I am not afraid to keep on living

[exsequar]

I am now a red belt in Shotokan karate! YAY! \o/

We had our grading tonight, and it was surprisingly short and simple. We basically did what we normally do for class, with one of our normal instructors, while the grader sat and watched. Of course it was a bit more intense than usual, but that was awesome - I loved the rush. The red belt is the second one - we all skipped orange and went right to red, hurrah :)

Apparently the grader (Malachi) was particularly impressed with me! When the red belts were doing their grading, there were three of them so pairing up obviously didn't work, and he had me come up and be the fourth! That was really cool.

I love karate! It gives me this chance to just completely wipe my mind of all external stresses, focusing in on my own body and my own abilities, ridding myself of baggage and just immersing myself in it. I've always loved the idea of that kind of intense focus - I did something similar when I did dancing - and karate just suits me so perfectly. I really hope I find a good club back in Lancaster so I can keep up with it when I go home. I think it could be really good for me.

Now Sinead and I get to go buy our karate suits, I'm really excited :D

We went to the Pav (campus bar) afterwards to celebrate, so now I've got a Guinness in me and I'm a bit wobbly and giggly and affectionate. This should make working on my lab reports... interesting! *laughs*

Yay!

Comments

[krazykipper.livejournal.com]

Woot! Go you. What type of Shokotan is it? (I did CFTS for years. Still have my purple and white belt around somewhere.)

Just seeing if you'd decided about WinConUK yet? Still hoping to come join us?

(Psst...karate suit is called a Gi.)

[exsequar.livejournal.com]

Umm. There are types? Heh. I do know it's Shotokan though, not Shokotan... this is the website for my club: http://www.karate.tcdlife.ie/

I don't think I can come to WinconUK, I'm sorry :( I just can't justify the expense! Sorry I didn't let you know, things have been a bit crazy.

[hebrew-hernia.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on the red belt!

I've heard that writing a paper once you've had a drink can sometimes be good because you're less self-critical about what you write, so it makes it easier to get a draft out. But I think that was mostly English-related-- a science paper might be a different story. Also, I think it depends on your tolerance for alcohol (i.e. one drink is going to affect me a lot more than it would, say, one of the rugby players on campus, as they are notorious drinkers whereas I have a two-beer limit). Anyway, good luck!

[pushingyouaway.livejournal.com]

so...basically...you can kick all of our asses... o_O


congrats!