Personal Narrative: White Belts

”A black belt is a white belt that never gave up.” -Unknown. Taekwondo is something that has changed my life. I tried every sport out there. Basketball, Soccer, Dance, Gymnastics, and Lacrosse, but Taekwondo was the only sport that spoke to me. I started about 5 years ago, as a white belt. I never even thought that I could accomplish something this big. December 19th, 2015 was finally the day that all of the pain, sweat, tears, hard work, and training paid off. The day I found out I was a black belt candidate was the happiest day of my life! I felt very proud of myself for coming this far, but little did I know, that this day was also the start of continuous hard work and training. I had to train 6 out of 7 days a week, learn 4 different
It was the morning of December 19th, and I woke up feeling nothing but fear. I knew that I had every skill perfected to my ability, but I still had that worry that I was going to screw up, and mess up everything. ”Get ready to go guys!” My mom yelled to me and my brother. (He was testing too.) I put on my uniform, tied on my nominal belt, (the belt before black) and tied up my hair. Then I said to myself, ”I can do it.” We got in the car, and off we were. I was trying to be as positive as possible, and I kept telling myself that I could do it. When we arrived at U.S. Elite Martial Arts, (Taekwondo school) I glanced across the audience, and saw all of my family and friends. I definitely was now worried that I was going to mess up. We had about 10-15 minutes to warm up on our own, and I was just getting more and more nervous. Finally, that timer went off, and we started the test. I remember looking back at my mom with a face full of worry. She mouthed to me, ”You can do it.” We started off with a series of different exercises and conditioning. The first part of the conditioning hour was running. We had to do sprints, laydowns, suicides, jump roping, and running around the perimeter of the dojo, going back and forth between running, shuffling, and skipping. I felt the sweat dripping down my face, and my face turning as red as a tomato. Then after, we did exercises like push ups, sit ups, leg raises, squats, etc. Finally, the first hour was over. I felt pretty good about myself, but then I realized that we just finished the easiest part, and I was already sweating bullets. Next, we got into boxing. We had our own personal instructor, and they had to evaluate our boxing combinations and drills. When that ended, my knuckles hurt so bad, I felt like I punched a brick wall. We continued to do basics after that like kicking, more boxing, and sparring. I couldn't believe how well I was doing and that I hadn't messed up yet. The last few parts of the test