18. participating

 I am participating.

This is the most engaged I think I have even been in my kung fu, and so far (knock on wood) its amazing, and wonderful, and surprisingly easy. 

Between regular classes, the second degree brown belt classes, the I Ho Chuan meetings and classes, training outside of class, working on my requirements, writing in this journal, I am doing so much more kung fu than I even have before, and I simultaneously feel like I am making leaps and bounds more progress than I have in the past, in just this short amount of time since I started all this Year of the Tiger stuff, and also like I have more to learn than ever (in a good way, I am so so so excited about all the avenues of kung fu opening up in my brain that I never though to explore before). I am asking more questions and thinking about things in different ways and just doing more kung fu than I'm used to. 

And I think most of why all of this is happening, (besides me finally getting off my butt, I won't completely discredit that) is that I am finally taking advantage of the tools that have always been available to me. The way the school is designed makes it so easy to participate if you just put in a little effort on your part. Things are set up like dominoes so one small change leads to another, and another until you're doing kung fu in every little corner of your life. 


I am not participating.

(as much as I would like to) I'm not going to sit here and pretend I am the most engaged student in history, I still have problems checking Kwoon Talk Regularly (*cough* still need to start posting my blogs on there *cough*), I don't book as many one-on-one with as many different instructors as I should, I never go back and watch the old livestream videos, I don't stay late after class, or talk with as many of my classmates as I would like to. I am not typing this out to rag on myself for not doing better, just acknowledging that although I am participating more than I ever have before, that is not an excuse to stop here (BEGONE MEDIOCRITY I BANISH YOU WITH MY WEEKLY BLOGPOST) and I still have lots more I can be doing. 

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