Frustrations

This has officially become an obsession. It feels good, really, to have something like this. When I stopped flying to do my current job I lost something that I was very passionate about. I tend to be a passionate person--too much so in a lot of cases. I've floundered for a while now without anything to really dedicate myself to outside of my family, and I think I have found it. There are issues, however. When I was in FL I trained at an ATA school there. The place was incredible. The workouts were intense, but always focused on making you better, rather than just aimless workouts. We did an amazing amount of legwork, and the end result was that my kicks had dramatically improved by the time I got back. This, I think, directly contributed to my taking first place in forms at the AZ Regional tournament the day after I got back. My wife took second. Princess, who was competing in her first "judged" tournament, had to go to her ring alone since we were all competing at the same time. She took third in forms and sparring. All in all, a good day. When I got back to my school, however, the differences in training were dramatic. The instructors in FL were very personable, very helpful and encouraging, and truly seemed more interested in my doing well than in any money the ATA was getting. I'm starting to feel that the school I'm in simply goes through the motions. We're two weeks from testing and we still haven't learned all of our form. We only have learned one one-step, and one self-defense technique. In three weeks in Florida I had learned all of SA #3, all three one-steps, and both self-defense techniques. Couple that with the fact that students there join BBC when the sign up (there were two White belts with black stripes in my class), I also had learned the entire Bong Mahng Ee freestyle form. Here, when I meekly (since our instructors aren't very approachable) ask what the possibility of starting BBC for us is, I get an answer that "it's coming." It gets a little frustrating, especially considering that we're paying twice what the students there are paying. I keep telling myself that we'll only be here for another year or so, and then we move to another location and, God willing, another school. In the meantime I'll take what I can from here. While gone, as expected, the challenge fell apart. I haven't given up--I just dropped a lot of the requirements I placed on myslef and restricted it to solely the physical portions. Even with that, I am way behind--but catching up. CHALLENGE STATUS PUSHUP: -1482 SITUPS: -2802 MILES: -49.2 I'm hoping, if I can keep this up, that I will be back on track sometime around the end of the month or early next month. I refuse to give up on this.