Learning A New Skill
By Christopher Lestan
I thought I might make a post recently because I haven’t been active in a while.
During this time of social distancing I been learning about myself a lot since there is plenty of time to just think now. One of the important things I learned from my father is to keep headstrong and focused during times like these. In other words he says “Keep busy”. Now after school ended early for me around March I was lost in limbo for a few weeks. No more jobs are available. No ability to train with friends. Not being able to have a couple of beers with the boys at our favorite local bar where the beers are 2$ a pour!
This was a strange time indeed. Fortunately, my family is always there to help. My dad who recently became an electrician and worked for the city of Boston was off of work until mid-May. He realized that I was very lost in what to do. In a conversation he and I reached an agreement of him teaching me how to landscape and plant trees since he worked at our family’s nursery when he was young. He also added that he would help me redo our Aunt’s Yard, for she recently moved into a new house and the yard needed some fixing.
For the past month and a half I can confidently say my Aunt’s yard has new grass seed, mulch, trimmed bushes, and new plants. I also planted a couple Hemlock trees in our back yard. I was soon fixing both grandparents’ houses and even took a tree stump out of the ground and put in a new willow tree for one of them. Soon I was in charge of taking care of 3 lawns.
Now you may be asking what was the point of me telling this story… Well, I think it’s important for people to learn new things especially when times are strange and even in their free time. I never thought I would be redoing whole lawns and even spreading mulch and soil to make lawns look nicer, or even plant trees. It’s a rewarding experience.
When you do something rewarding you build confidence that can be utilized for other things. SUCH AS LIFTING!!! My lifts are finally coming back to normal after my injury in December and have learned to gain confidence when there are no spotters. Now with the nice weather I can build an outdoor platform and compete in the 3rd Postal!!
I can’t wait for things to slowly come back to normal and to see my friend group.