Wow. What a day. Where to even start? I guess the best for me personally would just be a timeline of the day so I can look back years down the road and remember the finer details.
Up at 3:36am, I'm wide awake, I know it is almost 5 hours till we need to meet at the Kwoon to load up, so I go down for a coffee and enjoy the quiet time to reflect on what is to come and what has already past. It was nice, it calmed me considerably, and it gave me a chance to review and edit my speech without interruption.
6:15am, start waking family, time to start getting ready for the day. Now that the house is awake I can start packing the stuff needed for the day without trying to be quiet.
8:15am, I am the first one at the Kwoon, the day has officially begun. everyone starts to arrive, game on. Dragons get loaded, lions, drum, kid's demo stuff, all the stuff we need. Off to the hall. It is a whirlwind of activity. Tables, stage, silent auction, chairs, place settings, bunny rabbit napkin origami, getting kitchen ready, so much going on, it is a beehive of activity, awesome, what a team, it almost brings me to tears watching how well everyone gets along and just jumps to it, everyone doing their bit. Team Tiger, you rock.
12:00am, first practice. a bit of chaos ensues, not everyone was ready for practice. Not everyone was there yet. I had forgot to bring my practice knife (grrrr on me), a little more crazy than it needed to be, oh well, we needed our first bump of the day, here it was. A few deep breaths, we ease into our practice, finally getting to try out out spacing and limitations for real. The stage feels HUGE, the Dragon dance area seems to have shrunk. Adjust, retry, adjust, retry, starting to come together. Second run through, much better, we are figuring thinks out.
Just after 1pm. Now time for a bit of food and resetting of the mind. Off to Tutti Fruity for some chow with my family, then home to put the final touches on my old bones (quick relax, shower, go).
Back at the hall by 3:45ish, next practice. We are looking better, things are starting to make sense. Now people are starting to arrive (4:45ish). I do a double check, knife - check, uniform - check, speech - check, family - check, all is good. I take a walk around, see if I am needed anywhere, nope, everything is running smoothly. Let the games begin.
5:30ish, food time, thank you Mayor William Choy for the tasties from Bing's #1. But I can't eat, my belly is doing flips and dives, the dragons/lion dance is about to begin, show time. Yes I made a few errors, but my team pulled my butt out of the fire, adapting on the fly. The edge of the stage in the way?, no problem, they adapt, the walls to close, they adapt, I go six times on our side to side instead of five, they adapt (Malinda, your look of surprise is burned in my memory!). Team D, I am humbled, thank you.
Red Packets are getting collected, that means my time to do my speech is just moments away, YIKES! Time is now a blur. I am at the point of hyperventilating, my mouth is dry, my palms are sweaty, I could swear my blood pressure was going to make my head pop off. It's speech time. Double Yikes!! Up I go, this stage is huge, the mike feels like it weighs 70lbs, the audience has just doubled in size and they are looking at ME!! Stop looking at ME!! (Que internal screaming). Deep breath, and away I go. The page is shaking, the words look microscopic, dizzy, dancing side to side (do I have to pee? Nope). Word by word I gain momentum, it starts to come back to me, but the mike is to far away, bang, now it is to close. calm down, look at your family to center yourself, great, Deb's crying, now I'm almost crying. What the??. I'm on the last page, how did that happen? Annnnnd done. Wow, euphoria to the extreme. I have to say that was one wild ride I will never forget. And I am so glad I did it, I crushed that fear of public speaking! Okay okay, it slapped me around and had laughed in my face, but I didn't quit, I didn't back down, take that public speaking, I'm not afraid of you anymore!!😆
From here on the night is mostly a blur, awards, kid's demo, etc, I'm kinda out of it, my mind is overloaded, I need to reset. Up very soon is our IHC demo. Oh my. Got my knife, got my partner, found the stage, ready, I think. Music starts, I'm up second, now I'm up, uh oh, I just messed up the third section of my form, pull up pull up, I manage to carry on without crashing but I am P-ss-d at myself, grr, "just wait till you get home young man". Now off the stage, pause, back on for the five application. Thanks to Toudia Bauer, I make it through with only minor glitches, he is a great partner. These helped me get back to the here and now. It was like the hall just snapped back into existence.
Now the demo is over and I breathe, and breathe and breathe. I start to feel the world around me again, I made it. I didn't die, I didn't crash and burn, like a tidal wave, the emotions start to overwhelm me. But I hold it together, it's not over yet.
Now back to the stage to actually get my Black Belt. Chills. Chills run up and down my spine. Is this real? Am I actually walking up these steps? Breathe Don, Breathe. Never in my life have I felt like this. It is surreal. A quick huddle, we take our spots, kneel and take it all in. It's my turn, no words can recreate what I was feeling at that moment so I won't ever try. Now I take my belt, it feels electric, magical, soft as silk but hard as steel. I tie it on, waves pass through me, even trying to put this in a blog, I feel like I am in a dream. I have my belt, it is around my waist, it is mine. Time to thank all those who came before me, I can still see every face, I can still feel every hug, every handshake. Perfection.
I just wanted to put into words, best as I can, just some of the emotions that I was feeling that night. This just scratches the surface of the night, as I process my thoughts, I may write more.
Thanks for reading this.
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