Communication

        When I was in seventh grade I was one of the quietest kids in school. I didn't say hi to anybody other than my close friends and I was never one of the social butterflies. I was just shy Shyla. My dad noticed this and he told me that I needed to break this shell of mine. He told me that every single day I had to talk to five new  people at my junior high school. When he told me this I was so scared! I thought he was crazy and I dreaded going to school that day.
        The first day it was all I could think about. Finally, I saw some kids in my class that I didn't know and I approached them. Obviously, it was not as scary as I thought it would be and by the end of the week I was so happy. I could talk to a kid without looking down or mumbling.
       I am very grateful to this day that my dad made me do that little "exercise" of his. Not only did this allow me to grow socially with kids, but it gave me a boost when talking to adults too. With this new club of ours, I am dealing with working adults all of the time. Every month we plan at least two or three events. So I pick up the phone, dial a company, and work out the schedule with them. I am so comfortable talking with them now. I have to be confident, clear, and "I gotta sell it." If I get them interested in us, then the event will go much smoother since they appreciate our help.
        I think communicating with adults and teens will benefit anything that I pursue in the future.

Watching the Pros

         Recently I went to Maui, Hawaii and I had the privilege to attend and follow the professional golfers at the SBS golf tournament. Alot of pros including Paul Casey, Ogilvy, Kenny Perry, Reteif Goosen, Stewart Cink and many more played some awesome golf. It was an amazing experience to watch these guys kill in such a tough sport! To get so good and to be so precise and powerful almost EVERY shot just blows my mind. I watched them hit a tiny white ball 280 yards (almost three football fields) and knock it right next to the pin.

         My dad entered the Professional-Amateur tournament which was the day before the pros played on tv. This tournament gave the amateurs (my dad) a chance to pick one of the pros that was playing in the real tournament and to play a round of golf with them. They did call it a tournament but they didn't follow the normal match rules so it would be more fun for the higher scoring amateurs. Anyways, my dad picked Pat Perez. He had a lot of fun with Pat who is an awesome golfer. He is one of the long ball hitters out there and  it was killer to watch him crush the ball.

        Like any sport, pros do make mistakes (but rarely haha). On the eighteenth green Sean O'Hair had a shot into the green and he needed to land it close and make the putt for birdie. If he made birdie, he would tie with first place and have a chance to make the playoffs. He ended up hooking the ball right into the hazards. I felt so bad for him because I know exactly how he felt when I hit a shot on 18 that totally threw my score down the drain. (Well maybe not as badly since I wasn't playing in front of hundreds of fans and national television.) It was the nerves that got to him. I guess the professionals are human after all.

      This will definitely be an experience that I won't forget.