You probably know this or not, but I do in fact take karate. And I’m currently a junior black belt. It’s been lord knows how many years since I’ve been in Top Gun Karate. However, my journey through those years wasn’t easy. Not just physically with all the work outs, but also mentally, you’ll see why.

When I was much younger, I was wimpy. I didn’t have any self-confidence, I was afraid of heights; it was a disaster for my mom. For a while, she wanted me to take a karate class, in fact she even tried a Tiger Schulman near Roosevelt field, but the teacher there stated I was too scared to attempt stuff like a roll. So from that point, my little kid brain thought my mom gave up on looking for a karate school. I thought wrong. Around the time I began second grade, a fitness store near pet supplies plus went out of business. So, of course a new store had to come in and take its spot. And not long afterward a man by the name of Tony Morrison (No! I’m not referring to the more well-known Tony, this is a different one, he’s not even a girl for crying out loud) took that spot along with a person named Mike. And yes, my mom heard about the new place and wanted me to go there with my sister. Once we finally went down to the new school by the name of Top Gun Karate… and I started to cry like a little moron. Granted, I was little but now, it seemed like a dumb excuse. Not surprisingly, Tony or Shihan as he was called back then (now we refer to him as Soke) came out of his office and along with my mom, tried to relax me. It worked; I knew from this point on, life wouldn’t be the same as I once thought it was.

Now, I’ll admit, when that day happened, I was excited about karate once I was calm and relaxed. I thought I would just practice on pads and stuff. I was even more excited once I received my white belt. When my first true class started, everything was ok at first. But then fear started to kick into my mind not long afterwards, I think it was my third week when I started to act all nervous. I began to isolate myself from the class, I refused to do moves that involved jumping, and I lacked a lot of focus. This sort of attitude latter came to bite me in the… you know what. It was my stripe testing for my yellow belt (stripe testing is when you’re tested on what you knew for a certain belt, if you pass, you receive a stripe. Three stripes will make you qualified for a belt test to move up a level), however, for the entire test I devoted myself to doing stupid faces at the mirror. Big mistake, as a result, I failed. Since I failed, I felt like I never wanted to do karate again. But my mom and Soke were determined to keep me in. So, I had to redo the test again, and surprisingly, knew all the stuff. In fact, when everything was done, Soke asked: “Why didn’t you preform like that before”? That’s a good point. How I didn’t perform well on the actual test, but performed amazing on the redo. Oh well, at least I didn’t quit, otherwise, good god I don’t want to think about it.

That little redo was a small step to maturity to me. Unfortunately, I still wasn’t being all that great. The most notable in my school was when I would spar (a fighting form of tag). When I would spar then… I ran away like a little coward off the mat. Thank god I don’t do that now. Also, I still had very little confidence. That was until a ray of hope came to me in the form of Sensei Chad. He came into the school along with another Sensei named Reian. While Reian didn’t stay that long though he still visited from time to time, Chad stayed and without him, I wouldn’t be the same guy I am today. It began one day when I had to stay in the school due to not getting a move down. To me, when I had to stay after school, it felt like detention. That case is still in my head today but now it’s just my regular school. Of course, I didn’t want to do the technique. Chad and my mom decided it was best to work together in small private classes. This is where I began to change. Not only did I gain more confidence, but I grew stronger. I was getting down certain techniques better now and improved on both Kamas and nun chucks which are some of the weapons we use in class occasionally. I thought he would always on the mat even after he became a father since his girlfriend had a kid. I was wrong. Around late 2011, his daughter got sick and a spark came to his mind. He had to take more responsibility with his kid. So around December, he left the karate school. I was devastated, I felt I would slowly go back to my old roots, but Soke, my mom and others in the school refused to let this happen to me. Today, I’m still here in Top Gun, strong as ever, no longer willing to quit. I improved a lot, and I’m not going to let any of that slip out so easily.

Before Sensei Chad left, in fact it was back after I graduated fifth grade, one of my best achievements had been made. It was earning my junior black belt. And needless to say, it was tough as hell. I along with some other students had to do every single thing we were ever taught. It was not a happy sight. But the hardest part was after all of that; we had to spar in the end with some other junior black belts of the school. Now, the problem wasn’t within the fighting, I improved greatly and no longer ran off the mat. It was just after doing all of the techniques we knew, we had to spar a bunch of people and we weren’t even took a solid breath of relaxation. But, I made it through, and I finally earned my junior black belt. It was an incredible achievement for me and it shows that hard work pays off in the end. I also think of it as a contrast to how I was before, I went from being a wimpy, scared easily guy to a tough strong willed dude.