I’ve tried to think of a clever title for this entry for ages, but I’ve failed each and every time. It’s one I’d always hoped I’d have to write at some point, I just hadn’t expected to creep up on me so quickly. In a nutshell, I passed my 1st Dan (Black Belt) grading.
Seeing it written down like that is strange, and if I’m honest it still hasn’t sunk in yet. I don’t think that’ll happen until I’m actually presented with the belt and certificate, which hopefully will be around the end of the month, and I imagine it’ll start to hit home then. Perhaps fittingly, I found out I passed on the 4th, which was exactly four years to the day since my very first lesson. Four years, wow.
This isn’t going to turn into a misty-eyed retrospective, I’ve done that far too often in the past on here, but it’s nice to have a little bit of reflection and to get it down on paper (well, recorded in bits and bytes at least). The grading tests themselves were tough, and for different reasons; the physical was obviously very demanding, the written test gave my brain a bashing, and the essay made me take a good look at myself. It’s done now though, and although I didn’t do as well as I’d like to (isn’t that always the case?) I did well enough to earn my belt. There’ll probably be a few people out there who’d find it strange when I say that I won’t be getting a black belt, but rather a midnight blue one, but it’s essentially the same thing. Tang Soo Do traditionally uses midnight blue, as this is what the founder chose. The reasons for choosing it are a matter of debate for some, but it’s the same thing.
The strangest feeling for me is that there isn’t the sense of completion that I’d anticipated when I first started training. Some people (most I’d imagine) look on the black belt as being quite final, the end of a journey, but it’s perfectly apparent to me now that this isn’t the case. I’m very proud of myself for seeing it through this far, because I’m a serial starter-of-things-I’ll-never-see-through, but I can genuinely see how this is far from the end of something, it’s just the start of something new, a continuation of what I’m already doing. After all, it’s only 1st Dan right, there’s still another 9 to work toward ;).
I’d also just like to take the time here and now to thank everyone involved in my progress one way or another up until now. My instructors, my fellow students and everyone who showed me some support along the way. It was all appreciated, from people telling me I could do it, to people kicking my ass all over the dojang.
Onwards and upwards.