Great News -- The Actual Post

My  plans to write this post yesterday didn't quite work out, so now that I have a good two hours before I leave to go to my Thursday night class, I'm beginning this... erm.... novella-length post.

So....for my great news! How do you like the new blog colors? I thought it was appropriate since on Tuesday, December 1st 2009, I was able to test for my 3rd kyu brown belt! Woohoo! Cue the celebratory music and confetti!

I think I'm still in a state of shock. I think it's because I have been a blue belt for quite a while and I just cannot believe that the day of the test finally came. Even though my instructors gave me a vague timeline for my test date, Tuesday night was still a great surprise, and one the best early Christmas gifts I could get.

I wasn't sure if Tuesday was going to be the night. When we started, the kids class lined up with us since there was going to be a surprise test for two of them. That test lasted a good 20ish minutes, and the two brothers received their new green and yellow belt ranks respectively. Their class then dismissed for the night.

Our class of five students and five black belts divided everyone up. Mr. G singled me out to work on all of my advanced kicks. By this time I was definitely suspecting. The black belts then called up the other blue belt, and then me (separately). I was asked if I felt confident of my four self defense techniques. By this time, I knew what was about to happen.

A few minutes later, the most exhausting and difficult test that I've ever taken began for both of us. I was and am still glad that I did not have to test alone. The testing itself was comprehensive of just about everything we knew, which translates into a very. Long. Time. Not that I kept up with the time, but I do know that we went past class time.

Some memorable events of the night included:

• Starting with Basic Blocks and Punches -- the first set of techniques (that could be called a form) that white belts learn other than basic stances and commands -- and having to start over because we were not putting in quite the snap that the black belts wanted. "We could just go back to 1 steps for the rest of the class night instead of this test if you want...."
• Being told that when we were going home at the end of the night, that we should not have nothing left in us to give. Absolutely nothing. It should all be out on the floor. Basically, we would be dead on our feet, having given everything we had and then some.
• Answering our female black belt's statement to me by saying "Yes sir" and then realizing immediately what I had done and correcting it.
• Demonstrating and teaching my 4 Self Defense techniques that I had been worrying about for months (and months and months) and them going off smoothly.
• After finishing a teaching spar, a spar against a black belt, and a spar against a green belt guy, being told that I had to do a 2 on 1 spar with two of my instructors -- my first time to do so. Ever.
• Focusing on what I was asked to demonstrate so much that at times I forgot about the other students and parents who were watching us.
• Realizing that I really am doing this.

And finally,

• After everything I've worked towards -- all the years I've put in -- all the hard work, blood, sweat, and tears, and most importantly, all the support I've been given, being awarded my 3rd kyu brown belt.

If you can't tell, I'm ridiculously happy right now. It's just a huge relief. All the anxiousness from waiting and not knowing when it was going to happen after being told months ago that I was going to test is gone. I feel like I have room to breath again if that makes sense.

But that's not to say that I'm going to slack off now. No. Even though I did take a day off, I'm getting right back to work. Since Christmas is coming up soon and my TKD classes will end for the year, I have to stay sharp. Especially since there's going to be a black belt test on January 2nd and I have to be prepared to be involved in that test.

Before I end this post, I'm going to leave one last thought that just came to my mind. It goes well with the last paragraph actually. After the test, one of my instructors talked to me for a bit. He basically said, and I'm paraphrasing: "You think that it was hard at blue belt and that we were critiquing you a lot then? Well at brown belt.... It just got a lot harder. Put that in your blog."