Intent to Promote

Notice of Intent to Promote: Orange Belt

This is what you receive when you're invited to test for your next belt. It's handed out at the end of class. Everyone cheers for you. You take it home and fill it out and return it.

There is "testing" on the first Wednesday of every month at our dojeng. It's amusing that everyone refers to it as "testing." You're not really being tested. No one fails or isn't promoted.
Rather than being tested, it's when you demonstrate what you've learned to this point. It can still incite nerves, but there's no pressure or fear of failure.
There's a whole ritual involved.
After you demonstrate what Master Turnhout asks you to do, all of the students sit down. You're asked to close your eyes in meditation. At this time another instructor comes around and places your new belt in front of you.

It's a little magical. It reminds me of Shabbat: you light the candles and then you close your eyes while you're saying the prayer. Since you're not supposed to do any work on the sabbath, and because lighting the candles would be considered work, you sort of pretend like you don't know how the candles were lit. When you open your eyes it's a supposed to be a surprise.

I'm a big fan of ritual. It's another aspect of the martial arts that I truly appreciate and enjoy.

As a dedicated student of the martial arts...

Saturday was a very good day for me.
I ran with KMA people for the first time. I took my regular 9am class, at the end of which, I was invited to test for my orange belt on August 1st. I was flying high for hours!

I started taking classes in October of 2011. It was a month after we enrolled our oldest son in classes. They offered a month of free classes to family members of students and I jumped at the opportunity. 

From the very first time I entered the dojeng, I was made to feel welcome. Students and teachers alike were genuinely warm and kind. I felt an immediate sense of community. My beliefs align with their principles and I found a new home.

When I started, I mentally prepared for it to be for the month. We couldn't afford two tuitions. (For the October special, they even provided me with the uniform for free.) Come November, I had to let it go. I missed it. 

I loved the structure, the similarities to yoga, the power, the conditioning, the feeling of community, the ability to see my progress. I love the instructors, the positive philosophy, the feeling of community.

In January they offered a "90 Day Fitness Challenge." It was a discounted rate for a 3 month membership, essentially. Aaron made it my Hannukah gift. 

When I started again in January, I still had a short-term mindset. Our financial situation hadn't improved and I couldn't imagine how we'd be able to afford two regular tuitions indefinitely. When they talked about black belts I imagined they were talking about other people. When I repeated the philosophy at the end of class, I didn't really absorb the meaning. I let them be just words:

As a dedicated student of the martial arts
I shall live by
the principles of black belt:
Modesty
Courtesy
Integrity
Perseverance
Self-Control
Indomitable Spirit

At some point during that 90 days I fell in love. I did not want it to come to an end. It occurred to me that I could earn a black belt. Suddenly it became a goal that I could achieve. Without looking, I had wandered onto the black belt path.

I didn't know how we could afford it, but I also had the realization that I didn't have to have a solution to the tuition problem. I didn't have to figure out the "how." But in making an honest effort toward my goal, I approached them about a work-trade agreement.

Ma'am Laura, a co-owner, was open to talking to me about it. First she suggested I talk to her later about it. Then she suggested I continue to come to class but that she'd talk to me when she returned after a week away. At that time she asked me what I had in mind. I told her I could help mostly in the evenings when I'd have childcare coverage. I offered to help clean, to make phone calls, to do computer work. I was open to anything. She said she'd give it some thought, and I was to keep coming to class. Eventually I realized, without any formal agreement, she was allowing me to continue to come for free. Neither she nor Master Turnhout have asked anything but dedication from me. 

I feel like I've been given one of the most precious gifts I've ever received. And in return I have renewed my effort, my focus, my dedication.
Now when I say the philosophy at the end of class, I own the words. I think about what they mean for me. I think about them outside of class. I am internalizing them as I jab, front kick and extreme combo my way to a black belt.

Testing for yellow belt, April 2012.