How today panned out:
12pm -- wake up
1pm -- grocery shopping
2pm -- movie date
5pm -- mini renovations and clean the boxing club
6pm -- Crossfit Challenger class
7pm -- boxing
8:30pm -- dinner at King Kong's new restaurant in Asan
10pm -- outdoor patio party
12am -- friends visit Hulk's
1am -- Snickers and friends leave Cheonan to go scuba diving, I go do volunteer work
3am -- caught up on some emailing and business computer work
5am -- go to bed
While most might automatically label me for being lazy because I sleep in till noon on the weekends and usually till 10/11am on the weekdays, I beg to differ. My days start late but my nights are long and today was a prime example of that. Last night I went to bed around 4am and today it was 5am but both days my day started around noon.
Yesterday I got tagged for the ALS Bucket Challenge and over dinner I talked about it with some of my friends and my sponsor. We thought about doing it together, doing it in front of the Hulk's Boxing Club sign in all of its glory but the more and more we talked about it the more and more I wondered why it is that so many people are doing this challenge. My Facebook status update page is bombarded with friends all over the place doing the challenge and posting their videos. Some have got rather creative about it while some are rather boring and perhaps a tad bit embarrassing, both for them doing it and for me watching it. I'm all for raising awareness for good causes and any publicity, whether it's good or bad, is surely better than no publicity but this Bucket Challenge has become kind of the trendy thing to do and that bothers me. Countless people are doing the challenge and making no real reference to its cause so I question how many people are really donating.
I decided tonight I wasn't going to do the challenge but instead was going to take a donation among the friends I saw tonight and together make a substantial donation to ALS.
I don't need attention brought to me, or perhaps I should say "more attention". I run a business and being a foreign female pro boxer running the show with her husband has got me excessive attention, both good and bad. You'd be surprised what lurks in the shadows of success, because for every ten people who think it's great I'm a successful young entrepreneur, trust me, there's always one that wishes the opposite for me. One person who for whatever reason, whether it be it out of envy or a lack of happiness with their own life, seems to make themselves known every once in awhile. I didn't do the Bucket Challenge because I didn't want people to see it as a publicity stunt because that's not why I wanted to do it. I'm not hard up for members and yes I love my boxing club but I also try to help people and do good. These days I find that sometimes doing good is better when I do it more quietly.
If you see the above list of how my day panned out, you'll notice I did "volunteer work". Awhile back Snickers and I had put together a proposal for a local orphanage. The first orphanage refused our offer, telling us "they don't need extra help", and the second orphanage we went to was already so busy juggling their Sunday afternoon volunteer program and their other activities in and around the community. I found the whole thing both discouraging and encouraging. It was discouraging because even if they accepted our help it was clear they had ample help so our help really wasn't so needed. But I also said it was encouraging and I said this because it got the gears in my brain working, trying to put together my own volunteer program. And that's exactly what I've been doing. I won't go into details because, well, that'd defeat me wanting to keep it my own personal project, but I started it a couple of months ago. It all started on a Saturday night when Snickers was out for Sports Day and I was home alone, picking my brain for what to do. I wanted to go out but it was around 1am and I knew many of my friends where either at Sports Day or at a bar. I don't do bars, not even to be social. So I got up and went out. I've been "going out" once or twice a month so I save up my loose bills for my "going out" nights and all my friends are oblivious. I know many others, both friends and random people, would offer to help me out or at least donate some money for my "going out" expenses but, honestly, I much rather prefer it this way. It's just me and it's honest work. There is absolutely no hype around it and no expectations.
That's how I try to make a change, one person at a time, on my own terms, and in a fashion that's not trendy or attention-seeking. I hope ALS raises a lot of money as I am sure they will, but I hope people follow through with the videos with a cash donation. Someone somewhere surely could use their help and if we all just give a little then it'll add up to a lot. I gave my donation and then went out to help out my own community, the ignored members of my community that are the focal point of my "going out" nights.
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