One Track Mind, One Track Heart... Monday, January 7

I know exactly what I want and who I want to be. 

I know exactly why I walk and talk like a machine. 

I'm now becoming my own self-fulfilled prophecy.

One track mind, one track heart… 

Now real life has no appeal

It has no appeal… 

These were some of the lyrics of a particular song I just couldn’t get out of my head. Ok, so it was my fault. Blasting them via my earphones while out on an hour run didn’t help. So ya, I’m totally to blame. But do you ever get a certain song stuck in your head and it becomes like a motto or totally pertains to you at that particular time?! “Oh No” by Marina & the Diamonds was that song for me tonight and, while out on my run, I really got into the lyrics of the song and it really got me thinking. 

Earlier on I stirred up a conversation with a coworker of mine here, we were talking about my upcoming boxing club and future. It was in this conversation that she turned to me and asked me, “Well is there anything holding you back in Canada?” 

“Only my father”, was my answer. 

Sure I miss my friends and family, I even miss Lake Ontario and Bloor West Village like crazy, but things will never be the same and they’ll always be there. But my father… he’s all alone now. He’s alone in a great big house that he and my mother built for our family. I’ve told him several times that I wish he’d move here, or even visit. He will never come though. 

For seven years I lived my life as if everything was temporary – my house, my job, friends, responsibilities – but in doing so I didn’t really live life. I didn’t really ground myself and start to make any kind of roots or even care about my niche. 

Things are different now. I’ve decided to let go of my thoughts of moving back to Canada. It was always just an assumed thing that I would but now I don’t really know what I have to go back to nor why I would ever leave Korea. I’ve found my niche and the appeal of life in Canada doesn’t phase me anymore. My life in Canada and my life here seem so disconnected, so much so that my life here doesn’t really seem like reality at times. Canada seems like the real life but here… here sometimes seems so simple and to the point, so whatever I want it to be. 

I know exactly what I want and who I want to be. I want to lead my own boxing club with Snickers. I want to be Coach Amy and I want to open my own boxing club -- I’m becoming my own self-fulfilled prophecy. One of my boxercise ladies always calls me coach in her emails and I love it. I take great pride in that label because of all the positive tough love and heart I’ve come to associate that label with throughout the years. 

I’ve got 12 all-girls floor hockey teams to coach and I absolutely love it. Having a team show up with an uneven number thrills me too because it means I get to jump in and play with them. Of course there are the teams that show up with some select members who just are not interested in floor hockey but, as I tell each team, “I’m going to make you a lover not a fighter – a lover of hockey and today you’re going to fall in love with it!” They always laugh at my statement, some even roll their eyes, but I’ve yet to have a girl walk off my playing field not asking me if they can play more or bragging about some great shot they made. They love it and I love it that they love it. 

The injury count has been few but nothing more than someone tripping or getting hit on the back of the leg with a hockey stick. I always start off with a couple of skill-building exercises and then I have them create an official team name. They love it whenever I see them in the cafeteria or halls and scream out their team name… hahaha. 

Teaching floor hockey has been amazing and despite the energy and effort it requires me on a daily bases, it doesn’t tire me out because I love coaching. Teaching floor hockey isn’t my passion though, I love boxing more than hockey, but I love coaching sports. While I’ve been here coaching, Snickers has been working on sweet talking and charming the potential club location business owners and trying to win them over. Two of the five member board is still set on their answer but it’s just an answer both Snickers and I refuse to accept so we’re not giving up. I traveled to the other side of the world to figure out what it is I want to be and what it is I want, now I know the answers to both these questions so I’ll be damned if two men stand in my way. 

I’ve come too far to stop now. I’ve got a one track mind, one track heart, and they’re set on opening up my boxing club in Cheonan.