Let's do this in a chronological order.
So at the end of November, I was busy preparing for finals. This was only made worse by the ongoing 1 month hiatus from climbing that I was going through to recover my elbow, so life was quite boring during that time. Can't really remember much that happened during the finals period either, all I can recall is that I remember all the Chem Eng mods being freaking hard that I doubted that I could even get half of the paper correct but it all paid off in the end I guess everyone died equally as well.
So after finals ended, I wasted no time in going right back to climbing, despite my elbows still feeling a little pain. I mentally prepared myself to eat dirt the moment I got back, and damn I really ate a lot of dirt. Started off with top roping first with Sab at CA on the first day. I can still remember how I felt a little weird holding tiles again even though it was only a 1 month break. It was an unnatural and irksome feeling that I couldn't wait to get rid of. Surprised myself on the first day back to climbing cause I managed to finish a 7A on top rope lol. But I don't think it was 7A la even though that's what it was graded. Well I climbed for 6 days non stop after finals and it was the most painful but worthwhile comeback I had to go through. And on every single one of those days, I did my old PT set of 100 push ups 100 crunches and 100 pull ups (okay on some days I actually did 50 50 50 cause I was damn tired). But anyway, this old regime helped to get my general fitness and pulling strength back again, and within a week I was back to climbing hard routes and building up skin for the Khon Kaen Rock Trip!
Celebrated my birthday too on the sixdecember2016. It was a simple day of going for training and enjoying myself in the company of my teammates and good routes. Sab gave me a special surprise gift too of an Evolv Chalk Bucket cause I am a die hard Evolv fan boy lol. And of course, she also gave me a really sweet card too :) Dave gave me TPI Chalk so that I would stop stealing his chalk every training. Jon gave me a roller massager which I still use sometimes to massage the nagging elbow pains after a sore day of climbing. Ken gave me giddy climbing balm which saved my skin in Khon Kaen. My family gave me a card too and a Hong Bao $$$
Next was the Khon Kaen Rock Trip that Sab and I organised for the team! At first I felt quite dejected because not many people could make it/not interested for this trip and I can't help but feel disappointed that things turned out this way in the team. It was also sad cause many people from my batch didn't go too. But anyway, I tried not to let it affect the planning process and I was really glad that those who went were really psyched for it and that they really enjoyed themselves. I think this trip was still one of the best rock trips I had so far despite the small turnout rate and me having to organise it. I was also very happy that I managed to send 3 V7s over there: Dragon Ant, Black Gate Variant and Bloody Fingers, as well as other classic routes that were V5-6 and the debatable V8 Happy Buddha LOL. I don't have that many photos of me climbing (videos mostly) so I'm just gonna post these photos.
So after coming back from KK, it was full on training for Gravical again. Oh yeah, forgot to mention too that we received our semester results while we were in KK lol. All I can say is I am satisfied with my results but I am definitely aiming to do even better this semester. Spent some time with Sab's family too during this in between Christmas and New Year period, and there was also a team Christmas party at Mun's house too. It was heartwarming to see the team gather together as a whole because that was something which rarely happens these days since both the guys and girls team train at different gyms which resulted in very little interaction/bonding. Turns out the santa and elf gift exchange was the same pairing which meant Leon was also my Santa lol. He gave me a stretchy finger thing and some sketchy liquorice sweet which honestly I don't dare to eat lol sorry Leon. I gave him a So ILL hand squeezer which I hope he will use it often!
New Year's Day was great because I spent it sleeping during the countdown lol. I don't understand why people would want to go out and get stuck in crowds and stay up so late. School was going to start soon which was a dread but at the same time I was also looking forward to studying some interesting but super hard Chem Eng Mods. But most of these days were spent climbing climbing climbing. My elbow was slowly getting better and my left elbow no longer hurts now but my right elbow still aches sometimes after a tired day of climbing.
I wasn't confident at all for Gravical which was the upcoming climbing competition and also the first of 2017. I only got back to climbing properly for only a month after a hiatus and so I thought it would take me very long to get back to good form again. I think this actually spurred me on even further to train more, climb better and to give my all every time I was on the wall, because I knew I lacked the time and so I had to make up for it by making every training a quality one.
