This week I am using courage to do the 30 hour famine at my youth group. I am going to go from 1 p.m. today until 7 p.m. tomorrow without eating. I am able to chew gum, and drink pop, juice, or water, but I can't eat. I am doing this so to raise money and awareness for the thousands of kids all over the world that don't have food. At first I wasn't so sure about doing it, but then I realized how good of a cause this is for, and decided that I could do it, for all those kids in the United States, Africa, and just all over the world that have only barely $2 to spend on food, while the average American has about $120 to spend on food-and that's for a whole week.
This week I did not use courage in my Team Sports class. I knew I needed to participate in the game, and I wanted to, it's just that whenever the ball would go whizzing in the air I would get freaked out and shy away from the ball.
On Wednesday, my school's choir's went to the District Choral Festival. I used courage to get my entire choir organized, and ready to go on stage. I also used courage to sing out and use good facial expressions, which ended up being a good thing, because my choir got an excellent and is now able to go to the State Choral Festival.
Over the last week, I have becoming more confident in myself. This has, in turn, helped me to be more comfortable with situations I encounter throughout the day. I also have been using courage to interact more with people, and forge new bonds.
This past week has been quite hectic for me, and it's only going to get work. Next week is the opening for the musical, so this week has been nothing but hard work. To try and have some fun, I have been using courage to let lose, and talk to people that I normally wouldn't because I am not good with new people. I have been becoming closer with people that I wouldn't have thought of talking to, and I feel stronger, knowing that I am getting better at being out of my comfort zone.
This week, while I haven't done or gone out much because of being snowed in, I do believe I've used a bit of courage this week. One Tuesday and Wednesday, even though I had snow days, I had to go in for Beauty and the Beast rehearsal. One of the days we had to practice this big singing and dancing number, which I consider partly embarrassing and it makes me a little uncomfortable. Since I am a Silly Girl, for the number, "Gaston," I have to dance very close to the guy that plays Gaston for a dance. This makes me feel very awkward, and I do not like it at all. I had to use all of my courage to get over it, and just do the dance. Now I am getting very good at the number, and I have grown to ignore my feelings of embarrassment.
This past week, as the start of a new semester, has brought many changes for me. Up until this semester, my whole high school career I have had the same teacher for math, and he had definitely been one of my favorites. Sadly, this semester my schedule had to get changed around, and now, I have a math with a brand new teacher, and people I don't know. It is always hard for me to get comfortable in a class, with both the teacher, and the people in the class, leaving me feeling awkward most of the time. I have had to use courage to bare through this change, and by the end of the week it was getting easier. I am slowly getting more comfortable with the teacher, and with the people sitting around me, even though it is tough for me. Also, I have been using courage to ask questions in different classes, because I don't generally ask questions seeing as how I always felt like it made me look stupid or incompetent. I feel like I have been growing as a person, and becoming more adaptable in my surroundings.
A very large aspect of my life, is singing. This past week I haven't shown courage in situations that I've needed to. I had a choir concert this past week, and in one of the songs we sang, there is a note that is fairly high, which makes it hard to hit, and can sound screechy if not sung right. Well, after our concert, I had a lot of people come up to me and tell that a person in my section made that note sound absolutely horrible, and even one of this girl's friend told me this. Then, after the concert, said girl was actually telling other people that it was me singing it wrong, and just saying some really rude stuff about me that isn't true. Today in choir, this girl actually pulled my whole section over, and told us that there was a certain person that made the note sound absolutely horrible, and that she wasn't going to say who it was, but that we needed to know. Now, one of my friends that is in a different section told me about what this girl had been saying earlier, and that made me really want to confront this girl, but I just couldn't. I really wanted to, but I really don't want to make out-right enemies with one of my section members since I am section leader, making me in charge.
So it's been a week since I last wrote about courage, and it's also been a week since I truly thought about using courage. The past week has been very stressful, and have been fairly hard for me. But, I realized that I don't need to force myself to do something anymore by thinking, "Courage, courage, need to use courage." Instead, I have been able to go about using courage naturally. This week Beauty and the Beast rehearsals started, and we have been working on one song, the opening song, "Belle." During this song at the very end, my friend and I were selected to sing a high A, which is super-duper high that it's off the staff. At first when we were practicing, I didn't believe that I could do it. Then, a few girls that were sitting around us, told us that they believed in us, and that they knew we could hit that note. That really encourage me, and from then on I wasn't afraid of hitting it or not hitting it, and instead of over thinking it, I just went for it. Luckily, I was in fact able to hit, and I had belted it out so it was the perfect loudness in comparison to the 30 other voices. This experience really helped me to believe in myself, because then I know that I can face my fears.
The past couple months I have sort of forgotten about my word. Lately though, I have been using it even when I haven't realized it. In choir I have been using courage when is sectionals. I am the first soprano section leader, which means that when we break off to work on a piece of music, I am in charge. At first I was very scared and didn't know what I was doing, but lately I have been becoming more sure of myself. |