Well.

I'm not quite Helio Gracie.  Figures.

So, I did this tournament, and I'm working on being positive.  So far; so good.  I didn't do what I wanted to do to my opponent.  I didn't even keep him from doing what he wanted to do to me.  I tapped; twice.

But, I accomplished my mission of staying calm.  I know it's crazy, but I actually don't feel bad with how the day went.  I was present for every moment of my matches.  You see,  in my other tournaments, things were moving so fast that I couldn't keep up--I wasn't fully aware of what was going on.  This time, I was calm with the stand up.  My opponent pulled guard (in both our matches).  I knew what was happening, and I knew what I wanted to do, and I did a lot of what I wanted to do.

In the end, I tapped to triangle choke.  (Both matches were almost a carbon copy of the other.)  I was close to passing his guard; then, things would have been totally different--I know it.  Props to the kid who won, but I feel fine with what I did.  I'm getting more comfortable with tournaments, and that's a good thing.