Pressure

So I just realized something. Competing in a national tournament here in the US is a lot of pressure. Unknown judges, unknown competitors, and all of the attention. Lots of pressure in that kind of competition. For me participating in those types of tournaments was always interesting because a majority of the competitors were caucasian and anyone who was a minority tended to stand out (namely me).

Now I've just realized that I'm going to go compete in a different country. So add to the normal tournament pressures that we (the US Team) will be competing in a completely different culture. Can we say, I hope I don't commit some sort of earth shattering cultural faux-pas! Which to say the least could be worse for me as I'm asian so they might immediately think I'm not Korean but Japanese maybe? Or worse, maybe I might trigger a renewed war between north and south Korea! Okay, so maybe nothing that bad would happen, but I do certainly feel a bit of added pressure to be on my best behavior.

So I have to do something help make myself stand out competing though. For once I'm not going to be in the minority. Maybe I should wear a kilt...