Coffee works a little too well for me! Yesterday, Monday, I didn't stay in school very long at all. As soon as the Qualifier was given, I packed my things to go home because I had a tummy ache. I think it was something I ate at my mom's little birthday party on Sunday. Maybe the food had been sitting out too long, and it was super hot. Perhaps the culprit was my own homemade birthday cakes that I had made for my mom and my good friend, both July babies.
Check out my first attempt at baking a cake! Haha! Seriously, it was my very first time ever to bake a cake... and I went ahead and did two! :P Why? Because I wanted... needed (!) to do something creative since I've been practicing like a madwoman and thinking of the CSR exam... um, almost every single second of every single day! I needed a break in my one-track mind! :)
Anyway, as I was saying, I left school early yesterday and didn't practice very well at home because of my tummy ache. Finally, around 4:00 p.m., I felt better. Because I hadn't been practicing very well, I made myself some homemade iced coffee (just brewed a regular cup at home and immediately put it in the fridge to cool) to help me stay alert to practice well. Um... it worked... too well! I practiced at home, then tried to sleep around 10:00 p.m... and it is just not happening! I finally got up at 2:00 a.m. and practiced some more on my steno machine! Now, I'm on here posting this. :)
I thought... why not just get up and practice? I'll probably be this anxious the night before the CSR exam anyway, so why not just practice as though the CSR exam is tomorrow and see how I do. That's what a good friend of mine did when she passed the CSR exam on her first attempt. She was so excited and anxious for the CSR exam that she hardly slept at all the night before... but she didn't let that lack of sleep get in her way at all! She managed to get in a few winks of rest, woke up super early, practiced a bit, got dressed as if she was going on a job, and then killed the CSR exam! I would love to follow in her amazing footsteps!
This not being able to sleep also reminds me of Michael Phelps and what happened to him during the 200-meter butterfly at the 2008 Olympics. He had a "wardrobe malfunction" with his goggles and they started to fill up with water. He couldn't see a thing! Check this out...
Phelps' coach had been training Michael to fight for his wins no matter what crazy thing happened... whether Phelps wasn't feeling well, whether his goggles filled with water, whether a competitor tried to play mind games... through anything and everything, Phelps was trained to remain focus and swim to win. And he definitely did!
That's how I believe we CSR candidates should be going into the CSR exam. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best. Push through no matter what happens! There's bound to be a chair we're not comfortable with, a person whose machine is too rattly, a speaker with an awkward accent, an AC vent blasting in your direction, a fire engine blaring down the street, a sneeze. Through anything and everything, we have to remain calm... focused.... and write to pass.
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