My Kokoda Journey: I'm In!

As you know I am currently in Kokoda and so while I am away I have scheduled some posts to come out about my Kokoda experience. Yesterday I posted about how it all began but I can not link it as it has not been published at the time this post is been written. Anyway, today I continue with that story as well as discuss some of the emotions that I have been going through since joining the program and the emotions of what it is like to know that you are about to embark on the Kokoda trek. The start is a bit of a continuation from yesterday's but you should not have had to have read yesterday's post to understand this one. If you want, you can have a quick read now by scrolling down or after you read this post.

Original Image Source (no text): http://www.ylead.com.au/travel/kokoda/

It was on the morning of that day that I realised something was going on, not that I had any idea what it was. I never something was happening as the assistant principal had found me before school to tell me to come to her office at the end of recess that day. I had no idea that it had anything to do with the Kokoda leadership program as it had been a while since I had submitted my application. I think it was the end of May or the start of June at this point, I still have my acceptance letter but I do not know exactly where it is and it is a lot of effort to pull everything out just to find the date. Anyway, so recess finally comes around after a whole morning of me thinking I am in some kind of trouble and I am waiting patiently in the seats next to the office. Then Caroline, the other girl who was chosen from my school, joins me and at first I think we are both in trouble as it still had not hit me that it was for the Kokoda group. Before the assistant principal comes out of her office, a police officer comes into the office and stands around waiting too. By this point I am running through everything I had done recently in my head trying to find something that was so bad that the police had become involved. However, the assistant principal came out to collect us and take us into the principle's office (making my nerves even worse) before the police officer could say anything to us. When we got in there they told us the news and gave us our acceptance letters and I was so happy I was not quite sure what to say. I mean, when someone gives you a life-changing opportunity like this, what can you say? They talked us through what was going to happen and we found out that the Kokoda trek was going to happen in April 2014 (they had originally planned to do it in October 2013 but they were not ready early enough and the track is also closed during that time as it is too wet and dangerous to hike the track). We then got some photos for the newsletter and were sent to class. I was so excited I could not wait to tell everyone. I texted Mum and Dad saying I had some really exciting news but I wanted to tell them in person. I think one of the first things I actually said to either of them was the news that I was accepted into the program. It was a very good day for me and I could not wait for what my life would be like over the next few months.

My life was going to change and I was ready for it. See you tomorrow.

Holidays Are Here!

Yes, what has seemed to me as the shortest term ever (when really it was just a regularly sized one) the holidays are here! This means many things including catching up on sleep, finishing homework and just relaxing and recovering from a busy term. For me however, these holidays hold an even deeper meaning as they are the holidays when I finally go on my long-awaited (and nerve-racking) trip to Kokoda! I am yet to start writing the posts that will appear when I am away but as I have finished all my homework (after several days of consistently long hours of work) I have time now to do that sort of thing. These holidays also mean for me to get back into the swing of things with this blog. Sure I may have been super busy but there were days when I was not and I just put off writing these posts. Now I am getting back into the swing of things and it is great! Anyway, on with the week that was.

Source: http://www.giantsacademy.com.au/details.php?p_id=1221

I feel like it has been ages since I have written one of these segments (probably because it has been) but anyway, it feels great to be back into the swing of things again! My holidays started on the Friday night with me getting my final vaccinations for Kokoda. For those of you who want to know what they are you will have to wait until one of the posts that is scheduled to be released when I am away in Kokoda. It then continued with an ordinary Saturday (music, shopping etc etc) followed by a Sunday where I managed to start some of my Methods. I say some as I did not really get much work done until I started doing a lot of work on Tuesday. Monday was a good day though when I went to see Captain America : the Winter Soldier with my friends which was awesome by the way! It was a lot better than the first Captain America movie and now I can not wait for Avengers 2 when it comes out! It was also great to catch up with some friends, many of who I probably will not see until I leave for Kokoda though I am going out with some of them the day before I leave but anyway. I finally got a lot of my Methods done on Tuesday where I finished all my Methods work including some extra work so that when I came back I had time to recover after Kokoda instead of having to catch up on what I missed. Wednesday was another really fun day where I went with Mum to visit my grandmother (on Mum's side) and also see my cousin where we went to see the Lego Movie. In a sentence: everything is AWESOME!! I posted a review of that yesterday if you want to scroll down and check that out after this post. When I got back though I continued on with my Legal Studies assignment which is due when I return. I spent a lot of time on that on Wednesday night before spending the same amount of time on that yesterday (Thursday) before finishing it. I then did my Physics and was finished by 4pm which was great because then we went to visit my grandmother again and we had a family dinner at her place. Now it feels great as I have all my homework done and I have 6 more relaxing sleeps to look forward to before Kokoda. It feels great not to have anything holding you back now which is why I really want to get the Kokoda posts written soon so I am aiming to get a few done today and then finish the rest over the next few days. Wow, it really has been an interesting week.

