A BRONZE MEDAL, BACK TO SCHOOL AND MY 14TH BIRTHDAY

4th to 10th February 2012

Some  extraordinary moments this week beginning with achieving a personal best in shot put at the ACT Junior Championships as well as a bronze medal, my first ever Championship medal.  It was on my final throw that I threw a 2.47m to beat my previous personal best by 7cm.  A special highlight of my throw was that Louise Ellery, the paralympic Gold Medalist was there to see me do it and she was cheering me on, how wonderful it was to hear her words of encouragement, because she is an inspiring athlete. 

The next moment was going back to school, entering Year 9, Senior School, a new uniform and different teachers and classes.  On Tuesday I had an orientation day, we were given our stationery, went to our PC (pastoral care) class where we learnt what the rules and expectations, then we went to our first day classes to meet our teachers as well as having a a tour of the Senior Campus.  Wednesday was my first day back and although it was extremely tiring I was so excited. In English we are reading the novel 'Tomorrow When the War Began' by John Marsden, our topic is Choices and Sacrifices and we do work based on this.  I have Sport Science which I have to say is my favourite class so far, the course material is so interesting and we are also going to do some work on the Olympics which is so fantastic with the Olympics being in London this year.  In Maths we are working on indices, which I have found enjoyable and easy so far.  We have had homework already for both English and Maths, imagine having homework on your first week back!  My FM transmitter is working well and despite some moments when the teachers voices break up a little I can hear virtually all of what the teachers are saying, oh except when they accidentally muted it, which is just a minor teething problem.

The most splendiferous moment this week was my 14th Birthday, on 8th February, although I had to spend the day at school, I received many beautiful good wishes and lovely gifts from family and special friends.  The most precious gift to me though is being with my family, I am so grateful to have them and to share yet another Birthday with them.  We had a dinner of my choice and I chose to have a barbeque dinner, with sausages, steak and salads, then to finish it off we had a scrumptious caramel mud cake that was so moist and had drizzles of chocolate on top and just to make it more delicious we had it with cream.  Of course Mum, Dad, Nalani and Jarrett all sang Happy Birthday while the candles burnt and dripped some purple wax on the cake and then I got to make a wish, I won't tell you what it was because then it won't come true. 

I had physiotherapy this week also, Kaitlyn worked on my foot which is almost healed now, as well as my legs and my back.  I got to have two heat packs on my back and it felt so wonderfully relieving.  I also was given a new exercise for my foot, as it becomes stronger I am able to do different exercises to help it.  I do my physiotherapy exercises every day, if you don't work on them then you are not going to help yourself heal, sometimes it may seem difficult but it is important.

Today I am competing in the ACT Junior Championships in the javelin and discus, I hope that I am able to achieve more personal bests, but with school returning I am a little fatigued but I will be determined to do my best. 

Next week will be a full week at school, I am hoping that it will not be too tiring and that I will be able to continue to cope with the workload.  I think if you have a positive attitude then you find the strength to deal with any difficult situation that crosses your path. 

Wishing you a splendiferous week, may the sun shine on your life and may you see many rainbows this week.