Activity Vacation Journal Entry _ Grace Herman

August 13th, 2020, I first moved to Costa Rica when I was 8 and when I did I was super excited about surfing. I learned to surf pretty quickly and I loved it. I was in surf competitions, went on surf trips, and would run to the beach to surf after school. However, after a few years, I stopped liking it and I slowly surfed less and less until I stopped altogether. Since then I have tried to start again numerous times but would get frustrated by how bad I was and give up. This summer I decided I would try again. I went surfing with a friend. There were no real waves. We were surfing on white water. Standing up and soon after hitting the sand. But it was really fun. There was no pressure to actually be good, it was just a good time. Later this summer I went on a family vacation to a beach town down south and I decided to try again. The waves were bigger and more powerful but I didn't let that scare me as it would have before. I paddle and stood up multiple times! It's not like I caught the most amazing wave ever but I caught some! and I stood up! Since then I have been surfing regularly. I'm not great, I'm not even good. But it's fun and it's something to do during this pandemic. In the past, I would surf and just get really angry cause I wasn't "good enough" and this summer I've tried to change that mentality. Leave preconceived notions of how good or successful I should be on the beach and just have patience and have fun. The pressure I put on myself based off of preconceived notions has been a weakness for me in many areas of life. From school to sports I put this pressure on myself to be good right away, to be the best right away and because of it, I end up giving up on things when I don't think I'm good enough. It's happened with surfing again and again but not this summer. For now, I will keep surfing because it's fun, something to do and because I love being in the ocean. Leaving the preconceived idea that I have to be great at it on the shore. Thanks for reading, Grace *Identify strengths and areas for growth, Show perseverance and commitment to your project, Challenges were undertaken showing that new skills are learned