Good news to share today. One of my goals for this year was to act on a desire I've had for a long time and get back to karate training. I've been meaning to do this for years... like more than fifteen years. My senior year of high school I joined a dojo and I loved it. I trained with my dojo for a year advancing quickly to purple belt, due to my disciplined attendance, background in dance, and the support of my Sensai.
Then I went to college in another state and the closet dojo was an hour away by bus - which was not conducive to my schedule in anyway. I took Tae Kwon Do as a college elective and enjoyed that, and then, as happens often. Life. Time flew by other priorities took front seat and then I just felt embarrassed - I couldn't go back, I didn't want people to see that I hadn't kept up with my training.
But this year I decided to make it the year of things I've wanted to do but hadn't. So I'm studying German again (a language I enjoyed learning in jr and sr high) I'm practicing piano (something I gave up in the fourth grade) and I went back to the same dojo I left all those years ago.
Guess what, I'm bad at all of it.
Guess what else, I'm not as bad as I thought I would be and I'm getting better quickly.
At my last training session for karate Sensai asked me what belt I had ended at last time. When I said purple he told me I could start wearing it again - I had a lot to practice and I needed to relearn the katas, and it may take awhile to promote again, but I had proven I still have the right to wear it.
I almost cried. I'm so excited to go to training tonight in my purple belt and practice until I know I represent it well again.