Which brings me to my most recent life update, which is promoting to Open Men for Gravical just yesterday :) I took part in this competition without any expectations because I didn't feel as ready as compared to the previous competition Rockmaster in which I really felt that I stood a high chance of promoting. So I was just aiming to go in and have fun for Gravical, the results didn't matter at all. But when I saw the qualifier routes I realised some of them were actually my style, I thought that maybe I stood a chance to get into finals! So I just did the best I could and surprised myself by qualifying for finals. Then during the finals yesterday, I just did whatever mental preparation and hydration plan I did similar to the qualifiers and all went well in the end. I must admit, I felt more nervous and shaky during the finals than qualifiers because during the finals I already had some expectation on myself to podium which made me feel a little anxious. Expectations really does kill a person's performance sometimes. Fortunately, I kept my cool and composure (well most of the time) during the finals and I managed to clinch a 3rd place in the end on the podium :) I was really in disbelief when it all ended because it has always been my aim to make it to Opens for a long time and out of nowhere I just achieved that even though I felt that I wasn't mentally or physically ready for it yet. I am still quite amazed at how much of a comeback I have made over the past 2 months, and it only makes me want to strive on to see what I can achieve with even more time on my side. Here's a photo spam of Gravical:
I can keep talking about this recent achievement because it's so important and significant to me and there's so many people I am thankful for helping me reach this milestone in my climbing life. I'm just very happy with all that has happened and I consider myself to be really lucky. And to all the other Inter Men out there especially those in my team, you guys are all strong enough to promote, if I can do it then so can you guys too. It's not as impossible as we all think of it to be, it is definitely within our reach so fight hard to get it. Don't give up so easily, just keep trying and trying and get your mentality right and I am sure you will get it some day. There will be frustrating and disappointing moments but we can never let it affect us; always believe in your own strengths and be steady when you have to face your weaknesses. Okay I think that's enough paham for one paragraph.
Anyway it's back to the mundane and boring routine of school again. The post comp psych dies out really fast because of all the impending academic shit that I have to face. Apart from the team there's not many people I look forward to seeing when I go to school, other than a few from my course. It's kinda hard to make friends now that we are all in Year 2, everybody would prefer to stay in their own comfortable social circle and tolerate seeing the same old people every semester and have them disappear from your lives once the holidays arrive. I think my attitude towards friendships just won't survive in this university environment. I don't like to confine myself to just one clique but I like to befriend everyone but at the same time not be close to anyone in uni unless they are old friends from the past or people I really trust and are genuine to me. Talk is so cheap these days with fair weather hi bye friends that you have to force yourself to engage with because you don't want to seem unfriendly. Why can't people talk about more meaningful things? Are we all just subjected to talk about the same shit everyday? Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti social at all, I just find that making friends in uni is so damn hard. I think I only have myself to blame too for this, since I never took the effort to befriend anyone in my course since I have other commitments. Falling back on old friendships is the only way that I trust, because these are friends I know I will feel comfortable with. But it is sad to foresee that I will graduate like this. Without having known that many new people from this course. A part of me just wants to heck care and become a nomad but another part of me feels that this isn't really who I am or cut out to be. Oh well, I think uni life is also a phase of self discovery. Maybe my perspective towards friendships will slowly change after this then. But I guess friendships are also hard to come by in my course because everyone is just so busy and hectic, nobody has time to maintain or even establish friendships because it's just another commitment with not much returns. I also find it sad that I have disconnected with some of my old friends too throughout my 2+ years here in NUS, I wish I could fix these friendships and just go back to the way things were but it is also my fault for not committing to them and sometimes it is best to just learn to let go when people's priorities align differently from yours. I can go on and on lamenting about my woes on university friendships but I should stop before this makes me sad lol.
I spent almost an hour typing this and procrastinating from my tutorials, so I'm gonna end abruptly to get some shit done lol. I need to get the momentum going if not this semester would not go well for me.
No comments:
Post a Comment