Weekly Blog 3-8 (61): Spirit Week

 Hello 'Ilima

This has been by far the longest week this entire school year. There was so many different things that went on, so for it all to make sense let's start at the beginning. For the past couple weeks, a group of 8-3 students have been practicing and preparing for the Synchronized Swimming. This group, which included me, practiced nonstop and we had a lot of different ups and downs. From moments of actual nice dancing, to instances of falling and fumbling, we had a lot of fun practicing for the dance. And all of that hard work would be paid off on the first day of Spirit Week where we would perform our dance. There were a lot of nerves heading into the performance, but I was also excited cause I wanted to share the dance that we were making for so long. What made it even more fun was that all of the boys had their hair tied up and bows put in it. So when it was time for the event, all of my group was ready. Once is started, an order was picked on who would go first and it ended up being us that was going to be the first ones to preform. Heading onto the stage, I started acting crazy for the crowd so that the crowd could start getting excited. On the stage, we entered our first formation and I started to suffer from anticipation. But once we started, everything just started to naturally flow. It was such an amazing time, dancing and being silly on stage, and once we got off the stage, I was full of confidence and joy. The rest of the teams did their dance and it was fine, but I personally liked ours the best. But the winners ended up being 8-2 which felt pretty weird. Moving on from the Synchronized Swimming, the next big event was the Cheer Off. For the Cheer Off, we were practicing for even longer and even harder then we did for the Synchronized Swimming. There were a lot of rocky moments during the practices, specially because sometimes I felt like we weren't being taught in the best ways, but we had everything together for the big day. So when it was time for the Cheer Off, every team crowded around in the courtyard, getting ready for their cheer. And just like the Synchronized Swimming, 8-3 would be going first. When we were given the signal to go, we all rushed onto the stage into the places we needed to be. I was headed to the very front of the stage as I had a special role as a janitor. I was very excited to play this janitor role as I had two major parts. I would 1. Start up the cheer by sweeping while there was whistling. and 2. Have my own choreo during the main chorus. For this choreo, I would be spinning my broom like people would spin torches. I actually learned how to spin torches a year or two ago when I went to the Polynesian Culture Center, so I had actual experience in mop spinning. Once our cheer started, I started sweeping up the floor like planned. Then the people behind me would start popping up, which was my queue to slowly started walking off. Once I was totally off, we started saying our cheer and once it was time for the chorus, I got ready for my mop swimming. I picked up my mop, ran to the center, and started spinning the mop in all sorts of directions. The crowd was loving it and I was having an awesome time. After that, we had a little hype circle and then we were off. I thought we had did a great job, but a lot of the people around me felt like we made too many mistakes. But, that wasn't out last shot at the cheer. Because of a bus coming very late to school, 8-3 was given another chance at the cheer. We all headed back to our formations and our cheer started again. I don't need to repeat everything that happened, but know that it went a lot better than the first time. Overall, the 8-3 Cheer was very awesome and I think deserving of winning. Although we didn't win as 8-1 somehow won. I don't want to get to salty, but I feel like we heads and shoulders above the rest of the other teams. But I digress. The last major activity from Spirit Week was the Relay Race. The Relay Race is a collection of different challenges that the teams had to race to finish. It was a crazy event last year, so I had major expectations for this upcoming one. I had spent a lot of time setting up the different parts of the Relay Race, but it looked amazing and I was ready to see the teams race. Once it was advisory, the teams started pouring out of their classes and they got ready for the race. Mr. Ing ran through how the race would work and set the teams to their spots. And after a quick countdown, the teams started racing. 8-3 got to an early lead and they didn't let it up. It was pure dominance and it resulted in a landslide victory for my team. My ears shattered as the screams of my team echoed across the campus as they celebrated the victory, and I couldn't have been happier. It wasn't as lucky for the 7th grade teams as they were all disqualified for a variety of reasons. But I was just glad that 8-3 won the Relay Race. These were all of the major events, but there were so many different things that happened across the week. But this paragraph is getting really long so I will talk about them in the next one. 

 Sync Swimming Group

Janitor Outfit

8-3 After the Relay Race

Mouse Trap

The first couple highlights would be these major events. From Synchronized Swimming, to Cheer Off, and with the Relay Race, they were all very exciting events with so much preparation put into them. The next highlight from this week would be the dress outs. I loved making new outfits for the different days and it was also cool to see what the other people had to wear for the days. The next highlight from this week would be the mini-activities. Throughout the week, we had a variety of mini-activities that the Student Body Government had to make. I was in charge of the math one, and I made a simple decimal worksheet. So when it was time for the math activity, I felt like I was ready with the worksheets. But something I didn't think of was that I needed an answer sheet. So I started to quickly calculate every single answer so that I could have the answers. This might seem stressful to you, and it defintely was, but once I was done getting the answers, I was more satisfied that the worksheet turned out good. And a 8-3 student ended up winning it which is amazing. The first lowlight of this week would be the early mornings. I had to wake up much earlier than I usually do in order to be there for the mornings which I didn't really like because it made me constantly tired during the day. The next lowlight would be a rat. Basically, there is some rat that is knocking thins over in A101, and nobody has any clue on where it could be. If this rat is not found soon, I might have to start putting everything in safe places because I don't want rats in my stuff. But the biggest lowlight of this week would be 8-2 winning Spirit Week. I feel like 8-2 should have not won for a variety of reasons. 1. Their Synchronized Swimming wasn't really that good. 2. Their cheer was by far the worse out of all the 8th grade teams. 3. They got last in Relay Race. 4. They only won one of the mini activities. But somehow, they ended up winning. It's more frustrating than anything else, because I felt like our team put in the most effort. We had a variety of instruments, we had special costumes, and we had a whole entire dragon! But I can't change the results of Spirit Week and I just have to live with the fact that they won. 

The lesson I learned from this week is that not everything goes the way that you want it to. I talked about it at the end of the last paragraph, but I felt like 8-3 should have won. I thought we had the best dancing, the best props, and the best everything. But clearly we didn't because we didn't win. It didn't go the way that I wanted it to, and that's okay. I just have to accept the fact that I won't win everything in my life. There will be times where I feel like I do something flawless, just for someone to point out all of the cracks in things I do. So instead of pouting, I should use these moments to grow as a person and do the thing better the next time. With that being said, this concludes my blog. I hope you have a great week. Cheers to another day!