2013 - A catch up

So after hearing that Formspring was closing down, I thought I may as well see how my blog is doing!!! No new posts, no comments, nothing exciting. Aaaaand I'm about to change all of that ;D

So what's been happening in the last year? A whole heap of not a lot.  I've pulled out of my courses at uni, been working full-time at the pool, a wee bit of swimming here and there, had a girl for a while, catching up with friends when I can.

I'll start with uni.  I spent 18months at university, hating every minute of it. I got terrible marks in most of my courses and wasted about $6000 on failed papers.  It wasn't until the evening of my 19th b'day party that I had the balls to finally admit that uni was not for me.  As you can imagine, my Mum and Dad were quite pissed off (even though it was my own money that I was wasting).  I was still lying to them and I felt absolutely horrible.  The best idea at the time was to start picking up more lifeguarding shifts at the pool.

GC has treated me well in terms of offering shifts and whatnot. I've consistantly had 30+hours a week for the last 9 months.  I was even offered a full time secondment over the summer (nov-mar) and have since picked up an extra part-time shift.  Although I don't always enjoy lifeguarding, I find that it keeps me on my toes and I look forward to catching up with people I work with. Not to mention the FREE pool and gym access haha!!  I feel valued there and my opinions count. I've been asked for my input on a lot of things now, including a potential new roster, numbers for pool parties, lane allocation and a whole heap of other stuff. I've also been doing a lot of supervisor shifts which gives me some new challenges including being in charge of people much much older than myself. All of this gives me a bit of that warm fuzzy feeling knowing that the work I do is a high standard and appreciated by the senior staff.

I've also had a girlfriend up until recently. Things got out of hand quite suddenly and it makes me sad and frustrated knowing what happened. I don't regret being with her at all, but I know things will never be the same between us.  She showed me I can step out of my comfort zone and do what I want to do, all I have to do is man up and go for it.  At the moment I'm still trying to get over what happened and I am struggling a wee bit with finding the right balance of socialising with everyone, time by myself and time with that one good friend. As much as it pisses me off, she's lucky to have a guy who was with her right from the word go and could keep her from falling too far.  I'm trying to avoid talking to or about her as much as I can. Not because I don't like her, but so that I'm not continuously reminded about what happened and make it easier for me to move on with my life.

With all of this going on, I've also found it hard to think about what I really enjoy doing. I thought I would be coming out of uni with an LLB and a Bcom and find some job or career from that.  Unfortunately that didn't really work out so I went back to the drawing board... What makes me happy? What do I enjoy doing? What am I good at? Where do I see myself in 5, 10 or 20 years? At this point in time, I'm looking into swim coaching. I have a few courses lined up and I'm getting heaps of experience by covering Glen, Ellie and Roly when they go away.  I'm also off to Invercargill in 3 days time to coach at DivII nationals =D  There are only two swimmers from QEII going this year but I'm sure they'll both do really well and come home proud of what they achieve!!

My swimming hasn't been very consistant lately thanks to work hours being all over the show. The majority of my pb's are over a year old now, but I'm sure that's going to change.  I've set myself up with a new training schedule of approx 7-9 swims and 3-4gym/dryland sessions per week.  This should get me fit, strong and ready to get some pbs and hopefully some springs times.  I'm targetting neptunes and south islands (both short course meets) because I have a bit of a record in swimming well at those meets even when I'm not training.  I want to give swimming a good go this year. I'd hate to look back later in life and think to myself  "damn I really only gave it a half-assed attempt, imagine what I could've done if I'd really tried".  If I don't get anywhere, then I can hold my head high and be proud that I gave it everything.


Aaaanyway, enough of my rambling on. I'm off to pack my bags for this weekend and get ready for a bit of coaching this afternoon. If there is anything else I remember I may edit this post or potentially make another. Shout out to the boys (and girls).

~Benny C



P.S.  Congratulations to Ellie Sinclair (Harrod) on her AWESOME wedding to Nathan!!! Was a fantastic day and hope you enjoy your new life together =)

P.P.S   I don't even know if people still read this haha, but if you do, feel free to comment so I know someone is listening/reading!