Spirited Woman Blogger Team

I'm Going To Miss My Team

After a long season of work, my school’s girls cross country team made it to states. It was a long season, but I think we all learned something about working hard and coming together as a team.

When cross country season started, some of us had known each other for years, and others walked into the season as strangers. By the end of the three and a half months we had spent together, we had all really grown into a team that had a completely different attitude than my teams before - the attitude of succeeding as a team.

I am personally still in shock that the season is over. I am going to miss talking about my day during runs after school, sleep overs, and hilarious bus rides to meets. In a way though I am glad it is finished because it is nice looking back at something and knowing you finished well. While we were in no position to win the state meet, we still went out and tried our best and ended up doing better than our predicted 9th place finish.  Afterwards, I could see everyone had a spark in their eyes and was thinking, “Hey, we’re not so bad after all. Maybe in a few years we could have a shot at winning this.” Of course this is every teams dream, but just knowing that we were all thinking the same things was a really great moment.

Part of being a Spirited Woman is getting to experience these great moments. While many of us don’t get to run in the state championships for cross country, there are many other “state championships” in our lives. We must learn to always remember these and to strive to get there.

Alice, The Spirited Kid
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Patience Is The Name of the Game

Recently I have gotten an ankle injury that limited my ability to run. For those who don’t know, I am a cross country runner for my school. This ankle injury has really taught me about patience because, unfortunately, it hasn’t healed overnight. While some days I can run without a problem, others, I am stuck on the stationary bike. A couple things this injury has taught me are:

I have really learned to appreciate having good health. Even with an ankle injury I am so lucky to not be sick or have a worse injury.

Don’t stop stretching ever. I don’t care how good you are. Stretching is really important and will prevent injury in your sport.

Never give up. There are days when I don’t want to run, there are days when I can’t run, and there are days where I feel like the stationary bike is a waste of time and I should be back on the track. After a while I had to learn running while injured will only make the injury worse and a little rest won’t kill you. Don’t give up on your dreams from one set back; overcome it and bounce back stronger.

Lastly I have learned to be patient. Patience is a key word in my injury because even if my ankle feels fine I can’t always run on it. I had to sit out one of my favorite races because of it, but I still had a good time cheering on the team.

Now I am slowly becoming able to run again. The seasons only half way over and I am still determined to work hard and be a member of the team. In the end it really stunk to be injured but I learned so much from the injury. Part of being a Spirited Woman is learning. I learned from my injury and now I can move forward and recover.

Alice, The Spirited Kid
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Joining Clubs

Now that I am Freshmen in high school, I can join school clubs. A few weeks ago we had a club sign-up day and everyone was really excited. I was too because clubs are both a great way to meet new people and to expand your interests and activities.

A large part of my school is completing service hours, so being in a service club was first on my list. My friend and I both joined the same service club by accident, and we are both really looking forward to doing the service activities.

The hard part about joining clubs was choosing which clubs to join. Between sports and school work I hardly have enough time to pack my lunch before going to bed. In the end, I decided to join only a few clubs so that I could be an active, responsible member in all of them.

Part of being a Spirited Woman is trying new things. This year I got the opportunity to try out things I was interested in that I had never done before. For example, in one club we are going to dress up as our favorite book characters and read to younger children.

Whether it is joining clubs, starting a new exercise, or even just making your dinner a new way, trying something new is both rewarding and fun!

Alice, The Spirited Kid
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Spending More Time With My Family

Towards the end of summer I always go to my grandmother’s house on my mom’s side of the family. While I’m there we always make Challah Bread (egg bread). This is something I always look forward to because the dough is like play dough and you can mold it into fun shapes. I also get to spend time with my grandma which is always fun.

Part of being a Spirited Woman is spending time with your family. Throughout this summer I have been lucky enough to see all of my grandparents, my cousins, and some of my aunts and uncles. While a family vacation is a fun was to spend time with your family, there are many ways that you can all be together. In my house we always have a family dinner at night. I look forward to this because it gives me time to tell my parents and sister about my day and learn what they did, too. Another fun thing I did with my family this summer was go to the beach. We had a picnic there and played in the water. It was tons of fun!

I understand that many people are busy (I am too), but there are ways to fit in family time, even with a busy schedule. Here are a few tips:

1. Schedule a family game night or a family day. Don’t make any plans and just spend the day or evening together.

2. Try and fit in at least one family dinner a week. It is a really great way to just talk and have fun.

3. Have a dinner the whole family can help make.  Sushi is one of my favorite meals and my parents like it, too. Every once and a while we make our own sushi.  We each get to make a few rolls and put whatever we want in them. It’s a lot of fun. If you don’t like sushi you can also try making your own pizza.

I hope these tips help you spend more time with your family.

