Change, or should I say realisation?

Two things have recently changed in my life.

Today I was at school by 7:00am, ready to jump in the pool and do lap after lap; something which incidentally is called ‘swimming training’. To be totally honest, today was a perfect morning. The pool wasn’t cold, I had my friends around me, there was the prospect of a delicious breakfast to keep me going, and I was happy. I found the training surprisingly easy. I say surprising because in the past month or so the exercise part of my life has been a little slow. But perhaps the little bit of exercise that I had actually done lately kept my general fitness? Whatever it was the training never left me breathless or feeling like I was going to die (apart from the 25m butterfly that we did but that doesn’t count simply because its butterfly). There is a slight difference between being unfit and being unused to the sport you are doing. I know the difference between the two and I was surprised to find that the feeling I was getting was that of being unused to the sport rather than being unfit. I suppose it sort of boosted my confidence in a way, knowing that I was still relatively good at something.

While I was swimming, following the bubbles that Garnet made in the water, I thought about the sport that I do. And I came to the conclusion that although I am alright at running and swimming, bike riding is still my favorite sport. It actually felt quite odd doing something this morning that didn’t require the push of my leg muscles. So anyway my list of favorite sports goes as follows:
1. Bike Riding
2. Swimming
3. Running

Probably not in the order of the ones I am better at but never mind.

And second thing.
I have finally managed to find again my love of playing the flute. It happened the other Friday when I could feel I was getting over-stressed about school. So I relaxed and took a stroll over to Padua to have my music lesson. For the first time in a while I actually listened to the band and I realised how great we sound now. For the past year I haven’t really had any interest in band and I was, in all honesty, just a part of the band for the sake of it. Occasionally I found the ever so long Wednesday afternoon practises a chore and spent most of the time imagining what else I could be doing at that moment. I didn’t have any really close friends in the band and was really a bit of a loner. I found excuses not to do practice and then lost interest when I couldn’t play parts as a result of not doing practice. But, the other Friday when I actually listened to the whole band, I was really blown away by how far we had come. Maybe it was the fact that sometime on the last holidays it really hit everyone that hey, we are going to New Zealand at the end of November. And in a way, it made them want to work harder and deserve to go to New Zealand.
I know that’s what happened to me. So lately I have enjoyed band so much, practiced quite often and even enjoyed the company of the band, liking the feeling of belonging. On tour I know all of us will become so much closer. Plenty of new friendships will spring up. I am now, really excited to go on tour and I can’t wait to jump on that plane and go to the beautiful New Zealand. 31 days to go!

So I’m happy now. That time of the year, August/September, which is notorious for bad things to happen in, is over and now we can go back to enjoying life as it should be. Until next year. But that’s such a long way off that its easier not to think about it.
:)