Halloween!

Last week was the first week in the whole month that I actually started feeling better from a strain of the swine flu. I would’ve least expect myself to contract the H1N1 flu (I guess we all least expect it). The swine flu gave me a light fever and made me cough on a frequent basis…frequent as in every 5-10 seconds and I was coughing hard too, literally coughing my lungs out. The coughs shatter my concentration during my study or reading sessions which made studying for my midterms rather frustrating and more time consuming. The harder I coughed the harder and faster I went outside to run and get rid of phlegm which was like ridding the demon inside of me. It made me feel weak and I lost over 20 pounds (something I cannot afford to lose as an athlete). I didn’t refrain from attending class, I would be wrapped up like a ninja covering my face and sit in the corner of the class and chug cough syrup, candy or whatever I can get my hands on to stop the coughing hoping I won’t spread it to other students. Despite these setbacks, I pulled through and did well on my midterms and case studies.
I was reminded about my commitments to the Canadian Athletes Association gala and that I had to do a Q&A session there and I knew I had to go. At the Canadian Athletes Association, I was reminded exactly why we are in this association. Us as Canadian athletes are here to support one another and every interaction was a positive one. I had the opportunity to meet pretty female figure models to the all time greats like Lennox Lewis, Georges St. Pierre, Simon Whitfield, the list goes on and on and these people are a great inspiration to me. This time was different though, I met a young man, Edward who competes in the Special Olympics and he said he looked up to us fighters. I was so taken back by the fact that he put us fighters on a pedestal. Edward’s life has been nothing but full of twist and turns of which he has very little choice on what happened to him, the only thing that he has a choice for is to not let his twist or turns take him off his path in life. Here was this young man who defied incredible odds in life to reach the Olympics and he pushes himself every day to do things you and I take for granted. I was bitching and complaining about a flu and how it affected my studies and weight loss affecting my athletic performance and taking this young man looks up to me? He gave me his boxing glove necklace and I do not think he realized what an impact he made on me. I knew right then and there that I was going to suck it up and press on. He reminded me of my own motto: Don’t complain, just work harder.
It was Halloween this weekend. I’m always looking forward to it. You can be whatever you want to be that night…almost like stepping out of your own skin for a night. Of course, I dressed up as one of my favourite movie characters Jack Sparrow the other favourite being Joker, both hilarious, charismatic with a drunken swagger and flamboyant but not homo, yet undeniably distinctly original characters. That’s me as Jack Sparrow before I hit the club and the eye shadow got all smudged:





Jack Sparrow got too much attention that Halloween night downtown. I was making my way to the club and people driving by would slow down and point and shout “Hey look it’s Johnny Depp”...in my head i was like its Jack Sparrow not Johnny Depp..u ppl never get it right...girls on the streets and in the club would randomly ask me to take pictures with them. I feel like I was in Vegas again with all the attention directed towards me, but it was a little too much attention. Damn…Jack Sparrow is even cooler than me and I’m pretty cool already. Maybe I should be more like him. Thanks Alexia and Sara for helping me stitch the pirate shirt on the last minute! It really made it a great night! Probably going be Joker next year unless a new favourite comes up from now until next Halloween. I'm going to crash some parties like Joker does in "The Dark Knight".

“My tremendous sense of the female creature has informed me that you are troubled…”
- Jack Sparrow portrayed by Johnny Depp