I lost yesterday, but I did well. My main goal of staying in the heat of the battle was for the most part, successful.  I was able to stay in the present moment yesterday using two tactics: focusing on my game plan for just the first ball, and picturing what other professionals would behave like before this upcoming point. Focusing on the latter point, in my mind, this wasn’t my way of idolizing players who were potential opponents. However, it was my way of taking strengths of others that happened to be areas I focused on. And it really helped. It was an encouraging loss yesterday with many positives signs.

I went to really cool bookstore in Decatur. Super old, but such a legendary place. I picked up some books, a really old tennis racket and something to complement my soon-to-be mullet.

Now I’m off to the St. Louis area to stay with a Bates Tennis family, and get away from the competitive tournament environment, which I’m excited about. I’m starting to feel like I should have made this into a BBQ blog where I just tried brisket every place possible.