So this year has been a banger hasn't it. First off I would like to say that I do not regret joining the I Ho Chuan at all. At first I was a little skeptical because that is a lot of work to put into something at the beginning of the year I wasn't 100% sure I was committed to. I know that sounds awful but hear me out. I knew that I wasn't gonna like the 150 and some odd push ups and sit ups per day. I knew that it was going to "take" up precious me time. I knew that this was a huge commitment. I looked back on my posts from the beginning of last year and man, I really dropped the ball. And that was before I knew that I could pick myself back up again without feeling like a total loser.
Because that's what this is all about for me. To be able to look at myself and say "wow, Ya have had a couple of real rough days, but ya know what today is gonna be? A new start, BABY!" And I feel like if I had to take anything away from this year that would be it. You can start again, You do get a second chance, you do get to change who you want to be in your life. Honestly, that is amazing to me.
Okay so I would like to point out that my numbers for this year were abysmal. Like comparing what I have done to what I should have done, Wooooof, really wasn't keeping my promises there bud. But ya know what? For all those numbers that I didn't do you know what I did? More push ups and sit ups than I have ever done in my life in a year. In I Ho Chuan tonight Sifu Brinker talked about that guy who did 1,000,000 push ups in a year? If I continue to push myself .... well I will probably never get that high but I will be able to be complete the requirements. And dang if that doesn't give me something to look forward to.
Another thing I would like to point out that I Ho Chuan has given me is so much knowledge. I learned 2 (2!) new forms this year. Yes both of them were in late January/early February of last year but how cool is that? Both 18 Temple Motions and Lao Gar were new forms for me. And I know that we all learned Lao Gar this year as a school but I had never heard of it before this year. I had seen the upper belts preforming it once or twice but it was really amazing to be able to learn and practice this year with everybody.
AND YET another thing was the weekly workouts with Mr. Thomson and Sifu Ward. Man, somedays they were exhausting, but I was always excited to be there as it kept me engaged and reminded me to keep up my skills. (This was around the time the first serious lock down was and everybody was going bananas.) I am looking forward to them in the new year!
I am going to close this novella with a huge thank you to everybody in the I Ho Chuan and at the kwoon. I have, despite everything, learnt so much this year and grown so far in my Kung Fu. So thank you. And may the year of the Ox give us even more opportunities! Huzzah!
