Nothing But Greatness and Gratefulness!

Today is one of those days that you get finished with and wonder how you could ever complain about anything.

Today, I am nothing but grateful for a lot of things.

I had the most amazing afternoon with about 25 of the most incredible girls I know. They are fierce, they are passionate, they are tough and they are my teammates.

As much as my life revolves around my college swim team, I purposely wanted to separate my blog from it so that I had something that wasn't affected by my swimming. However, because it is such a big part of my life, and this blog is about things that happen in my life, it would be impossible to completely avoid it.

So this afternoon our fifth-ranked team hosted the No. 2 ranked team. On paper, with the meet swam out with everyone's best times, they would beat us by 100 points.

But black and white times mean nothing when your heart rate is pumping blood and oxygen to every muscle you could possibly use. When your teammates and coaches are chanting your name. When you are diving in next to a girl that you know if you don't beat could mean the difference between winning and losing the whole meet.

One of the things I love the most about my team is the fight we have in us. Losing was not an option to any of us today.

It came down to the last relay, but we did not let them get the best of us. We had too much tradition riding on the win and too much fire in our hearts to bow out. This win signified our 60-meet winning streak at home. Generations of swimmers have contributed to that number and my team today was not about to give it up.

So I am grateful today. Grateful for the women who have come before us, set the standard, contributed to the legacy and established a tradition. I am grateful for the women I have with me now. They are hard workers, tough competitors and incredibly fun to be around. I am grateful for my coaches, who push me in practice and meets, and take time to mold me into a better swimmer, racer and person. I am even grateful for teams like the one we raced today. The challenges they bring only make our team stronger and push us to be better.

So maybe I will complain about getting up early in the morning, or a hard set during practice tomorrow, but I know it will make me better.

And today I am grateful.

The Solution to that Pesky Extra Set of Arms

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Ungrateful for the Challenge Masters

I think I got some half-hearted attempts at challenges this week.

I got two last night, one from a roommate and one from another roommate's boyfriend. Yep, that's right, it has come to pawning off their Masterly duties on significant others. I almost expect to get a phone call from someone's mom next week challenging me to make up my bed every morning (instant failure no doubt).

The boyfriend even made a point to call and harass me because they didn't get a thank you response. I told him it's because I thought they were weak challenges and I expected better. I didn't get anything better so here they are:

• Smile at ten strangers a day and ask how their day is going.
• Pinch myself every time I start to complain and be grateful for what I have.
• Do not spend any money this week.

Bleh. I am not thrilled with any of those. Not that I should necessarily love my challenge, I just feel that the creative juices are perhaps running a bit low.

So I choose gratefulness. I guess I should start by being grateful that I even have these Challenge Masters at all (hopefully not for long).

And I won't complain. Even about crazy ex-boyfriends.

A Call for New Challenge Masters!

The Challenge Masters are kind of falling off the job these days. I am thinking of recruiting new ones so if anyone has a brilliant suggestion of a weekly task to make me a better person, by all means, leave a comment and I may be attempting your challenge next week!

Can I Tune Out Complaints?

How are you supposed to be an intent listener and focus on what someone is saying if they don't listen to you?

I had this problem earlier this week.

A friend of mine broke up with her boyfriend of two years a few months ago. She loves him, but doesn't want to marry him and could see that was the direction they were headed if they stayed together.

Her ex is having a hard time with this, and since I am good friends with both of them, I have somehow become a middle-man between his complaining about her and pining for her attention, and her attempts to wash her hands of the whole situation.

It really has gotten serious...one night he tried to start a fight with a much bigger guy out of stupid jealousy and she literally had to hit him in the face to get him to snap out of it.

So he talked to me endlessly a few nights ago, very upset, claiming all of her friends refuse to talk to him anymore because she has "stolen" them away to her side. There are sides here? I am sorry if I don't want to listen to his whining and moaning about her "giving him another chance". Especially if I am not aloud to tune him out this week.

He also has convinced himself she wants nothing more than to twist the knife he believes she has stabbed through his heart. If only he could take her out to a nice dinner, talk to her parents, go to a movie, convince her friends they should be together...

AHH!! NO!!

She will never change her mind. I told him that. Several times.

I know it is hard for you, I wish I could make you feel better, but this is how it is. I told him that. Several times.

All to no avail. He continued repeating the same things so I yelled at him that I couldn't listen to it anymore and stalked off.

So is it better that I just left, or am I a cold-hearted person for not wanting to sympathize with him anymore? At least I didn't have to listen to it anymore.

Immediate Updates of my Rants and Raves!

For all those subscribers out there who can't wait to hear about another one of my challenge failures, you need to change the RSS feed. You can click the "Subscribe To My Blog" link to the right, or this is the new URL.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/ChallengeMyCharacter

Do not fret...more challenge posts to come shortly.

Do You Understand the Words that are Coming Out of my Mouth?

I know, I know...I am a little late posting my challenge for the week. Maybe my challenge should be not procrastinating with anything. YIKES! I would have a lot of catching up to do.

Here they are (drumroll please)...

• Wake up 10 minutes early and do a daily devotional.


• When people speak to you, give them your full attention and listen to what they are saying.


• Do something nice for a stranger every day.

Since I can be, not spacey, let's say uninterested, at times and being attentive to what people are saying is something I really should work on I have chosen the second one.

Especially working on getting a degree in public relations, which relies heavily on communication, I can always improve my non-zoning out skills.

The hardest part about this will be trying to find fascinating people to talk to all week. Otherwise I fear I may slip back into the fascinating thoughts in my head instead.