It all started when I asked my principal if I could go overseas with my family. She allowed me to go, and luckily, I had already finished my exams. I ended up missing about two weeks of school, but there were no important exams during that time. With everything sorted, our journey began. First, we travelled to Indonesia because I was going to compete in a national jiu-jitsu competition. Before the competition, we went to a jiu-jitsu gym to ask where it was being held. The person at the gym told us it was downstairs. Just as we were about to leave, she suddenly asked, \u201cDoes your kid have a white gi?\u201d We realised that we did not have one! Luckily, she asked because otherwise I would not have been able to compete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the competition, I made friends with one of the competitors I had fought. After receiving my medal, we went to a restaurant to celebrate. We then planned to go to the cinema, but we found out that the movie was not allowed for children under 13, so we went home and played some games instead. Later, I met up with more of my family. I also had another competition in Jakarta called Grappling Industries. Before that competition, we travelled to Bandung for a holiday and explored different places. We even went to Lembang, which was high up in the mountains and surprisingly cold. After another exciting competition, we continued exploring Bandung and enjoyed experiencing more of Indonesia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After spending some time in Indonesia, we travelled to Australia. The flight was about seven hours, and although it was tiring, I was really excited because I was going to see my friends and family. My grandparents picked me up from the airport, and I immediately noticed how cold it was. The temperature was around 5\u201310\u00b0C, so I was wearing about four layers of clothing while my dad was walking around in shorts and a sweatshirt! One of the first things we did was eat at Oatley Pies, which had some of the best pies I had ever tasted. We also went shopping, bought lamb chops for dinner, and visited old friends and family. I competed in Grappling Industries Australia and later went to Fortress, a gaming station, where I played games for two hours. We also had ice cream, ate chicken and vegetables for dinner, and celebrated my birthday with a barbecue with my aunt, uncle, and the rest of my family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The<\/strong> next day, we went to Shelley Beach. It was only around 10\u00b0C, so I was absolutely freezing! I was supposed to swim six laps, but I bet my dad that if I could swim ten laps, he would give me $25. If I lost, I had to give him a massage. Unfortunately, I only managed six laps, so I lost the bet and had to give him the massage! After meeting some of my old school friends, we travelled to Malaysia for another competition. It was a great experience competing there, especially because some of my Singapore friends also came to compete. The competition was held inside a mall, which made it a very different experience. Afterwards, we watched Spider-Man and met one of my mum’s friends. I also had a delicious pancake, which was a great way to finish the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have been competing in jiu-jitsu for more than four years, and through all these competitions and travels, I have learned something much more important than winning medals: never give up. There were times when I wanted to quit jiu-jitsu, but my parents encouraged me to keep training and trying. I listened to them, and I am very grateful that I did. I learned new techniques, watched jiu-jitsu videos, and listened carefully to my coach. I also learned about discipline. After a fight, you should not tell yourself, \u201cI am bad\u201d or \u201cI am dumb.\u201d Instead, you should tell yourself, \u201cI have done this a million times. This is just another one.\u201d That mindset helps you become more confident. Every country I visited had things I liked and things I didn’t. Australia was cold and expensive, Indonesia could be very hot but cold in the mountains, and Malaysia was hot and humid but much cheaper. However, these differences made the journey even more memorable. Looking back, I realised that this trip was not just about competitions or medals\u2014it was about family, friendship, discipline, travelling, and learning never to give up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It all started when I asked my principal if I could go overseas with my family. She allowed me to go, and luckily, I had already finished my exams. I ended up missing about two weeks of school, but there were no important exams during that time. With everything sorted, our journey began. First, we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alvaro.cool\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alvaro.cool\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alvaro.cool\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alvaro.cool\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alvaro.cool\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/alvaro.cool\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":593,"href":"https:\/\/alvaro.cool\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588\/revisions\/593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alvaro.cool\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alvaro.cool\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alvaro.cool\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}