Karate Class

Tuesday, September 15 – Today was the first day of the new Karate session. I went back to the YMCA to find that it had been completely remodeled over the summer and that we now had a brand new Karate room. After I got settled into the class and greeted everyone who I had not seen in a long time we began with the basic stretches to get warmed up. Then the instructor of the class talked to us about what to expect in the new session for this month. He talked about working on our forms and mentioned some of the belt tests that would be coming up soon. Then I spent the rest of the class working with a partner, trying to remember all the wrist grabs I had forgotten over the summer. I was pleased to find that I remembered all except one correctly. Then at the end of class the instructor told us that we would move onto one steps in the next class and continue refreshing out memories.

Junior Parent Night - Wednesday, September 16

For this meeting of the Junior parents of Sturgis I was asked by Mr. Steedman to come in and say a few words about my own experiences as a Junior in the school last year and give advice to them about what to expect from their own children as they begin their Junior year. I was very enthusiastic about giving this talk because I knew it would be a challenge for me to speak in front of a lot of people because I would become anxious and I hoped it would help me learn better public speaking skills. To prepare for the talk I wrote down a few key points I wanted to make about the IB Program during Junior year and thought for a while about what kind of advice I would give the parents. I looked over the list before I left to go to the talk and I was able to remember all the points I was going to make. During the talk there was one other Senior who spoke about their Junior year experience as well which helped take some of the anxiety away. I was able to touch upon the all points I had thought of and I gave advice which the parents seemed to really appreciate. I also believed I did very well with answering all their questions after I talked to them. All in all I felt I did a very good job, but I was still not sure if was as good as it seemed and I was skeptical that I may have made some mistakes. However the next morning at school when I asked Mr. Steedman how the rest of the meeting went all my anxieties relaxed when he said that the other Senior and I did a fantastic job just as he would have liked and that he appreciated our enthusiasm in giving the talk. This reassurance really showed me that I had reached my goals of overcoming the affect of my anxieties and developing new and better public speaking skills. I was very pleased.