Sep 11 2012
The Karate Kid
After two hours of questions and techniques, going through every single move, every single form, every single block punch and kick, I had finally achieved one of my biggest goals in life. I was finally a black belt. But this wasn’t the end of my journey. As my sensei was handing me my certificate she said that, “becoming a black belt isn’t the end of a martial artist’s career, it’s only the beginning. “ After six years of training I was only beginning my journey in martial arts. At that moment I became a white belt all over again. At that moment I restarted my journey. As my sensei whipped the freshly sewn black belt across my waist I couldn’t feel the pain, only the happiness of knowing I persevered. As the second lash burnt across my chest I could only look into the crowd of students and parents watching and see new faces, faces that I didn’t grow up training with. The final thump of the belt on top of my head resonated through the dojo. This was the mark of a black belt. This was the mark of a martial artist. Hard work, perseverance, the ability to do anything you put your mind to, lessons you see in movies and books, I learned from kicking and punching. Now as a second-degree black belt and instructor I hope to pass on these lessons to my own students and I hope I can inspire just one kid the same way my martial arts family inspired me.
– Konstantin Dukhovnyy 2nd Dan
Konstantin, I was curious to know if that story served as a metaphor for anything else in your life. I ask this because as you were sharing it with the class, for me, I immediately thought of high school. I thought of the feeling of it’s finally over, I did it. And then realizing I had at least four more years to go. You seemed uplifted by your realization. I was a little bit depressed by mine. On another note, you get whipped when you are awarded a blackbelt?!
I wasn’t talking about high school but that sense of going on and growing up was the same. I was definitely uplifted by the whole experience. And yeah whenever you receive a black belt you are supposed to get whipped by a higher rank than you to signify your acceptance into the black belt world. There are some words we say while we get whipped too referring to the black belt. Every dojo does it different though.