~Jillianiina

So, the wonderful Taekwondo Festival weekend is now over... Too bad, since I had the most amazing time of my life there! It was absolutely one of the best weekends I've ever had, and the best event I've ever been in.

The highlight of the weekend for me was the evening gala, where I performed. And I'm happy to inform you all that my freestyle pattern went so well!

In the gala, I was sitting with my coach Ramil on the uppermost row in the audience. The schedule was about 30 minutes late, and I wasn't sure when I would perform. So, when I suddenly heard the host saying that my pattern would be next, my heart nearly stopped beating. I jumped up from my seat and ran to the stage, taking off the jacket, shoes and other clothes I had on my training outfit.

I'm usually very careful about the schedules, I always try to find out the exact time when I will be performing in competitions and other events, so running to the stage straight from the audience was absolutely horrible! But, there was also a positive side in this - I didn't have time to be nervous about my performation.

All the excitement came to me actually right after my show. I was smiling like a maniac and I was shaking so bad. I wanted to be in the limelight and perform all over again. There are really no words to describe properly all the things that went through my mind then. All I can say is that it was magical...

The wonderful weekend did have its bad moment as well, it was on Sunday when our team was leaving. We went to a restaurant to eat something before the 3 hour drive back home, and then we got back to my car. When I was about to drive away from the parking lot after my coach's car, I drove a car crash. I didn't see that another car was coming behind me, and so I hit it.

It wasn't a hard crash, my car wasn't injured, it only got some scratches to its bumber, but the other car did get pretty bad injuries to its front door. But, the most important thing was that nobody got hurt.

I was shocked about the situation. Luckily Ramil saw it all happen and he came to me after he had parked his car behind the corner. Ramil, me and the other driver sorted out the situation, me and him exchanged our addresses and phone numbers with the assistant of Ramil. If he hadn't been there for me, I wouldn't have known what to do. This was the first time that I've caused an accident.

Thank God I have an insurance on my car! I don't have to pay a dime to the other driver, my insurance covers all the expenses of repairing his car. And I've learned my lesson; always pay attention to the traffic around you, because things happen so quickly!

I've pretty much recovered from the shock of the accident, even though I'm now a bit scared of driving. Now it's ten times harder for me to get behind the wheel and drive. I used to enjoy it, but now I don't. I hope that this will pass, I'd hate to be afraid of driving for the rest of my life!

But yeah, in all I had a splendid time in the Festival, and I'm most certainly going back there again next year, with my beloved team mates!

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I'm a member of the Finnish DA Society