Day Eleven-

                After having an AMAZING weekend with my teammates in Niagara Falls for a hockey tournament, I returned today defeated, down and stressed.  After battling hard and going undefeated in 3 games (my team NEVER wins) we lost this morning in the semi-finals.  The game was competitive and it felt as if we outplayed the other team but the bounces weren’t in our favour and we lost the game 5-3.  The drive home was boring, sad and stressful as I thought about the lack of homework I completed this weekend.  Content on remaining miserable and spending the evening in my room, I received an unexpected phone call.  Nikole called and asked me if I wanted to join her for part of her NVC project.  At first, I tried every excuse I could think of (tired, upset, lazy) but she persisted, claiming it would be the perfect edition to my happiness project (I was a little confused by what she meant).  She has been cycling a certain amount of kilometers each week and recording how this activity affects her relationships, self, body and mind.  Finally, after some coaxing, we were headed to the YMCA for a Sunday afternoon spin! Now I’m not going to pretend like the class was amazing or even enjoyable because it was BRUTAL.  Exhausting, sweaty and painful are just a few words to describe the 45 minutes of hell I endured today.  At the time, you couldn’t pay me to do it again but just 5 minutes after the class was done, while cooling down on the track with my best friend, I realized I didn’t care about hockey anymore.  It was done, we will beat them next time, we played hard and I had a great weekend with my friends.  How could that be? I was just miserable and mouthy to my parents only a few hours ago and I JUST endured on of the hardest hours of my life and now I am laughing and chatting with my friend?  I explained this to Nikole and she laughed knowing I would have this reaction all along (she has been doing it for a while now).  I am really grateful to have a friend like Nikole, one who always knows how to make a situation better and who always knows just what to do.  I think these cycle classes may become a common occurrence. 

Wising you perseverance

(Just a song they played in class today, one of my favourites!)