Dragon (and Lion) Dance

I was watching the video of the Dragon/Lion Dance we did for the last banquet and while watching I was thinking and noticing few things. First it was wicked long - 17 minutes. It a combination of a lion dance then a dragon dance and then ending with a lion dance but as a whole it was a very long performance. A very good one.

Secondly it reminded me how much fun it was practicing, although a bit nerve racking as the head trying to remember the sequence every time we changed it. It was a great bonding experience and a lot of fun.

Thirdly I remembered that there were few tricks that we excluded from the demo (maybe this year?) and few that we came up with just by chance - that was fun too.

We are now almost half way through the year and I think it is time to bring the dragon out and start playing around.

Begin with the end in mind

I’ve been thinking about this statement in the last week and how it affects me. The idea behind this statement is to know where you are going, know what your goal is, and know what you are targeting.

Without knowing what your goal is you might be going around in circles and loosing precious time. However staying put until you finalize your goal and waiting with no movement is not good either.

Once we know what our goals are it is easier to stay course and set the direction for yourself but even before you are settled on what you want, you should be working on something. Most likely it will also help you redefine your goals.

What we can do

Few things happening this weekend are proving to me that we can be what we want to be if we work on it and if we put our minds into it.

First was the circus. Seeing what these daredevils can do and knowing how much training they have been putting perfecting their performance. This was really impressive.

I also did my first "behind the back" with my slashing staff. Got over my fears of smacking my head. Yay!!!

All of this takes time and more time for practicing.

I wish I could do what I want all the time... but this summarize our reality (Stressed Out lyrics):
"We used to play pretend, give each other different names,
We would build a rocket ship and then we'd fly it far away,
Used to dream of outer space but now they're laughing at our face,
Saying, "Wake up, you need to make money."

At least I can spend some of my time doing the things I like... Need to make sure it is focused time. Getting the most out of it.

Parade

Last year while walking in the Farmers Day parade I was talking to Mr. Kohut and telling him we should have a float in next year's parade. I also talked about it with few more people including Mr. Helm. I was not sure if we would be able to pull it off and getting close to this year's parade it seemed that we are too late with some of the arrangements but joint effort in the last 10 days made a thought come true.

Now this year's parade was special for me. Not because we had a float. Although I think it was well done and made us look great as a school. The parade was special this year because of the preparations before the parade. The evening I spent with Mr. Helm, Mr. Kohut and Mr. Dyble painting and building the weapons' rack, the evening I spent with Mr. Helm trying to figure out how to mount the flags. The morning of the parade were a bunch of the IHC group came together to decorate the float.

This is one of the things I like about the IHC. Coming together as a group to achieve a common goal. I had lots of fun in the parade this year and the main reason was because of the time we spent together before the parade.