My love toward Taekwondo started when I was a third grade of elementary school. I can't remember exactly but my mom told me later that Taekwondo was the first thing that not my mom asked me to learn but I wanted to learn and ask her to let me do so.
I wanted to learn Taekwondo for mainly two reasons. First, I was very active and full of energy when I was young. However, my parents were quite busy for the living and also they had to take care of my younger sister. So Taekwondo was the awesome tool that help me release those energies. Second reason was that to me martial arts look fabulous. My dad often saw Hong Kong movies which the main actor always use some kind of Kong Fu and I thought "Wow, that's so cool!" and wanted to be like them.
I was happy and eager to learn it. Even some exercises that my teacher recommended me to take a rest for I was still young girl who's about age 10, I copied and followed what black belts do and practiced with my best. And as a result, I lost lots of weight and I looked almost like bones. My grandmother blamed my mom for letting me learn such a harsh exercise and my mom had no choice but to stop me from learning it. That made me very upset and depressed but I was too young to disobey my mom. So, from then I always had genuine desire to learn Taekwondo again but had no chance to learn in again until I became university student.
Last year, when I became junior, I finally made my old dream became reality. I restarted to learn Taekwondo from the February of the 2014, and the October of 2014 I got the black belt. I clearly remember that day I took the test. I was so nervous that day so I went to the restroom about 4-5 times before the test started. I could eat nothing and water was the only thing that I consumed that day. Because I was too nervous I kept made mistakes when practicing and that made me even more nervous. So when the test was finally started I was about to faint. Fortunately, the test went well without any problem, and I could got the black belt. It was long journey for me to achieve my old dream but because it was hard it became unforgettable and precious memory to me.
Wow congratulations for your black belt ! The part where you wrote "made me very upset and depressed but I was too young to disobey my mom," made it seem real to me. I think that every one has had one time of not wanting to do something, but had to do it because mom said so. Your draft really expresses your love for Taekwondo. However, I think it would sound more realistic if it has dialogue in it. Overall, I really liked reading your draft !! :)
ReplyDeleteThe topic of writing is very familiar to me. Because most of the koreans have an experience to learn certain martial arts. I learned the taekwondo and haedong gumdo when I was young. I think " Because I was too nervous I kept made mistakes when practicing and that made me even more nervous." this part makes your essay more dynamic and seem real. I can sympathize your feeling about black belt test. And I have a question. How did you learn the taekowndo again in university? Did you join the taekwondo club or not?
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ReplyDeleteMy love toward Taekwondo started when I was 10, a third grade of elementary school. I can’t remember exactly but my mom told me later that Taekwondo was the first thing I wanted to learn not my mom asked me to do so.
I wanted to learn Taekwondo for mainly two reasons. First, I was very active girl when I was young. I was so full of energy that I always played outside. I was almost black at that time. Some people even made fun of me saying “Are you from Philippines?” However, my parents were quite busy for the living and taking care of my younger sister. I needed some way to express my energy and that was the Taekwondo. Second reason was that to me martial arts look fabulous. My dad often saw Hong Kong movies which main actor always used some kinds of Kong Fu. I thought “Wow, that’s cool!” So, I wanted to be like them.
When I first wore white uniform of the Taekwondo, I was happy enough to fly. Until then, early 20th centuries, girls learning Taekwondo was still uncommon thing. When my teacher asked me to run school playground as a warm up exercise, some friends were looking at me with odd eyes, but I didn’t care. I just loved and enjoyed exercising. As a result, I lost lots of weight and I looked almost like bones. My grandma blamed my mom for letting me learn such a harsh exercise and my mom had no choice but to stop me from learning it. That made me very upset and depressed but I was too young to disobey my mom. From then I always had genuine desire to learn Taekwondo again but had no chance until I became junior in university.
Last year, when I became junior, I finally made my old dream became true. At that moment I thought ‘if I don’t learn it now, then there would be no more chance’. So, I looked for academy near the campus and I finally restarted to learn Taekwondo from the February of the 2014. I got white uniform of Taekwondo and wore it as I did when I was little girl. Can you imagine how happy I was? I was excited enough to fly even to the space. I learned it about a year and the October of 2014 I finally got the black belt! I clearly remember that day I took the black belt test. The test was started at noon. I was so nervous that I could eat nothing from the morning. Water was the only thing that I consumed that whole day. Because I was too nervous I kept made mistakes when practicing and that made me even more nervous. What was worse was that because I was super nervous I went to restroom about 4-5 times before the test started. So when the test was finally started I was about to faint. Fortunately, the test went well without any problem, and I could come home alive with the black belt. It was long journey for me to achieve my old dream but because it was hard it became unforgettable and precious memory to me.