Nine Years

Today is February 24th, and nine years ago on this day, I started my training at Zen Martial Arts. It’s truly surreal to me that I have been here for nine years, especially considering that that is a little more than half of my life. Of course, I have changed a lot in the nine years. When I started, I was just a kid, and now I’m 17 years old. Not to sound corny or anything, but I don’t really know who I would be without this dojo. I have grown up in this dojo, and it is such a big part of my life. I have learned so my lessons from this dojo, spent so many collective hours with the people that I train with, and I have also met some of my closest friends from this dojo. Doing karate has genuinely shaped me into the person that I am today, and I have no idea what my life would have looked like now if my parents hadn’t signed me up for karate classes when I was 8 years old. I don’t think that my family or I ever would have imagined how far I would go with karate. For so many years, getting to black belt was a goal for me, but I don’t think I ever truly believed that I would make it to my black belt test up until a few years ago. To be honest, there have been a few times over the course of these nine years where I considered quitting, but I am so glad that I pushed that thought aside and didn’t go through with it, because staying at this dojo and starting this test has truly been one of the most insane journeys of my life. Thank you to everyone who has supported me over the past nine years, because I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for all of you.

My current Challenge progress as of March 7, 2026.