My Tae Kwon Do Career
My Tae Kwon Do career started in August of 2010, the beginning of third grade. I first heard about Jung's Tae Kwon Do from a friend who had been in Tae Kwon Do, and made his way to a brown belt. He told me about Tae Kwon Do, and and some of his experiences having to do with the Martial Art. I had always known of Tae Kwon Do but I never knew that there was a school so close, that I could attend classes so easily. I asked my mother if I could join, and around two weeks later we bought my dobok and my white belt.
I started learning Tae Kwon Do going to every available class, and loving it the whole time. Soon after I started Tae Kwon Do I broke my first board, and had one of the proudest moments in my entire life. About two and a half months later, with twenty two classes I successfully tested for my yellow belt. I started learning a more advanced level of Tae Kwon Do, making me love it even more. I remember watching other higher ranking belts free spar and thinking how much fun it looked like. When I earned my yellow belt I was able to free spar for the first time, and decided it was even more fun than it looked.
From yellow belt, I rapidly advanced to orange. The hardest part by far for me in my orange belt career was mastering the spinning wheel kick. It took me most of the two months that I was an orange belt to perfect it. I practiced before and after class, and at home and finally got to a point were I could actually spin around and kick without falling over. After orange belt I earned my green belt and from there my high green belt. During the short period between white belt to high green belt I was so excited, and so enthusiastic
about Tae Kwon Do. There were times when I was downhearted because couldn’t attend class, for one reason or another.
Once I earned my brown belt Tae Kwon Do started to slow down for me. I didn’t want to attend class as often, and I wasn’t as excited about Tae Kwon Do, I ended up missing an entire month during Christmas time, and I believe that this very much effected me, and led me to think that Tae Kwon Do wasn’t as fun as it used to be. I also believe that I enjoyed learning all of the new forms, step sparring, kicks and such, and being a more advanced belt you do not learn as many knew techniques, instead you practice, and polish up old ones.
I soon found out that if I was ever going to be able to test for my black belt that have to start coming back to Tae Kwon Do. So I started attending class on a regular basis, only to be interrupted again a few months later by the continuous and exhaustive task of moving my grandpa to his new home. After about a month and a half of off and on attendance to Tae Kwon Do, again I returned to continuous presence to Tae Kwon Do classes, only find to out that I had but two months until my black belt test. I had already postponed my test once, and not wanting to wait another four months, I decided to try my hardest, and if I was ready when the time came, to attempt to test for my black belt.
I believe that Tae Kwon Do has made me a much better person, also in the process causing me to work harder, and open my eyes quite a bit more than they were when I first started by helping me understand life and what it stands for much better. I also believe that Tae Kwon Do has taught me to never give up, and to persevere through rough times, making me believe that in the end good things will come. By attending Tae Kwon Do it has taught me to observe the five tenets of Tae Kwon Do, and that life is only a waste of time if you want it to be. I have learned to pull good out of bad times.
I wish to thank Mr. Jung, Mr. Johnson, and all of the other black belts, senior belts and even the junior belts in helping me come this far in Tae Kwon Do. I also wish to thank my friends, and family for their support, especially my loving mother for dragging me all the way to Cedar Rapids, paying for my classes, and urging me to keep going even when I didn’t want to.
