Behind Every good superhero is....

...Really good support!
I have come to the conclusion that I am a really lucky girl!
I am surrounded by people who care and love me and want what is best for me at all times. Personal life aside, I have some wonderful people in my athletic life who are just stand-up people!
First and foremost, I am lucky enough to actually have two senseis. Of course, Elmer is my sensei always has been and always will be. Elmer loves me enough to send to people that he thinks can help me out. And one of these people is sensei Dave whose kindness is matched only by Elmer's. But today, I realized how good of a coach he actually is. It was always Elmer that I went to when I was nervous, tired, upset, any other emotion related to judo. BUT today, sensei Dave asked me to come and see him at his dojo after school, it is lucky because his dojo is around the corner from my house. So I went to see him and he gave me quite the pep talk. This all came about after a conversation I had with him on facebook last night. MY nervousness was really coming out. It seems that lots of people, completely out of love and support, have been saying things to me like they are counting on me and to not let them down; well, I am terrified of letting these people down.
So, Sensei Dave started off by tellingme that we both know that I am not going to win the nationals, but I can definitely set about ruining someone's day. He called me a real scrapper, which is high praise coming from him (he is a 6th dan). he said I should just go out there and fight my ass off and hopefully even win a fight. It seemed a strange way to put it at the beginning, but it is true... I have been in judo for less than three years and these people have been in it for 20 years and train professionally. I am a special education teacher, who trains in judo part time.... but I do plan on making judo into what I do... in a teaching and sharing capacity; hence the women's camp this summer. I do recognize that I did progress very fast and that I am pretty good, but pretty good does not match up with Olympic good!
All that being said, this all means that I am coming into this in a position of power... I have nothing to lose and EVERYTHING to gain!
Besides the sensei's, I have everyone in the gym, number one being Jesus.... he ahs kicked my butt into gear and will be helping me with my cutting this summer, but he has also helped me through the rough times... especially when I tore up my foot. Also, he tells me when I have been overtraining and yells at me to go home... meaning he won't even get paid becuase he didn't train me... that shows true spirit of good character.
All of my judo friends that I have made along the way at my two dojos I belong to and through the tournament circuit. Everyone has had nothing but really nice and wonderful things to say to me about the fact that I got to nationals so quickly and they would like nothing more than to see me succeed!
As well, my girls that I teach; watching them experience the joy of learning a technique and how it works has really helped to motivate me and remind me why I am doing this!!
So, in all, I really am surrounded by wonderful supportive people... too all of you whom I have mentioned and to thos eI have not, I want to say, "I love you all, BUT please still love me back even if I bomb, ok???"