MEETING AN INSPIRATIONAL PERSON

17th to 23rd September 2011

Many people have said that I am inspirational, which I feel so humbled by, but on the weekend I was fortunate enough to meet a girl who I feel is truly inspirational.  Her name is Mez and she is a gymnast, she has been training since she was five,  in August, 2010,  she received some of the best news she had heard in a long time. Despite having been out of competition due to injuries for most the year, at National Championships she made an incredible comeback and was selected on the Commonwealth Games team. Then tragedy struck in the form of a  freak bad landing during training caused a serious ankle injury which took her out of the sport for months and meant she could not go to the Commonwealth Games.  It would have been so devastating for her but she had a positive attitude and courage and fought back.  Watching her compete at the trials at the AIS for a position on the team to go to World's in Tokyo was so inspiring, to be able to come back from such a terrible injury and perform the jumps, vaults, routines and bars was just incredible.  After the competition I got to spend a short amount of time talking to her and was amazed by the amount of training that she has to do and how dedicated she is.  I have included a photograph of Mez and I on this Blog and would like to share some exciting news with you, to let you know that she made the team to go to Worlds. I know that with her positive attitude, determination and courage she will perform extraordinarily well. 

School this week has been busy, in Maths we are working on rates and ratios, it is very different from Algebra.  In English we have finished off our work on The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and are now looking at Empire of the Sun.  In textiles I finished off my design for my embroidery and traced it onto my piece of calico, the next step is to start the embroidery.  Next week is our last week for Term Three and then we will have two weeks holidays.

Wednesday was our Athletics Carnival which had been postponed last Friday because of the chemical fire at Mitchell.  The sun was shining however the winds were rather gusty, I felt rather nervous as I was going to attempt to stand for my throwing events.  My first event was Javelin, I throw a 400g javelin, we were given two throws, my first one was a foul and I toppled as I had not balanced myself properly, however on my second throw I threw 3.88m.  Then it was on to shot put, in this event I had three throws, each time I threw it went further and I ended up throwing the 2kg shot put 2.03m.  My last event was discus, before my tumour I was good at discus and had represented my Little Athletics Club at Regionals.  Again I had three throws, each throw went further and I ended up throwing it 5.11m.  I was so excited with all my results and hope to be able to compete in more athletics field events at Interclub during the summer season.  The day had been terrific but left me extremely exhausted.

Jarrett also did extremely well, in the 1500m he ran like a bolt of lightning, lapping many runners and winning easily.  Then in the 800m he also won breaking the existing school record by fifteen seconds and in the 400m he also won and again broke the school record.  He also ran in the 100m coming 2nd in his heat and 4th in the 200m.  He will now compete at ASC Zone Championships next week, I know that he will do exceedingly well.

Nalani did some running as well as field events, in the 100m she came 7th, in the 200m 4th, 4th in the discus and is not sure where she came in the shot put and javelin.  She was also part of the 100m relay team for our house Guraguma and the team came third.  She was so excited that she had competed and done so well considering last year she could not compete because of her knee injury.

All the winds that we have been experiencing in Canberra have not been favourable for people with allergies with many pollens blowing around menacingly in the air.  I have not escaped getting hayfever with sneezing, watery eyes, snuffly nose and an annoying cough. 

Today I went to the nutritionist who was exceptionally helpful, she was able to put together a diet that is suitable to assist my high cholesterol, I have to cut out full cream dairy products and also cut out food from animals.   She also feels that I may have irritable bowel syndrome, an inflammatory bowel disease or intolerance's or allergies to certain foods, food additives and colourings.  I have to follow a two week elimination diet, then go back to her in four weeks time to discuss what happened with my stomach and bowel whilst I was on it.  She will then decide where to go from there. 

Mum and Dad's teams play in the Rugby League tonight for a place in the Grand Final next weekend.  I still wish that the Tigers had made it and feel they were extremely unlucky to have missed out but as my book title says 'You have to go through a storm to get to a Rainbow' I am hoping that next year the Tigers will see their rainbow. 

Wishing everyone a splendiferous week filled with many joys and inspirations to help you stay positive and reach your goals.