Punctuality, punctuation, and perseverance

Another successful week of full time work has gone by. I can't believe that of my twelve months here, two have come and gone. Time really does fly as you get older. 

I cannot stress how badly I needed this shake up. I've learned so much since the first moments of this adventure. Most of these lessons are reminders of things that I already knew about life and myself and had simply forgotten or pushed to the bottom of the priority pile.

 I've been compiling a mental list of little life lessons/reminders that I've been encountering. 

Lesson/Gentle Reminder #1

Punctuality. In my teenage years, I was always on time/early. It was an ingrained part of life. Being late wasn't an option. As life progressed, many of the people that I interacted with didn't seem to value punctuality as I had been taught to. I absorbed these habits and they followed me into my adult reputation. All the way to the point that my lack of punctuality became a joke among my peers. I owned that rep for a while, but in actuality, it's embarrassing and disrespectful. 

Without a car and having to rely on public transport, I've been nudged back to my temporarily retired punctual habits. That bus driver just doesn't give a damn if I'm running a little behind. I've had a couple of mad dashes to the bus already haha. Of course, one of those days I was wearing heels, like some kind of chump. 

Being late once in a while is one thing (sandwiched by a preemptive warning and copious apologies afterward), but being habitually late is now a thing of the past for me. 

I promise!!

Lesson/Gentle Reminder #2

Punctuation. Now this one takes on two different meanings. 

"Quotation marks, how are you today, question mark, quotation marks, asked Johnny, period."

"Miss, why do you keep saying period?"

Here, they call a period a "full stop." 

I have never heard of that before!! As similar as Canada and Australia are, these little details are really just fascinating to me. These two countries are like two cousins that share similar mannerisms from the related parents, but evolved independent, intriguing quirks. 

And here I am at the family reunion. 

Punctuation, in the non grammatical sense of the word, is imperative to a life well lived. Punctuating life with the big explosive moments, but still acknowledging the smaller, less splashy daily occurrences. Riding the wave, no matter the size. 

I really needed this big shake up to remind me of what I truly value and cherish in life. 

Like two of your very best friends having a baby, but being 15000 kilometers away and not able to celebrate with them.

 

Too often, proximity leads to procrastination. 

Not this weekend, maybe next.

Then suddenly, in the blink of an eye, its next year and the kid is walking. 

Then you turn around and the kid is driving. 

Honestly, since I've been gone, I've been in closer touch with most of my friends and family. 

Even more honestly, I've been in closer touch with myself as well. 

Monotony can be mind numbing. All the time I spend on the trains and buses gives me ample time to think. 

I mean, sure, I muck around on my phone a bit, but I've got limited data, so, at some point, I gotta rely on my old school imagination techniques to conquer boredom.

Doing more of this thinking and indulging in the things I forgot I loved, has allowed me to reconnect with that old part of me in a brand new setting.

Today I walked around in a suburb that was new to me called Caulfield. I google mapsed (yes, I just used that as a verb,) parks near me and this one Caulfield turned up. I recognized the name because I make a transfer at the train station. So I ventured on out.

 This park was massive! Three soccer games going on, a giant dog park, a tennis walk thing, basketball court, cricket batting cages, 

playground, some other field of sorts, an aviary garden, lush running paths, and historical monuments. 

I laid out my yoga mat (which I'd expertly fastened to my back pack in a MacGyver like fashio), head phones in, listening to John Butler trio, and didn't do yoga. 

 

I started writing. 

Not in a book. To passerbys, it probably looked like I was being sucked into social media. I started writing this blog on my phone.

Outside, in a beautiful park, 15000 kilometers away from where I first discovered my love for thinking and writing. 

In the shade of a palm tree, 15000 kilometers from where I first proclaimed (with some doubt in the back of my mind) that I would maintain this blog and asked my friends to hold me accountable. 

 

Then my phone started to die, so I had to pause my writing and grab a tram to the grocery store. 

Ah, the never ending monotonies of the adult existence.  

