Spring ending and Alice graduation

It has been almost 2 years since two girls moved to the US. 

Emily had a wonderful freshman year in high school. Emily finished the class of band in the spring performance in Groton Hill Music Center. We sometimes joked that attending the band was a beautiful mistake, though. However, it definitely a good practice to manage complicated schedule because Emily still had rowing and squash practice at the same time. Since Emily is intrigued by sports, we might not see her dressing for music performance easily in future.

2023 Spring Performance, Groton Hill Music center

Congratulated Alice on her graduation from "ELEMENTARY SCHOOL" finally! She was in Jiow-Sheh primary school(舊社國小) in Hsinchu city, Taiwan for her grade 1 to 3. For the preparation of english learning environment, Alice spent her grade 4 at Kang Chiao International School. We are so happy she can have her grade 5 and 6 in McCarthy-Towne (McT). Jolie and I also learned how creativity and interesting elementary school life can be. We are impressed that Alice always adopt the new environment quickly. At the spring conference of 6th grader, Alice's home teacher told us that Alice is super social! 

Year Book of McT

Alice was the last one (due to our last name) in the class to receive diploma

There are ~33% of Asian students in AB school district. I am sure the percentage of Asian students in McT absolutely lower than the average. It might come from McT focus on art integration leaning, instead of traditional English and Math teaching. Traditional Asian family may not appreciate this novel style.  Jolie and I are greatly thankful Alice being here for two years, though. 

Rowing to Sarasota FL: What we learned

It is almost the end of rowing season. In the end of winter, Emily went to Sarasota, FL, for rowing winter training with their coach and teammates this Feb. From there, she started her journey with the Bromfield Acton Boxoborough (BAB) team to USRowing Youth National Championship 2023. 

Rowing absolutely is teamwork. Emily is in a 4+ team (four rowers and one coxswain). It needs pacing, persistence, and standardization as ONE Team. They walked through the small regattas and finally received the bid for Youth National Championships from the NorthEast Youth Championships in the Womens U17 4+.

But, the sport is not about winning. Most of the time, it is related to loss, how to digest it, and picking up the training to keep going. Again, the better team can lose, despite its merits.

As expected, BAB Womens U17 4+ entered the semifinal (Video). However, it is really tough in the semi-final not only strong opponents but also the high temperature of over 100 ℉. BAB U17 got 5th and can only compete for 9-16th on the 3rd day, June 10 2023. 

Nathan Benderson Park, Sarasota, FL, 2023

Youth National Championship is ever largest with 835 entries from 225 clubs across the country bringing in just over 4,000 athletes. It is really a very competitive and tough event. Jolie and I felt defeated when BAB did not enter the final (1st-8th). However, we realize this is the real life and sport is also one part of this. Sports and life both require discipline, resiliency, respect, compassion, character, and 

teamwork. I have seen Emily's compassion, respect, discipline, character and being a good team player on rowing. Again, she needs to learn and strengthen resiliency, which can make her face all kinds of challenges in future.

BAB U17 4+ working hard under 100 ℉ in semi-final

We did not receive any text after the girls lost the bid for the A final (1st-8th). But, I believed Emily and her teammates can support each other. The Coach Taylor and Holly would also instruct all girls how to continue pass-through loose and move forward to the next battle.

In the B final, five girls worked hard together to win 9th place in Women's U17 4+ in Youth National Champion (Video).

BAB heading to 9th place in 2023 Youth National Championship

 In the live stream, one of the commentators said: 

The championship experiences here can drive you to work harder and pursue excellence. When you are sitting on erg or practice rowing, you will remember this moment or the scene so close! all of these emotions and memory can push you body to respond and build the block and be ready for the next champion.

I will be very curious about how the girls think about this journey when they come back from Florida. Will Emily spend and invest more time in rowing? We will see....