Alice, The Spirited Kid
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My Two Week Road Trip to My Two Favorite Cities

I recently got back from a two week road trip that took me to two very different, but beautiful, cities. These cities are St. Louis, Missouri and Savannah, Georgia. First my family drove the two days to St. Louis. St. Louis is the city where I was born so it has always felt like a second home to me. In Taylor Swifts “My Life” section on her website she says this about her hometown, “I love the town so much, I sometimes feel like I should just roll the windows down in my car (nicknamed the Toyoat. Because it's a Toyota) and scream "I LOVE THIS TOWN" loudly out the windows."

Upon reading this I realized that when I enter St. Louis I want to do exactly this. This trip I did something I have never done before, I went paddle boating in Forest Park. Sitting in the paddle boat, in the lake, in the middle of the beautiful place that is Forest Park, I flashed back to the Taylor Swift quote. While in St. Louis we also got to see the fireworks on the Fourth of July. I absolutely love fireworks and seeing them in my favorite city was very cool. While I am not sure why, I love St. Louis. It is honestly my favorite city I have ever been to, and I could travel there 1,000 times and still see something new and love it all the same.

Next on the trip was Savannah, Georgia. This was my first time in this city and I loved it. We stayed with our friends and their house was a short walk away from River Street. River Street is a street on the Savannah River, and it stretches further than I could see in both directions. River Street contained many small shops and restaurants that sold a variety of things from taffy, cookies, and gelato to honey, peanuts, and postcards. There was also a market that contained art galleries where you could talk to the artists. I really enjoyed talking to the artists because it gave me a look into the minds of other very creative people around me. One thing that I really loved about the city of Savannah is all of the bricks. Almost everything we saw was made from bricks: houses, stores, roads. Every so often, I found myself just reaching out and touching the walls of the place I was in; it was so different than my city in Florida.

Savannah is way older than my city. Savannah was founded in 1733 while my city was founded in 1876, so walking through it was like walking back in time a little. Part of this is due to the fact that there are tours everywhere that take place in horse drawn carriages. There are dozens of horses that you can see walking around pulling people in the streets. Along my journey I also discovered much of where I was, was haunted. Unfortunately, we opted against a ghost tour on the trip so the ghosts of Savannah remain a mystery to me.

My vacation did come to an end and now I am home in Florida. On this vacation I learned that part of being a Spirited Woman is enjoying everything around you whether it is spending an hour paddle boating or just feeling a brick on a wall.

Alice, The Spirited Kid
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Leaving Middle School

It is finally June, one of my favorite months of the year because it is summer vacation. This year the coming of summer was slightly bitter sweet because it was the end of middle school. Saying hello to summer meant saying goodbye to some people that I have known since I was very little.

As the last days of middle school came to a close many people, including me began to reflect on our middle school memories. These memories inspired my post for the month. I have decided to write about a middle school survival kit because I remember at the beginning of fifth grade wondering, “What am I going to need for middle school?”

So here are some of the things that helped me through middle school.

First, organization tools, I wrote a post a while back about getting more organized, while I have been unsuccessful so far, I have found it is helpful to have folders and a pencil case. These little tools keep your paper and pens where you need them. It also helped me from losing important papers before I had to turn them in and making sure that I still had them for finals.

Another thing I found helpful was colored pens and highlighters. They helped me endlessly to take organized notes. I used my red pen a lot to mark the things wrong in my homework so I could come back to it later. I used highlighters for summer reading and the in class books so that when it was time for the test I could skim the book quickly.

Without sports middle school would have been crazy. Some of my favorite middle school memories come from cross country and track. Doing these sports really helped me make friends and learn how to manage my time. While I never did the middle school play a lot of people really seemed to feel the same way about that as I did about sports. If you are in middle school and aren’t sure whether you should try sports or do a club I highly recommend it.

Lastly, I can’t even think about middle school without thinking about my friends. Having even one really great friend will change your middle school experience. I think the fact that I have such great friends is what is making leaving middle school difficult. Even though most of us will be together for high school it won’t be the same without the people who are leaving.

I wrote this post because when I started fifth grade I would have wanted just a few pointers. Now that I am finished I hope that this list can help other kids like me. Part of being a Spirited Woman is being helpful; even if you may not know somebody it is always good to help out. I hope that this post can help somebody starting middle school even just a little.

Alice, The Spirited Kid
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My Mantra - Came From My Lunch Box!

Often, when I am doing a task, I recite in my head my mantra. "Clever, cute, and creative." These three simple words help me design my Frou Frou Flip Flops. When I am doing a school project I design it along the same words, except "cute" tends to be replaced with "organized." I was never really sure where I came up with my mantra until a few days ago.

