2nd Month of the Year, 2nd Day of the Month, 2nd Post of the Blog...

So,  I was going to post a picture of me the first day that I got my very own cross over Tae Kwon Do uniform way back in June 1979, but then I remembered that I don't have that picture anymore.  It was a great picture.  I was all in white - white uniform and white belt - standing in a ready position out in front of a big green bush in front of our townhouse. I was so proud and excited! I thought I had some other really old photos from that same time, a couple of other "white belt pictures" in a photo album, but that must not have been one of the albums I grabbed the day of the flood back on May 2, 2010.

The other picture I was going to use was a picture of me standing in front of a black board (a chalk board) with my red belt on, the day I received my black belt.  That one wasn't in the old photo album, it was loose in a box of photos and it may have actually survived the flood, but I have absolutely no idea where it might be right now.  We kept all the ones we could find afterwards in water until they could be hand washed and let air dry.  My mom made a valiant attempt to scan them onto a computer later on, but ... well ... it was, and still is, a big task.  Once it became too much for Mom to do, it got put way back on the "to do" list.

It is so easy to forget how exciting it was to be a white belt... starting training, getting a uniform, being a beginner, the uncertainty of it all. Everything was so interesting.  Everyone was so talented and so wise. It was daunting and scary, yes, but most of all it was exciting, and it felt like such an adventure!

It is so easy to forget how exciting it all was getting my black belt... putting it on for the first time, reaching that huge, gigantic goal, becoming part of an elite group of people who had done something extraordinary. Testing was stressful, but to be expected, and once I actually had the belt on, it hit me... now what?  I mean what was next? What was being a black belt going to be like?  It was daunting and scary, yes, but most of all it was exciting, and it felt like such an adventure!

That's pretty much how I feel now. I'm in uncharted territory. When I was a white belt (this is audacious I know, but true) I remember thinking that some day I'd be a 6th degree black belt.  I could imagine that because my instructor was 7th, and while I could never imagine being as good as him, I could imagine trying to get close to that, so 6th, yes, I could do 6th.  Then one day in August 2007, as I was driving to work on I-40 I literally almost wrecked my car as the realization hit me like a sledgehammer. Holy Crap!  I was a 7th degree black belt! I had made it past the goal I'd set way back when I was just 14 years old!

I never dreamed that martial arts would have the positive impact on my life that it has. I have been blessed, and while I may not have originally had 7th Dan as a goal, there is no doubt that so far it has been an amazing experience.  In the last 8 years there have been so many opportunities presented to me. I've been challenged to the nth degree (punny no?), met so many great and wonderful people, and learned so much about the martial arts and myself.

Maybe I don't have that picture of myself as a white belt anymore, but it is in my head and in my heart.  With my new knees I'm able to train again. One of my students just hand made a uniform for me, and I'm so excited and nervous about putting it on for the first time. Things are definitely different, not having a physical location where I'm teaching 3 times a week for the first time in over 30 years. I hear it said that number 8 marks a new beginning...

Well, the thought of actively and intentionally working toward an 8th is absolutely daunting and scary, yes, but most of all it is exciting, and it feels like such an adventure!

Respectfully,
Kathy Wiz