I came across another park on my way. Super cool. To my friends with kids, you should come visit and check this place out.

 

 

 

 This place was bumpin'. 

Lesson/Gentle Reminder #3

Perseverance. Life takes time. You cannot give up on change too quickly simply because it's uncomfortable. It's those moments that breed character growth.

 

I love the comparison of stress initiating growth to the shedding of the lobsters exoskeleton. Science meets philosophy. I dig it.

Resilience and perseverance are two characteristics that lead to the development of a fulfilled person. Supporting actors: Curiosity and Drive.

I knew of these ideologies and could couple these words together into poetics stanzas beyond my years when I was in high school. Now, I feel like I truly understand them. I try to inspire my kids (students, but they are my kids. I even let them call me mom) to feel these words in a real and visceral way. Incorporate them into their daily lives. 

As a coach, nothing makes me happier than seeing one of my players embodying resilience. Fighting through the pain, be it physical, mental, or emotional, to get to the other side. Rising to the challenge. 

I sometimes get a little misty listening to, "Eye of the Tiger." 

I'm not kidding. 

Continuing on a serious note, it's hard for kids to truly wrap their head around their own potential. 

I didn't reach my full potential as a kid. I was lucky that I was "pretty good" at "most things." I simply didn't do what I wasn't good at. I didn't fight through things that were really difficult for me. I was just really lucky that I had natural abilities on my side.

I worked hard during practices for the various sports I played. I didn't go home and practice what I wasn't good at. I didn't dribble the basketball in my down time or practice my passing in volleyball- both things that I wasn't good at. As a basketball player, I was too small as a post to move on to a post secondary level, but never developed my skills as a perimeter player. Had I, maybe my post secondary experience would have been different. 

I've learned the art of perseverance in the last few years. It's certainly not something that I'm great at. One thing that has been monumental in the development of my ability to persevere, has been Crossfit. 

I am no where near a natural at Crossfit. There are little to no movements that I'm naturally good at. I'm pretty good at the farmers carry, which is just because of my lack of good judgment when buying it comes to the quantity of groceries that I buy. I can carry SO many grocery bags at one time. It's on my resume, under special skills. At my new gym, I discovered I'm pretty good at a sand bag carry. If you haven't seen it before it's this: 

  

Every Wednesday, Schwartz Crossfit has a focus on Gymnastics training and Strongman movements. This movement was the last thing we did. Having never done it before, I tried the lighter bag, which was 100ish lbs, I think. The women were using this bag. Wasn't horrible. The trainer told me to take the bag the men were using the second time. I didn't know if I was going to be able to. Turns out the 150 pounder wasn't too bad either. 

I'm actually reevaluating my line of work. I think I might just move bags of stuff for a living. Dog food, soil, fertilizer... it's a versatile skill. 

Anyways, it's a very humbling sport for me. I have no desire to compete or make huge gains. I just want to be technically sound (something I didn't care too much about as an adolescent,) and make improvements. It has been a slow, slow play for me, but I've been getting marginally better. However, the points of perseverance that really stand out to me, is in the actual workouts themselves. Pushing myself further than I thought I could. Moving faster while maintaining technical standards. So hard to do when all you want to do is get out of the work out. 

If you're gonna doing something, do it right and do it well. Even if you suck at it. 

As much as I want to throw a kettle bell at the coach's head when they tell me to keep my elbows up when performing my 50th thruster. Stupid coaches looking out for my best interest and trying to improve my overall abilities while keeping me away from injury...🙄

But, hey, I need to practice what I preach. I tell my students/athletes that if there is never a point in the semester/season where you don't want to throw a book/ball at my head, I'm not pushing you hard enough. I'm not doing my job. 

Perseverance and patience.

 That whole "trust the process" notion. These concepts are applicable in all avenues of life. 

So there you have it, a little look inside my brain during the process of creating a new life in a foreign country. 

I actually kind of want to keep writing but I'm getting a little sleepy. 

Five days until the big 3-0 and my trip to Sydney to celebrate. 

Milestones Down Under.