June 14, 2015

     This week was another stressful week, but it was only for the first few days. I had two big assignments due Wednesday. Jessica's archenemy is English class, and we have been working late into the night, writing an essay.  I am so busy. Every hour of my life seems to have an obligation and event. The track and field program had its first dual meet, and the turnout was weak. I believe that it is because my busy schedule did not let me do all the things that I could. I could have done more, but my academic achievement takes priority. I have had a lot of sun the past couple days, and I don't want to hang out in the sun for a while. I was in the sun a lot, running the Track meet, and I went to Badger Creek with Jessica's ward yesterday.

     The Track and Field meet did have more participants at first, since the school was invited to participate in the meet. There were about 10 people from the school that came, but I didn't really notice them. It seemed like they came and left. One guy came from the school, winning the mile race. Another guy raced in the hundred meter dash, and a guy participated in the throwing events; however, I don't recall seeing the other athletes. It is interesting that my sprinting and throwing programs are stronger than my long distance team. The throwing team captain broke the shot put record again, but it was by two feet, throwing 50' . There was a lot of wind, and the sprinters wanted to have the wind at their back. The timers were not prepared for that, and the timing system ran out of batteries before the race began, so we missed the hundred meter dash time. Jessica ran the scoreboard, so they kind of had a time. The sprinting team put together a 4x400 relay team, and they broke the school record by six seconds. The long distance team put together a 4x800 relay team, and they set the school record because there was not an official time.

     The next day, I went with Jessica and her ward to badger creek. We did four activities. I think that the first was a little ridiculous. We had to swing with a rope to a two foot square "raft because we were being attacked by pirates." Another thing that made it ridiculous is that we could not talk to each other because we did not want to get the attention of the pirates. We had to fit as many of our group as we can on the two foot square "raft". I thought that it was weird how the girls had a very hard time swinging. It is like they don't understand physics. They could barely hold themselves on the rope and get enough momentum to get to the raft. People thought that this was a leadership game, but the not talking rule made it lame; plus, additional rules were given limiting the suggestions that were given. A girl suggested that we do a big doggy pile. Another suggested that people sit on each other's shoulders, but both of them were shot down. The situation was too ridiculous for me to care. If we were attacked by pirates, we would not try to fit twenty-one people on a two foot square raft. We did do it; although, I saw one person with only one foot on the raft, which should have obligated us to restart. It was more of a trial and error unifying than a leadership and communication practice. Someone tried to lead the people as if she figured out how to fit everyone on the raft; however, the people did not follow her instructions well. There was a knot high in the rope, and I thought that it would be fun to swing two people over to the raft as once. The other activities were more logical and challenging. I think that it is weird that I only want to write about the ridiculous activity because all the other ones were logical. We did rock climbing, a gigantic swing like thirty feet tall, zip lining, and slacklining. I fell off the wall a couple times, when I rock climbed. There was a safety system, so I did not fall far. I felt out-of-it after being in the sun for so long, and did not care to do the swing. Badger Creek is interesting. It fulfills its role in the school well.