) and they gave me 2 boards to break. As I bowed to Grand Master Park, all I could think of was OMG, my foot is never going to go through both those! Thankfully, it did on the first try.

Then a few groups later my kids graded. They went from blue belts to red stripes. Only 5 more belts til BLACK BELT grading next September! I'm SOOOO excited for them!! Then when it was over, trophies were handed out for most improved and best performance. The most improved is chosen by the owners and instructors. They chose one for each belt level- white belt, beginner (yellow stripe-green stripe), intermediate (green-red belt) and advanced (black stripe - black belt candidate). The best performance trophies are chosen by Grand Master Park, an 8th degree black belt. This time around, Christine was chosen for the intermediate level. What an honor!! I was SO proud!! So the day was mostly crappy, except for that.

And then we got our belts and tomorrow we start learning new patterns. Well, the kids will be. I'll be teaching the 16 new yellow stripes (or however many there are). It's a good thing I know a little of my pattern already.