Over Thanksgiving I was making a list of things I'm thankful for. My wife and I have had a really hard year. We lost our home right before Christmas last year and I left the karate school I was teaching at and the economy in our area has gotten worse and worse. It's really scary and it's hard to stay positive and motivated. So I sat down to make a list of things that are good and happy in my life that I could draw hope from. My family was all over that list, because I am a very lucky person. I was born to people who are loving and kind and intelligent and then I found another person even better to marry. I have all the things you could ever hope for when it comes to family. After that karate was the next thing on the list.
I started learning karate when I was a fat, freckled, ginger dork in high school. I was bullied, and bullying, and had a couple other friends who were nerds too. I was the class clown. And then I started taking karate. And I didn't even take it seriously for the first few years, barely ever making classes and not practicing on my own, but karate slowly began to change me. I was a bad student, and karate still worked.
Through my study I've traveled the country, made friends around the world, met with and learned from real Masters, and expanded my knowledge and mind in a way that many people around me in the world will never understand. It's made me stronger, healthier, and more capable both in physical confrontations and in life. It's given me job opportunities and options for conflict resolution that I never would have had. I've met a lot of different people in karate, and almost every one of them was a great person. It's a proud tradition of passionate warriors and scholars.
Thanks for being a part of that.
-Rob
I started learning karate when I was a fat, freckled, ginger dork in high school. I was bullied, and bullying, and had a couple other friends who were nerds too. I was the class clown. And then I started taking karate. And I didn't even take it seriously for the first few years, barely ever making classes and not practicing on my own, but karate slowly began to change me. I was a bad student, and karate still worked.
Through my study I've traveled the country, made friends around the world, met with and learned from real Masters, and expanded my knowledge and mind in a way that many people around me in the world will never understand. It's made me stronger, healthier, and more capable both in physical confrontations and in life. It's given me job opportunities and options for conflict resolution that I never would have had. I've met a lot of different people in karate, and almost every one of them was a great person. It's a proud tradition of passionate warriors and scholars.
Thanks for being a part of that.
-Rob
