The past three days have been too sunny, with the highest temperature floating around 15-16 Celsius, way above the usual average of 10. It hasn’t been raining either in the past days, so I’m not sure what will happen to the grass seeds I sowed. Let’s hope they will germinate. While I like sunshine, I think also it’s a bit too much.

Now, after napping, after completing two morning shifts at the gym, I finally start feeling exhaustion creeping up on me. It has been a hell of a week, really, even though technically speaking I only had to work in the afternoons, for an average of three hours per day. But it was still too much for me. With close to twenty kids not behaving and one grown-up colleague giving me a hard time, I arrived at the conclusion that I needed to haul myself away from this damned job. Taking care of children, it is both physically and mentally demanding. It can also be emotionally disturbing, at many times. But I’m glad I’ve saved myself from all the troubles.

So this leaves me with two jobs: one is the weekend morning shifts at the gym, teaching little kids how to do rock climbing; the other is English tutoring, the job I designed for myself and the one I actually enjoy. This way, I’ll still have time to exercise, to cook, to do housework, and to do gardening. I’ll also have time to care for him and stay in touch with families and friends. I think this is a good balance and looks like a good life to me.

Talking about a good life, I can, at last, do a complete pull-up now. I found out on Thursday afternoon, when randomly checking in on my pull-up progress. I almost burst into tears when I slowly pulled my whole body up, up, up, till finally I squeezed my back so hard and my chin moved above the bar. After ten months of non-stop rock climbing – 2~3 times per week, 6~11 times per month – I eventually succeeded in fulfilling one of my life goals. What an achievement.

Persistence, that is, and also endurance. They could as well be my greatest strengths.

Since I’m able to do one pull-up now, according to the data (?), I should also be able to climb some V4s. This is true, since I am inching close to that level. For the two V4s I attempted on Thursday, both I fell before the last step – yep, I was that close to sending a V4. I still have quite some trouble to flash V3s, especially the ones with huge slopers (my poor wrist strength LOL), but because I can flash 90% of V2s, it’s only reasonable for me to start projecting V4s seriously.

Great progress overall!

Life is so short and the world is getting worse every day. But I don’t see any reason that I should stop enjoying life or fighting for myself. In fact, the worse the world becomes, the more courage I summon. We the people deserve good lives, not any billionaires, not any people who lie blatantly to ignore the truth.