Proud?

"Aren't you proud that you got your black belt?"

Two people asked me this question over the weekend. I saw Nancy at the Maple Syrup Festival, and she told me she'd seen my black belt pictures. And Kim, at church said the same thing. Her 10-year old just got his black belt, so we were chatting.

Am I proud?

I don't know if pride is the emotion that's foremost in my mind about the black belt.

Everyone seems to remember a conversation in the dojang when I was maybe an orange belt: I said I wasn't even sure if I were going to get a black belt. Everyone seemed shocked.

Many people do this martial arts thing because they want that black belt! They want it bad! So they work hard and . . . get it! Then some quit. Lots quit, I think.

But for me. I am doing this martial arts thing because I think martial arts are cool. I like DOING them. I want to learn more and get better. The black belt is kind of a side effect to learning more and getting better.

OK, I also had to train pretty hard for it. And have a good test.

The black belt signifies a lot, and I'm grateful that I've been able to do what I needed to do to get it. I'm pleased to be among the ranks of people like Master Hughes and Ms. Pryor, who are black belts.

But I'm not done with it yet. The black belt wasn't my end goal. Being a martial artist, a good martial artist is the goal, and I'm still learning. I don't think there'll be an end where I can sit back and just feel proud.

By the way, I'm going to comment on some of the posts about the last post (TKD Parties/BB Parties). My answers will be posted after your posts.