The day before my sister had left her lunch box at school. She didn’t want to use a plastic bag to put her lunch in so she used one of our old lunch boxes. I saw it lying on the floor of the living room and recognized it as my lunch box from first grade. It had a cartoon character on it with the words "clever, cute, and creative." Upon reading this I smiled because I realized my mantra came from reading those words over and over at lunch every day. I guess after a year or so of reading things sticks into your mind. The next year after that was second grade (the year that I would begin Frou Frou Flip Flops) and through the time I have spent making flip flops I have used the word creative a lot which most likely is how the quote from my lunch box became a mantra to me.

Childhood really plays a big part in our adult life, even though I am not an adult I still remember a lot of my years when I was very little, like kindergarten. As spirited women grow older it is important not to forget everything about our past because even if it may not be our best days, it shaped us to be who we are today.

Alice, The Spirited Kid
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Part of Being a Spirited Woman is Doing Well Under Pressure

As we reach the last few weeks of track season we reach the first week of championship season. Championship season is basically the “this is it” moment and includes conference, districts, and, of course, the state meets. While every meet you run is important these are the highest because it gives your school the opportunity to earn hard-to-achieve titles -that in the running world are very desirable because to say your school was state champion for track is very cool!

While you don’t need to run a certain time to be eligible for conference or districts, nor place a certain place to get to them they are still races that keep you on edge because everyone wants to do well.

Tomorrow is my conference meet. While it is the least exciting of all the championship meets you can still feel the buzz in the air of all the runners anxiously waiting to race or see how they did. When I approach the starting line at any race I like to remind myself that I have trained hard to get this far.

Part of being a Spirited Woman is doing well under pressure. Not everyone does, but at large meets like this, I have to not lose myself in the completion or my times won’t be my best. Pressure can be hard to deal with, but if you approach a situation with confidence you will excel.

Alice, The Spirited Kid
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Try Something New

Tuesday was my last middle school track meet forever. In honor of the last meet a few of my friends and I decided we would do something we have never done before. In track there are a multitude of events and between the four of us there was only three we had never tried. After discussing for about five minutes we decided we would do discus. In track discus is an event in which you try to throw a metal disc as far as you can. This seemed like an odd event for me to do because I have very little arm strength.

As we approached the discus cage the coach gave all of us a disc to get used to holding. To my surprise the disc wasn’t heavy it was only 2-3 pounds. After a few test throws I discovered I could throw in the middle to high 30s. On our track the first line is at 40 feet away. The lines are just to make it easier on the referee’s - so you can get an estimate of how far you can throw. After realizing how close I was to the line I decided to make it my goal to throw past it.

When we got to the meet the next day, all four of us went straight to the discus for practice. When we were there we realized our throws were a lot worse than in practice because our throws were so far from the line. Then a coach informed us that the line was 50 feet away at this track and we realized that our throws were about the same. When it was my turn to throw for the first time I entered the cage and gave it my best shot. It wasn’t my best throw, but I still had two more.

When my second throw came I threw it over 40 feet! I was so glad I had accomplished my goal. My third throw was a little less than my second, but they take your furthest throw. In the end I was really glad I tried something new. Though I have already said this, trying something new is part of being a Spirited Woman because it challenges you and in the end you may end up enjoying it.

Alice, The Spirited Kid
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The Fear to Not Complete Things Shouldn't Hold You Back

In track this season I am running the mile. Currently, I am very close to breaking six minutes in this race and have found that it is not an easy thing to do. During the third lap (out of four) in my mile, doubt swarms into my head.

In life there are many times when we fear we can’t do things or - plain and simple - we are afraid. As I progress in my running seasons I am beginning to learn that I have to stop being afraid of the run and that in life sometimes you need to take risks and learn from your failures. Sometimes it is easier to skip something or push it aside when it seems difficult.

The fear to not complete things shouldn’t hold you back. As I am getting better at running I am becoming less afraid of getting hurt. I am learning to overcome my fears, and part of being a Spirited Woman is overcoming the fears in your life. The next time trying something new seems difficult or you fear that you may not do your absolute best try to - face it with confidence - and take a risk.

Failing is something that happens to everyone. We aren’t perfect and not succeeding goes along with that. When you fail you need to learn what you are doing wrong and fix it. When you fix what is wrong you may be able to complete the task better than you could if you just worked around the mistake. For example when I first started running I would sprint the start of my races. As I progressed in my running life I began to slow myself down at the beginning of the races. My times were still getting faster when I was starting out fast, but when I paced myself better it improved my times greatly.

As spirited women progress through life they learn what scares them and how to overcome that fear. For example if you are afraid of bugs try learning about that bug and maybe you won’t be as scared. No matter the fear it isn’t impossible to conquer.

- Alice, The Spirited Kid
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