HELLO 'ILIMA!

OR SHOULD I SAY, THE BACK-TO-BACK-TO-BACK DEFENDING CHAMPIONS OF THE LEEWARD MIDDLE SCHOOL DANCE COMPETITIONS! FRIDAY WAS AN ABSOLUTE BLAST AND I NEED TO GO OVER IT. Okay, the beginning of Friday was very quick. I was on TV and it went pretty good. I headed to my first period which was pretty crazy as the class was doing a whole karaoke session. At 8:55, I left my second period to head to A101 to get ready for the bus. There was a lot of people in the room and I was just patiently waiting for the bus to arrive. After over 10 minutes, the bus arrived and we made a slow walk to the bus. The trip to the Blaisdell was pretty fun as I was playing goofy music for my friends. The trip also felt long which was nice. Arriving to the Blaisdell gave me flashbacks to my 6th grade Enrichment team as we had gone to the Blaisdell for our event. For a lot of the early part of the day, leading up to the dance, I was pretty anxious. I was scared of dropping the prop or accidently breaking something for a majority of the time. I had helped with a lot of the building and decorating which was pretty tiring as there was a lot of moving and carrying involved. But despite this, I still had high energy and I wasn't even that hungry. I had a couple bites of my Subway and a Sprite Zero and that was enough to fuel me until linner. When we were done with the building, we had some time to rest until the competition was ready to begin. Something funny that was happening was that a guy was constantly checking the mic and he was checking it in the funniest way. He was going "Yup!" "Yup!" "Check 1... 2... 3... 4... 5..." continuously and it was hilarious. When the doors started opening, a DJ started performing and he was one of the best parts of the night. His name was Jojo Flow and his transitions and song choices were amazing. He had an amazing jacket that I just really wanted to have. Eventually it was time for the dancing to start, and the first couple of groups were pretty good. It hit intermission and it was time for us to get ready. I was growing more and more nervous and I felt like I was gonna explode. But as it was our time, I was finally prepared and we got the props up correctly. The dance team did their thing and we were headed to the crowd. All of my tension and stress went away and I finally awakened. Mal and Leyla convinced me to be loud and dance with them and agreeing with them was the best thing I could do. My energy shot through the roof and I had a blast of a time. The only negative to it could be my throat hurting for the following days (like even right now as I am writing this 😔). When it was finally time for the winners to be announced, we got on the stage and I started hoping and preying for the win. The announcer with mic in hand said, "The winner of the D1 competition. The back-to-back defending champions, 'Ilima Intermediate!" All of us started screaming and I felt all of the adrenaline just rush through my veins. The after party was absolutely insane with a bunch of celebrations. We also started singing the alma mater for 'Ilima and it was so exhilarating. The bus ride home was really relaxing and it was a good closure to a long day. Overall, the Dance Comp was amazing. But that wasn't the whole week, we also had a field trip on Monday. The trip was to an event called Educators Redefined. We went through multiple breakouts sessions about learning to be an educator. The event was pretty cool and we had to make a poster afterwards. My group's poster was definitely better than all of the others ones. On the same day was the Royal Prodigy Pep Rally and that was super fun. There was a Chee Hoo competition that I was apart of and it was so fun. I screamed the loudest I can and I was awarded with a cup of cotton candy. These were all of the events from this week, but there was still other things. In AVID, we started a College Research Project and we had to research two different colleges. I picked UCLA and Penn for my project and I will have to do further research on them later. This was some of this week.

A highlight from this week was both the Dance Comp and the Educators Redefined event. They both were big events that needed bus ride trips to get to. Out of the two, the Dance Comp was my favorite as the environment during the competition was on point. But both were just very spectacular times that will stay in my head for a long time. Another highlight from this week was Jojo Flow. He brought all the vibes and fun to the Dance Comp and I instantly became his number one fan. A lowlight from this week, which also involves the Dance Comp, was the stress I had from before it was our team's turn. I was super nervous and it was a sour spot in an otherwise great day.

The lesson I learned from this week is to not work yourself up. My constant fear of messing up during the Dance Com made my emotions spew out. I was doubting myself and it made me have a terrible time. So, I now know that making yourself nervous will just worsen your experience. I needed to be confident in my own ability and it would have allowed me to have a good time. This lesson would be one that can allow me to feel powerful in myself and allow me to produce at my best ability. This concludes my blog and I hope you have a great week. Cheers to another day!