Change

Hi friends :)

Recently I've made some big decisions! As you may have seen from my last post, I am nearing the end of life as I know it. I am happy to say that after the summer, I will be moving to Montreal to go to McGill University :). Montreal is a little further away from home than I expected to go, but I am so excited to be going there to continue my climbing and education. This new chapter of my life also means climbing at new gyms. Currently I train at Boulderz Climbing Centre, a bouldering gym that my dad opened just over four years ago. I've seen the gym through all of its short lifetime and I think it will be really hard to say goodbye. Nonetheless, Boulderz holds a very special place in my heart and it will always be a fundamental part of who I am as a climber. I have a lot of amazing options for climbing in Montreal, with the added bonus of Rumney being closer than it is from here. I think for the first little while I'll be doing my own thing with climbing but hopefully in the future I'll have a team to call my own again.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying the rest of the youth season and trying to soak up as much time with Team Boulderz as I can. A couple weekends ago I went to Eastern Youth Regionals held at Altitude in Hull, Quebec. The comp went really well and I got to take away a couple of things from my experience. I think first and foremost I am continuing to understand how my motivation reacts depending on how challenging and fun I anticipate a climb to be. This can be hard for me sometimes when I don't feel really psyched on a qualifier or a semi-final route and it's necessary to move on to the next stage. Letting go of some of that emotion I believe would help me to see past what I don't like about it and see it just as something I need to do. I was also reminded of how important it is for me to take my time and be patient on the wall... Which happens a lot. I ended up coming away from the comp with the gold medal and the Regional Cup :). Big thanks to everyone who worked their butts off for that comp to run as smoothly and efficiently as it did. It was really cool. Congrats to Team Boulderz, coming away with six medalists and five regional champions!!!

I only have five more weeks of grade twelve before exams and two weeks before Canadian Youth Nationals. I have applied to be on the Canadian Youth National Team this year and hope to be representing Canada at World Youth Championships in August in Saanich, BC.

Up, up, up!

Iyma