Sunday, November 16, 2008

Victory!

Yesterday, I competed in BYU's Fall 2008 Dancesport Championships competition. When taking dance classes at BYU, this is the part in the semester that I look forward to the MOST! So, yesterday, I got up early, got ready with my friend Christina, and we headed over to the Wilkenson Center. My partner, Brad, and I had put in hours of practice, and I was really excited to get out on the competition floor. Waiting for the first round results was the most nervewracking. Will the judges like us? Did they notice us out of the 82 couples and 4 heats? But our number showed up on the screen! :) And it did again... and again... for 4 rounds that morning until only 12 couples remained.

So we had to go back later that night at about 6, where we danced the Semifinals. We awaited our results very anxiously. When our number showed up as one of the final 7, Brad and I began screaming and jumping up and down! We did it! We made it to the finals! So we danced our hearts out in the finals and it was a triumphal moment.

Then it was time for the awards -- when we would find out what place we got overall. "7th place", the announcer said, "goes to...." NOT OUR NUMBER! And 6th!? Not us! 5th? Not us again! At this point, I was praying not to get fourth, because the top three couples get trophies, while the other four get ribbons. I really wanted a trophy :)

"Fourth place... couple number ..."! NOT US! :) I was ecstatic! We got called as the third place couple out of 82 total couples. I was on top of the world! And here's a fun picture of my partner Brad and me:If you want to see the video Trevor took of us dancing in the Final round, then go to facebook and look at the video on my profile! :) (click here)

What a fantastic Saturday!!!!!

Monday, November 10, 2008

Musings on Fear and Personal Inhibitions

Well that's enough pictures for now. I actually feel like writing about something interesting and useful at the moment. So, we'll give it a try and see what happens...

Lately I'm feeling what I may dub the "mid-semester blues" where I feel bored and unmotivated by school work. I guess being a senior also amplifies the feelings of laziness or the lack of care that I usually put into my school labors. For the first time in my life, I haven't cared so much if I don't get all A's in my classes. In fact, I'd be fine with anything B and above.

The main reason for this mindset, I believe, is the exciting opportunities on the horizon. There are SO many new things I want to start, yet I feel like I'm being "held-back" by my graduation date. I find myself constantly thinking, "I'll start after I graduate". And then my very next thought (and fear) is what if I reach graduation and then think "I'll start once Trevor's done with school and we can move out of Utah". And then what if I keep pushing back the "start" date until I never do those things I want to do?

But what are these goals and new adventures, you ask? Well, for one, I would really like to start a business (whether my own or a franchise) in the very near future. My top priority would be to franchise in Utah my Dad's company back in Raleigh called White Dahlia. It's a massage and wellness studio and I think the business is just fantastic! I think about doing it every day and most days I get REALLY excited about it. But on occasion those silly little doubts start to creep in. I fear that the business will fail and I will be the cause of some great financial crisis for our family. And then, not to mention, a business loan would be 100% impossible for Trevor and me to get right now, especially since we own nothing expensive enough to be used as collateral. We could get a co-signer, but then I'd feel like that's one more person I'd be letting down if I failed.

But today in my Entrepreneurial Lecture Series, as I was pondering my fear of failure, the guest speaker professed some timely advice. He said that successful entrepreneurs are not afraid to fail. Failures are going to happen. It's what we do with those failures and how we go on after failing that makes the difference.

So now I just have to get past the inhibitions I place on myself every hour of every day. Why can't I begin doing research on local Utah markets NOW? I can! But I keep saying "after graduation, after graduation!" But where to start? Whom to consult? Who can help me learn whether people in Alpine and Highland would be willing to pay $38 dollars for a membership to a massage and wellness studio? How can I collect this data? Where to even begin?

And somehow I convince myself that I have "no time" when I have ample time, I just waste it. How does one find proactivity when it has been lost in procrastination for so long?

So how do you get yourself off the sofa and out from behind the books and force yourself into the big, scary "real world" that the grown-ups bemoaned for the entirety of your childhood?

You tell me, because I'd really like to know.
Complacency is becoming quite boring...

Late in Coming...

Sorry it has been such a long time since I last posted. It's not that I've been very busy, but I just haven't felt overly inclined to write more about my not-so-interesting life. However, I thought our Halloween pumpkin was cute and it never got air time on the blog, so I "borrowed" this picture from Meghan Holmberg to use on my blog! :) Thanks girl! Our pumpkin is Mr. Cyclops, third in from the left.

Here's a picture of Mr. Cyclops all lit up on our porch! :) He also kind of reminds me of Mike from Monsters, Inc.! You know, the cute green one-eyed monster!

And I know this is random as well, but I used the macro version on my camera to get an up-close picture of the moss growing at the base of Trevor's bonsai tree. It's fascinating how something so little can be so intricate. They remind me of little fern bushes in a rainforest.