I hope I can keep these consecutive posts going! See you tomorrow.

Welcome Back to Longer Posts (Random Thought Saturday)

So, how has it been with all these long posts? Like it was last year? I hope to keep it like this for as long as possible but, just like last year, there will be days where I get caught up with homework or other commitments so there will be short posts or no post at all. I am so annoyed with myself when this happens but sometimes it just can not be. So that is why I introduced the concept of segments. This allows me to pre-write posts as I know what I am going to write about ahead of time. It also helps me because I have something to write about. Before it was a lot harder to produce daily content because I did not want to do the same things every week without an official segment or else it would look weird, well to me anyway. At least this way, as I said yesterday, you guys can decide which days you read based on what you want to read about. Sometimes, it takes a little more than the title and introduction to really get in to what I am talking about. The segments allow you to know what kind of content is going to be released on what day. The only problem I have now is coming up with a segment for Mondays. Now that Friday has a segment, every day of the week has one except for Monday. If you have any idea of what I should write about on Mondays, you should tell me in the comments or by emailing me at legolukeytutorials@gmail.com. If you really wanted to you could even message me via my Facebook page. All these links are up above.

Source: http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/new_logo_for_youtube.php

In other news, I have started up a new YouTube channel. This one is called Lyrics2Share and on it I will be posting lyric videos for songs. You should check it out and if you have any suggestions for songs you want a lyric video for just send them through the twitter account, Google+ account (both links available on channel), email them to lyricality2u@gmail.com or just send them through what I mentioned above in the introduction. It is a lot easier to make videos for this channel than it is for my Legolukey channel. I will occasionally post some more tutorials in the future (when exactly is a mystery) but for now the easiest thing to create content for with time constraints is this channel. Plus, I only need to upload when I want to and these videos can be created a lot easier with the time from starting to publishing on YouTube being an hour at most. But anyway, moving on from that 'exciting' news. Have you guys noticed the new segment I started yesterday? It will run every Friday and is called "The Week that Was". Notice how I am becoming smarter now by not including any specific days in the title? In it I go through some of the highlights (and lowlights of the week). Some of it will be from the news and some of it from my personal life. For example, yesterday I wrote about the Sochi Olympics, the murder of Luke Batty, and some of what has been going on with me in the past week. That is sort of why the whole introduction to this Random Thought post was about segments. I was inspired, or rather reminded, by what I wrote about yesterday. In more nerve-racking (and exciting) news, there is only 59 days (and a few hours) until I fly out to Papua New Guinea to complete the Kokoda track. I can not remember if I have told you but we fly out on the 16th of April at 6am and then arrive some time after mid-day. We then start the trek the next day on the 17th before finishing the track on the 24th and attending the ANZAC day dawn service on the 25th. We fly back later that day. It is going to be so exciting but as we get closer the nerves do grow as well. It really is the same for everybody. To think that in less than nine weeks we will be doing the Kokoda track is a scary thought but we are all excited just the same. There is still a lot of fundraising we are doing before we leave (not to mention all the training) but it is suddenly becoming very real but I still do not think it will hit me until I actually arrive.

I really do need these random thought posts, they do help a lot with saying everything I want to. See you tomorrow!

Performances

Performances are hard for most people. There are, of course, quite a number of people who are completely at ease with performance but then they are the lucky ones. They are the ones that we all want to be yet still wish we were somewhere else. Something about public performances just makes people feel nervous. I guess that brings us all back to one of man's greatest fears. That is the fear of being judged by other people. Psychologists have shown that this is one of our greater fears so much though that it can turn the bravest of us into nervous wrecks.

Image Source: http://www.macanxiety.com/information-about-anxiety-disorders/social-phobia/

There are many different types of performances out there which can have a diverse range of effects on the performer. For example, tonight I had a piano performance for the Music Society of Victoria (MSV) which went really well. The thing with me is that when I practice at home I make all these mistakes, especially right before a performance. However, when I play it in front of a crowd it is played almost perfectly. This even happens to me during my Piano Exams and is part of the reason as to why I get such good grades. I stress out before hand and make heaps of mistakes in practice. When I go to perform it is as if I never made a mistake in practice. That is just one of my reactions to public performances. Some people have the exact opposite reaction and play it perfectly alone yet choke when they come to performances. I am just one of the lucky ones although I do become a nervous wreck. Then there are the people who need absolutely no practice for their performance (musically or otherwise) and yet still perform perfectly. I guess they are just the lucky ones.

Practice generally makes perfect, see you tomorrow!