Doodles from the Darkside...

As part meeting the requirements for Black belt, we have to write an essay on what our art has done for us, so this is what I wrote to submit as my first draft this morning:

What Tae Kwon Do has done for me.

When I started Tae kwon Do in June of 2003, my goals were to lose some weight and start an activity I could share with my son. He had begun a few months earlier in April as a knee high and was having fun. As a parent I was watching the classes and liked what I was seeing. Six weeks after he started, I enrolled.

I was thirty two years old, had spent most of the last ten years in front of a computer, and it showed. I weighed in at two hundred and fifteen pounds the day I started, and my long term goal was to perhaps take off forty of those pounds and see how far I could get. Black belt was a nice idea, but not a serious consideration for me at that point. Classes were hard. I had no stamina, I was carrying around far too much weight, I had lost much of the strength I had in my teens and early twenties, and despite having spent fifteen years on a skateboard in my youth, I no longer had much physical balance. I didn’t think I was going to finish my first class, and had to sit out for a few minutes about half way through, but my fellow students and instructors encouraged me to keep going, and that hasn’t stopped class after class or belt after belt.

I’ve been doing this for over two years now, I have lost over fifty five pounds, and I’m a candidate for Black belt. The way our belt progression works has taught me to break down goals into smaller pieces, and accomplish those first as part of a larger plan. Each belt is just another step on the way here, and Black belt is itself just one point on the journey, not the end destination.

Tae Kwon Do has done more than just helped me lose weight, it has inspired me to take care of myself over all. I have started seeing my doctor for regular physicals, which I hadn’t done since I was twenty. I started seeing a dentist again after fifteen years; I took care of my teeth, but I had stopped having regular cleanings and checkups. Turns out I did have one cavity after all that time. I have suffered from ADHD all my life, and Tae Kwon Do inspired me to seek treatment for that, which has resulted in my having more patience, the ability to focus, and gaining control over my impulsivity.

More importantly than anything I’ve mentioned above, as important as those things are, Tae Kwon Do is something I can do with my son, who is also a candidate for Black belt. We work on forms and combinations together, I can chase him around the house with boppers just to be silly, and we have this common set of goals we can work towards together despite being so far apart in age.

That's the first draft.

I never expected to get this far. Even if I don't manage to pass my Black belt exam in February, I've still accomplished a lot. I've also had a lot of fun along the way.

Doodles from the Darkside...

As part meeting the requirements for Black belt, we have to write an essay on what our art has done for us, so this is what I wrote to submit as my first draft this morning:

What Tae Kwon Do has done for me.

When I started Tae kwon Do in June of 2003, my goals were to lose some weight and start an activity I could share with my son. He had begun a few months earlier in April as a knee high and was having fun. As a parent I was watching the classes and liked what I was seeing. Six weeks after he started, I enrolled.

I was thirty two years old, had spent most of the last ten years in front of a computer, and it showed. I weighed in at two hundred and fifteen pounds the day I started, and my long term goal was to perhaps take off forty of those pounds and see how far I could get. Black belt was a nice idea, but not a serious consideration for me at that point. Classes were hard. I had no stamina, I was carrying around far too much weight, I had lost much of the strength I had in my teens and early twenties, and despite having spent fifteen years on a skateboard in my youth, I no longer had much physical balance. I didn’t think I was going to finish my first class, and had to sit out for a few minutes about half way through, but my fellow students and instructors encouraged me to keep going, and that hasn’t stopped class after class or belt after belt.

I’ve been doing this for over two years now, I have lost over fifty five pounds, and I’m a candidate for Black belt. The way our belt progression works has taught me to break down goals into smaller pieces, and accomplish those first as part of a larger plan. Each belt is just another step on the way here, and Black belt is itself just one point on the journey, not the end destination.

Tae Kwon Do has done more than just helped me lose weight, it has inspired me to take care of myself over all. I have started seeing my doctor for regular physicals, which I hadn’t done since I was twenty. I started seeing a dentist again after fifteen years; I took care of my teeth, but I had stopped having regular cleanings and checkups. Turns out I did have one cavity after all that time. I have suffered from ADHD all my life, and Tae Kwon Do inspired me to seek treatment for that, which has resulted in my having more patience, the ability to focus, and gaining control over my impulsivity.

More importantly than anything I’ve mentioned above, as important as those things are, Tae Kwon Do is something I can do with my son, who is also a candidate for Black belt. We work on forms and combinations together, I can chase him around the house with boppers just to be silly, and we have this common set of goals we can work towards together despite being so far apart in age.

That's the first draft.

I never expected to get this far. Even if I don't manage to pass my Black belt exam in February, I've still accomplished a lot. I've also had a lot of fun along the way.

Doodles from the Darkside...

As part meeting the requirements for Black belt, we have to write an essay on what our art has done for us, so this is what I wrote to submit as my first draft this morning:

What Tae Kwon Do has done for me.

When I started Tae kwon Do in June of 2003, my goals were to lose some weight and start an activity I could share with my son. He had begun a few months earlier in April as a knee high and was having fun. As a parent I was watching the classes and liked what I was seeing. Six weeks after he started, I enrolled.

I was thirty two years old, had spent most of the last ten years in front of a computer, and it showed. I weighed in at two hundred and fifteen pounds the day I started, and my long term goal was to perhaps take off forty of those pounds and see how far I could get. Black belt was a nice idea, but not a serious consideration for me at that point. Classes were hard. I had no stamina, I was carrying around far too much weight, I had lost much of the strength I had in my teens and early twenties, and despite having spent fifteen years on a skateboard in my youth, I no longer had much physical balance. I didn’t think I was going to finish my first class, and had to sit out for a few minutes about half way through, but my fellow students and instructors encouraged me to keep going, and that hasn’t stopped class after class or belt after belt.

I’ve been doing this for over two years now, I have lost over fifty five pounds, and I’m a candidate for Black belt. The way our belt progression works has taught me to break down goals into smaller pieces, and accomplish those first as part of a larger plan. Each belt is just another step on the way here, and Black belt is itself just one point on the journey, not the end destination.

Tae Kwon Do has done more than just helped me lose weight, it has inspired me to take care of myself over all. I have started seeing my doctor for regular physicals, which I hadn’t done since I was twenty. I started seeing a dentist again after fifteen years; I took care of my teeth, but I had stopped having regular cleanings and checkups. Turns out I did have one cavity after all that time. I have suffered from ADHD all my life, and Tae Kwon Do inspired me to seek treatment for that, which has resulted in my having more patience, the ability to focus, and gaining control over my impulsivity.

More importantly than anything I’ve mentioned above, as important as those things are, Tae Kwon Do is something I can do with my son, who is also a candidate for Black belt. We work on forms and combinations together, I can chase him around the house with boppers just to be silly, and we have this common set of goals we can work towards together despite being so far apart in age.

That's the first draft.

I never expected to get this far. Even if I don't manage to pass my Black belt exam in February, I've still accomplished a lot. I've also had a lot of fun along the way.