Dar

After two hours of ruthless drilling he still manages to make me smile.

This blog is primarily about my life lessons and experiences throughout life, right? Well the short answer is "yes." However, I often fail to mention the importance of dependence during your life, or my life. For instance, take a professional athlete. . . Hope Solo in this case. Hope Solo is an extremely talented athlete on her own and has worked her dairy-air off to get to where she is today. But. . . Think about her parents and how hard they have worked and encouraged her through life. Better yet, think of the personal trainers, the coaches, and the teammates that she spends her time with. All of those people are essential for athletes; they are also often referred to as a "team."

I have many marvelous and extraordinary people on my team, not to mention the people that were on my team in the past who were equally so. . . I have my parents and family, who by far are the base of my life. I have my trainer and workout partner: "Carpino" as well as my teachers and academic tutors. I also have my tennis coaches: "Bill", "Roberto", and Dar. These people help me through my day each and ever day. They have mentored me, inspired me, and taught me things that I will never ever forget. You could say that, in a way, they have molded me into the person I am today, which is something that I am very proud of.

However, to be honest, one of the most influential people I have worked with over the years has been one of my coaches: Dar. And I just wanted to take a few minutes and dedicate this post to him and all of the valuable life lessons he has given to me over the years. In fact, I just happened to write my college essay about him. . . And well, here it is. . . 

Dar

         
Whenever I described him my words followed a subconscious template; the man with the thick mustache who iswearing fluorescently flamboyant colors. Everyone knew his name and many of myyoung successors had “hit” with him at the same time and place as I had inyears past. He was a fantastic coach; there was no denying that fact. He lovedtennis and the kids he worked with almost as much.

            His repetitiveness could befuriously annoying at times; he was a man who could make any player exhaustedboth mentally and physically, especially me. Usually when I played tennis I wasthe grinder; the person who got every shot back and wore people down in everyway. However, when Dar and I hit, he was the one grinding me; getting everyshot and tearing my lungs to pieces. He would work me till I had nothing left.

            But then again, strangely, I lookedforward to my hits with Dar because it was the feeling afterward that made itall seem right. It was much like the feeling the “runner’s high,” where yourendorphins sing beautiful songs because you are too tired to be anything buthappy. It was great, that moment of losing yourself, like being on top of atall snowy mountain looking down over all of the beautiful things you haveaccomplished.

            These weren’t the only things thatDar allowed me to accomplish either. In his own unique way he taught me how tonever give up, to fight with everything I had, because in all truth, my futuredid really depend on it. He taught me that it didn’t matter if you werevertically challenged, or if you thought you were to slow, or you didn’t hithard enough; whatever you had within yourself was enough to conquer almostanything.

            He taught me that I had enough ofeverything to be the best I could be and that as long as I went with my gutfeeling, that every shot would land inside the court. 

Being Aware

To start off I suppose I should go about explaining what "spirit week" is at my high school. Typically, our spirit week takes place once every couple months, usually corresponding with beginning of every sport season; Winter, Fall, or Spring. This Fall our student officers decided to theme our spirit week around the idea of raising awareness of breast cancer; in other words: this week is pink week. Every day is labeled as a different theme such as, twin day, or deck-out day, with the idea of wearing some form of pink everyday. Granted, wearing pink is obviously very difficult for one gender in particular so not everyone participates. But the idea is still present.

However, this being said today in one of my classes me teacher posed us with the question of: "What are all you guys wearing pink for?" Of course, numerous students raised their hands and began to explain what this week was about. He listened thoughtfully but obviously was not convinced by any of their explanations. His next question was a little more offensive, and later went on to accuse us of not doing enough to contribute to the cause. This of course, ruffled many peoples feathers and made a few people huff and puff.Goodness, it made me huff and puff.

Nevertheless, he made his point near the end of the class period when he admitted to us that he wanted to people to get upset; that he wanted to see the frustration and the passion that fueled our arguments. He wanted us to be upset because he claimed: "that was what truly raised awareness."

Although I was upset, and although it took me a few days to get over my stubbornness, I must admit that I agree readily with my teachers comment. The passion is what drives the train, the emotion behind someones words are what you often remember; rather than their the actual words. And this is true for many things, not just raising awareness! This all being said, I want to advocate the importance of being emotional (not to emotional though, you know how us girls can get a little nuh-huh...) and being passionate about what you stand for. For instance, look at me, I am standing up for inner beauty and the pure feeling of being loved because whether we see it or not. . . We all are beautiful.  

A Night in the Hollywood Light

Here is documentation that, YES, I actually did attend a high school dance. It was. . . Fun? But, I have to give all the credit to Prince Charming who swept me off my feet with a Vegan banquet, drove me accident-free to the ball, and counted the stars with me, knowing that we're one in a million. (We literally did count the stars. Constellations are fun!)

The Love of Fall

I must admit, I'm a hot weather girl. You know, the high 90's to 100's? But the one great thing about it not being so bloomin' hot is the color! Can I just get one of each of these please?!

Happy 100th Baby!

I feel the need to take a moment and celebrate by trustee running shoes 100th mile! Out of everything we have been through together; the mud, poop, water, and sand, I can still say that these will forever be the best pair of running shoes I have had! I completed this mile at approximately 3:17 p.m and they got me to that point and the rest of the way home. Woohoo! 

. . . After taking the picture of my babies I felt the need to also show off my sparkle! Off to Homecoming I go! Maybe Prince Charming will pick me up in one of my Mom's pumpkins?!

Life Lesson #1 (Mr. Kelly)

Today was a day that I might never forget, today was a day when I learned, or was forced to learn and important life lesson from my  AP Calculus teacher Mr. Greg Kelly. (This is where you should start taking notes.)

So, I believe a little background information to this life lesson would be in order. Calculus is my last class or period of the day, and between you and I, is my favorite period of the day. Yes, call me a nerd if you will, but I assure you math is a very intricate part of your school curriculum; come'on lets get those neurons firing! Anywho, we only have a test every two chapters or so, so the weight of the test score is enough to make you pee your pants right off the bat. (I almost did.) Guaranteed you can combat your grade with excellent formula quiz scores; but even then, tests are worth approximately six or seven quizzes. . . Fruitful thought!

Back to the story. . . So my class  had a test yesterday and to our dismay half of our class failed or came close to failing. (Don't worry, yours truly did just fine! My test score being the average of a 97% and 99%. Do the math!) This course of events resulted in Mr. Kelly feeling: "mixed emotions," he told us with a furrowed brow. Disgruntled he went on to say this:

"Guy's I want you to know that math is a very important part of your life, and the life of people around you. Calculus is a wonderful subject that you can, in fact, apply to many aspects of your life. For instance, how many subjects can you apply to your love life? I know all you guys out there know Calculus is one of them. (He is referencing Calculus pick-up lines here.) This being said, by failing your math test yesterday you are currently failing at life because, I'm sorry to say, school is your life right now. You don't want to keep failing at life do you? The answer to that is "no." Why? Because I said so, so step it up. It's embarrassing!"

Hahaha.. Ha.. ha.. Wasn't so funny at the time. I don't want to fail at life! 

Oh. . . And if any of you would like to view some of Mr. Kelly's wonderful power points please do! Mr. Kelly's Website