Congratulations!
9 years seems an awful long journey to get to shodan.
I would assume that those that get there receive the respect they deserve for a road three times longer than many others travel?
Regardless, congratulations on your first step on that particular ladder.
Time is not what is important, it is the journey that counts. Yet 9 years is a long time to Shodan.
I believe Master Mitchum received his Shodan from Shimabuko Tatsuo during his 1st tour (USMC) in Okinawa which was about 15 months long.
So why 9 years now to do what was done by others in a much shorter time?