Personal Narrative: My First Karate School

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I started as a Tiny Tiger. After three long years, I became a Junior. By my sixth year of karate, I was finally just a normal student. And in another two years, I had learned all of the necessary curriculum to graduate to a First Degree Black Belt. That was the day that everything changed.
When I was four years old, my mom brought me to the dojo for my first karate class. Since then, karate has shaped my life in a multitude of ways. It has taught me discipline and dedication. It’s given me friendships which are still strong. But for a majority of my time as a karate student, I felt like a little kid, which was displeasing to me even though I actually was a little kid. As a Tiny Tiger, we were separated from the Juniors and other students in the karate school, hidden away in a back room that had a window through which we could watch the “big” kids during class. Even after graduating to a Junior, I felt illegitimate compared to the regular students. That feeling changed with my trip to Colorado for my First Degree Black Belt …show more content…

All of the candidates, now comfortably fitting into the huge gym of a local high school, formed a circle, sitting criss-crossed by our fellow warriors. The head instructor, Mr. Packer, read the name of the candidate, who arose, received their monogrammed belt, and then jogged a giddy lap around the circle, high-fiving everyone. When my name was finally called, I couldn’t help but beam as I was handed my First Degree Black Belt, all of my hard work paying off. As I jogged my lap, happily slapping every hand raised in my direction, I finally felt like one of the big kids I watched through the window for so many years. I was no longer just a little Junior, anxiously awaiting to be a regular student. At last, I was a regular student, and being average had never made me so happy. That day in Colorado marked the beginning of my karate career as an adult, and it is one that I will never

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