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6th Degree Black Belt Testing Essay
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While in college, almost 21 years ago, I was looking for something to keep me in shape and challenge me, yet something I could benefit from for a long time. While looking at the newspaper I came across a 30% discount coupon for a local Tae Kwon Do school. I found myself talking to a Korean gentleman, who assured me with a slight grin that I would sweat a lot and stay in good shape. I have been with Grandmaster Yi and Sun Yi’s Academy ever since. My wife, Theresa (now a 4’ degree black belt) joined soon after, since I was spending a lot of time at the Academy, so we could do Tae Kwon Do together. We have 3 children; Ashley (3rd degree black belt), Danielle and Tanner (2’ degree black belt), which allow us to study together as a family. Tae Kwon Do means a lot to me for many reasons. First, the obvious-it keeps me in good physical shape. Not many activities or sports build power, speed, improves flexibility, using every muscle in your body, without having to use any machines or equipment. Tae Kwon Do teaches me self-defense. In this day and age of increasing violence, my family and I learn Tae Kwon Do for a better peace of mind. The more subtle things Tae Kwon Do provides for me are confidence from both a self-defense and mental perspective, a stress reliever, it helps me put balance in my life, provides discipline, teaches me and enforces my humility and patience, teaches me respect for others and myself, provides a social outlet and creates an extended family, allows me to meet new and different people, it provides more cultural diversity in my life, and the list goes on…… Tae Kwon Do is life-long learning. As I continue my journey in Tae Kwon Do, I realize it is more important to pass along knowledge I have to others who do not have this knowledge. The things I have been talking about above are things Tae Kwon Do does for me. It is also my responsibility to expose others to a discipline and a striving for excellence that helps them more fully realize their potential. I also do this as a professional psychologist working with children. I have been taught that with great power comes great responsibility. As I gain knowledge, I gain power and thus have greater responsibility to others. This is particularly true for those of us who practice Traditional Tae Kwon Do at Sun Yi’s Academy. I have seen my students grow by helping each other. In helping each other, we not only become better martial artists, but we become better people and a stronger society. This is the key point: By helping others, we better ourselves. As we become better people, we become better family members, and better family leads to better communities, better communities lead to a better state, better states lead to a better nation, and ultimately a better world! I am not sure where my journey will lead me ultimately, but as I continue to teach, I’m sure to learn many lessons, encounter many obstacles and ideally reach many milestones along the way. I am honored being apart of Grandmaster Yi and Traditional Tae Kwon Do. I do feel we are becoming “grown up” enough to, with Grandmaster Yi’s guidance, figure out ways to make us stronger as an organization into the 2l century. There are a growing number of schools who are not teaching the correct martial art philosophy, traditionally, and put money before people. I am hopeful that we become leaders in spreading the traditional aspects of our martial art among all Tae Kwon Do. Tae Kwon Do affects me physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. I can’t even imagine life without Tae Kwon Do. |