I'm about to have my 2nd hoopiversary and I was think back on the 2 years I've been hooping.  mmm.... where to begin....

Its been great learning everything I now know (or think I know lol). The first year I was in a fire troop and gigged around the north east. It was awesome I got to meet a whole new crowd of spinners, bands and artist. But this year was hard. hooping really helped me through it even though I went longish periods of time without hooping.

(about to get heavy)

This past spring 2011 my dad had a tree fall on him and almost died. I was so scared but he was ok. My dear longtime friend passed away and 3 days later my uncle died (week before midterms at Berklee). A little part of me died right there and I thought I'd never get it back. I was in such a funk. My grades were slipping and I was depressed and obsessing about death a lot. (I'm O.C.D. .... sometimes a lot) but I started hooping again. I began to come back to the light and began my summer semester at berklee and my summertime gigs at festivals and performing with bands.

Towards the end of summer I decided to part ways with the troop and I start focusing on graduating college. 2 months into my last semester (week before midterms, AGAIN) My darling, loved by all, cat died. He had diabetes and asthma. Simba was my true best friend and it still hurts to talk about him. I was again, in a dark place. I was becoming more O.C.D. again. I stopped caring. I stood there and watched life go by and mostly just went through the motions I needed to graduate college and keep my body going. My hoop time went down to 5-10 minuets spurts of lazy hooping except for a few days here and there I did real practice. I usually pick up my hoop everyday and REALLY practice a couple times a week.  I only recently started hooping regularly again in Jan. 2012.

Now that I find myself back into hooping almost everyday again I feel so much better. even though its cold and grey out my world has color again and it feels good. This year has full of bad things but even through the bad I'm still here. I'm learning new tricks. I'm enjoying life because in the end, we all die and we never know when it will happen. I'm still hurting from losing friends, family and simba kitty but I have to appreciate the time that I did spend with them and never forget anything I learned from them and carry it with me forever. 

That being said, I'm patting myself on the back for surviving this past year and learning how darkness can show how rich and good life really is. I'll take the bad with the good, thats life.