Another happy day

Saturday was mostly about Sofia’s swimming competition. The school invited all Indonesia’s international schools for an invitational meet up (over 400 kids participated, 9 years and above). Sofia was nervous because last year she mostly got second and third places, and has been worrying that she is not improving as much as others. Kae assured me that this “plateau” is normal as girls hit puberty.

Sofia was researching by herself how to do well for the competition, technique for backstroke frequency, etc., and sharing what she found. I am surprised how she’s being so proactive, independent and motivated to do well. I love that she shares her emotional side of things (how nervous she is for the competition as her seed time is so close to the others, that she knows she’s overthinking it, even when sleeping). I think me sharing my job hunting journey with its ups and downs helped to normalize our emotions. She may think “if mom is so nervous for an interview, I guess it’s okay for me to feel nervous for my competition too“.

During our ride to the school, she tells me that she’s overthinking it. I told her this feeling is normal, but try to trust your training and enjoy the race.

We arrived 7am and the first event started at 8:30am. We got home 2pm. It was a long day but super happy day. She did 3 individual events (IM, 100 free, 100 back) and got 2 gold and 1 silver (IM, beaten by the same girl last year who’s so strong and powerful). She is very happy to see that her training is paying off. She spent all the waiting time with her friends while I talked to two colleague friends who also came for their kids.

It’s such a nice way to spend Saturday 😀 Even if she does’t win, I would be proud of her dedication, focus, and commitment to improve.

Seeing these girls growing and maturing warms my heart. I know Sofia is a bit concerned about having to establish new friendship in Brasilia, but she has done this twice (from manila to Jakarta, and from elementary to middle school) so she’s less afraid. She knows how to make friends, she knows the type of girls she likes as friends, and she knows she has the family to fall back for anything.

I finally was able to take an hour nap in the afternoon. My adrenaline is coming down a bit or my energy reserve is almost exhausted. Then I had a catch up session with my friend, probably the closest friend in my organization to share all the details of this process, my eye opening moments, lessons learned etc. It’s so nice to have a good friend at work that understands the context, share similar work ethics, this special moment. He’s the same guy that I submit Rinjani with, which bounded us for life. 🙂 Sofia is still puzzled that why most of my friends are guys. I am puzzled too, maybe because my profession is mostly guys, maybe my male side of brain works better? Or maybe this is the stage of life that I need more guy friends? Obviously my all time BFF is little a woman. 🙂