It’s never too late to start

I always think that if I had children, I would send them to all kind of classes outside school so they can learn dancing, martial arts, music, swimming and other sports. That is because I didn’t get to do all that when I was growing up. I always wish I would have done this, done that. BUT it’s never too late to start. I started learning how to swim when I was 25. I first played racquetball when I was 26. It was the first sports I had ever played though I had played a couple of badminton matches when I was young and being playful. So that was not counted as playing a sport. I wasn’t particularly good at either badminton or racquetball. I am scared of the ball coming at me at a high speed. And after a couple of bruises my husband gave me, I gave up racquetball, for now. Most parents will start their kids learning music as early as they can afford. I started learning the piano last winter (2011-2012). I learned it through books and free online lessons and under my husband’s instruction. I haven’t worked diligently at it so I am still at the beginning beginner’s stage. I love it that I am able to read music and play some very simple sheet music. Dance is somewhat like music. There are even baby ballet classes where babies learn to walk, run and dance at the same time. It’s somewhat an exaggeration but you get the idea. I started ballroom dance lessons when I was at college so I know a little of it. However the classical jazz class I am taking is a totally different animal. I started this class in the fall of 2010 and have been completely enjoying them. There are lots of ballet techniques with rich French vocabulary which I can’t make out the meaning despite my four years of studying French. It might help if I had a ballet dictionary and looked each pose up. Anyways, there are lots of different turns, jumps, hand positions, foot positions, and so on. I normally just learn it by imitating my teacher. She is a great teacher. She must be very experienced in teaching different age groups. Some students in this class act like a child, like me, just imitating, not much knowing what I am doing. Some act more like adults with dance experience. They would ask very technical questions in tiny details of each move. I mostly don’t care that much. It’s not a competition or even a performance. We normally work on a short routine and a long routine. Short routines are different every day so there is really no time for perfection. Meanwhile, we usually spend a couple of weeks on a long routine and move on so I will forget them right away to make room for the new routine. It’s a great fun listening to the music and moving your body with it. Once you do it, you highly appreciate the talents and hard work of dancers that you watch on stage or on TV shows like “So you think you can dance.” Now I can’t say that I CAN dance but I can proudly say “I dance”.

The road to the gym

Second year at Central Missouri, I started to work out. I don’t know why I decided to start then and how I got so hooked with working out. Probably one reason was because I was so bored. First year, I did not know many people. I worked a part-time job but didn’t work many hours. I spent most of my free time online connecting with my friends back home using a neighbor’s unsecured wifi. The signal wasn’t very good so I couldn’t do much of voice chatting or webcam. I spent most of the time waiting for websites to load and disconnect/reconnect. You can’t imagine how bored I was during holidays and the first summer. Then I found a gym on campus that was convenient for me to go to class, work, and home. And I started to work gym time into my schedule. I first only used the treadmill, then weightlifting machines. I learned from seeing people using those machines. Some of them I liked; some I didn’t. Overall, I enjoyed working out very much.
I did not grow up playing any sports. The only active thing I and my friends did was riding a bicycle to school. I rode for four years then went to another school to which I walked in five minutes. So working out was a whole new thing to me and I kept pushing myself to do different things at the gym. I loved it when my body was sore because I know whatever I did was taking effect. I was happy to shred some pounds and got in better shape. I loved to explore my abilities that I had never thought of before. That was why I really got into working out.

… And to the pool

Third summer, also last summer in Warrensburg, I took a swim class for adults at the local community center. That was an adventure that I know could save my life someday. Before then, I knew how to swim, kinda. I could survive in the water for about 30 seconds at most. So at this swim class, I learned different swimming styles and most importantly how to tread water. Treading water was the survival skill that helped me overcome the fear of being drown. Even though that fear still comes to me once in a while, I was much more comfortable in the water then than I had been before. After that class was over, Jane, the swim teacher offered me private lessons for free. She worked for the University so it was not much a trouble for her. She taught a couple of kids so I came after she had finished with them. She was a very nice woman and a great teacher. She kept me work hard to perfect my strokes. I always think of her when I get into the water. Thanks to her, I am now able to swim from this end of the pool and back. I rest here and there but I do get a good workout and I can survive in the water for a while in case of emergency.
I always wish I had seriously learned how to swim earlier, say when I was a child. I would be much better swimmer now. But who knows, my parents might have lost me for a lake or a pool long time ago. Well, we’ll never know.

Gotta keep on writing

One day I saw myself typing “losing wait.” I can’t believe in my eyes. I can’t spell any more. I used to laugh at native people who put “their” instead of “there.” Here I am, becoming one of them, in a bad way. I thought it might be because I haven’t read much lately or I haven’t seriously written recently. One good explanation is I didn’t put my mind into the writing. It happens when you don’t see the difference between similar words. I write everyday but short emails which normally do not have much content to it. That sort of things shouldn’t be considered writing even though it is embarrassing to find any common mistakes in an email, like misspellings or incomplete sentences. So I decided to start writing again. I need to get my linguistic brain active and sharp. But what to write? My dear DK wrote, “It’s hard to share.” It is true sharing can be hard. It may hurt your feelings if you thought you were sharing cool things to your friends and your friends thought you were a weirdo. I told him, “who cares, if you think you are cool, you are cool.” Your self confidence will attract other people. Anyways, his writings are more reader-oriented than mine. I sometimes just need to write my thoughts down so that they get through. Sometimes I just need a means of expression. I sound like writing to myself than to my readers. Well who cares, I am the benefactor and the beneficiary of the whole process. I would read it again one day and laughed at myself or be amazed by my deep thoughts. While I doubt I would read my writings again, when I write, I reflect and express. Then I move on and remember my thought process and conclusions. And here it goes…