As of yesterday about 6pm I am a 1st Dan in Tae Kwon Do. Its has been a long time coming with a lot of false starts. My daughter Sierra also tested and passed here test and is also now a 1st dan. She really pushed though the pain even after not breaking some boards on the first or second tries. I am very proud that she has done such a great job and has come so far. Thanks to Master Kim, Jin, Steve and every one else at the school for all the hard work.
I also wanted to share my "What it means to be a Black Belt" essay I had to write as part of my testinging.
Meaning of A Black Belt
By Cid Dennis
To me, a black belt has a number of meanings.
The first that comes to mind is the completion of a goal I have had from the age of eight. I remember living in San Diego, California as a child and riding my bike to a local Karate school. My parents did not have enough money to send me to martial arts training so I would ride my bike 5 or 6 blocks to go and watch the students practice. The flowing movements, the kicks, block and punches mesmerized me. I also loved Kung Fu movies and really wanted to be like Bruce Lee.
As I grew older my family moved a number of times, finally ending up in a very small town called Sidney, Montana. Sidney had no martial arts schools and the closest one was a Kempo school in Glendive, Montana over 50 miles away.
One day a small local health club worked a deal with the Kempo school in Glendive to start a satellite school in Sidney. I was thrilled and started going from day one. Unfortunately, the health club closed after eight months, which ended my first experience with martial arts, but I was hooked.
It took another five years before another martial arts school opened in Sidney. This time it was a Tae Kwon Do school from Williston, North Dakota. I again enrolled and went to every class I could but now my time in Sidney was running out, I was in high school and would be going to college in a few years. Also, the instructor had to travel from North Dakota to Sidney so the number of classes offered was very limited. Therefore, I only obtained second gup. However, I did learn a lot from the training. I learned martial arts was not just about beating someone up or just about kicking and punching but much more. Martial arts is as much about being a better person as it was about learning to fight.
From the time I left for college until I started again at Golden Tae Kwon Do Family Center, I had often thought of starting Tae Kwon Do again but always found some excuse not to. To0 busy, moving to much, other interest, etc.
But one day my daughter came home and said they were offering an after school Tae Kwon Do class at school and asked if she could go. I agreed without reservations, as I knew how much my Tae Kwon Do experience helped me as a young person. I knew what Tae Kwon Do helped with concentration, goals, leadership and self-confidence and I wanted all those things for my daughter.
After a few weeks of the after school classes we moved to going directly to the Tae Kwon Do studio. We spent a number of months there but I did not feel my daughter was getting the right training. They were working on helping kids set goals and gain self-confidence but something just did not sit right with me. I knew there was much more to Tae Kwon Do and I wanted my daughter to see and experience all of it.
Finally, we started at Golden Tae Kwon Do Family Center. From the first time I walked in to the school I knew it was the right place for my daughter to get the same experience I got from Tae Kwon Do as a child. I wanted my daughter to not only learn how to defend herself but to be a better person, to care for others and to learn how to be a leader. I wanted her to gain self-confidence but still have the humility of a strong leader.
After a few months of training, I decided I too wanted to restart my martial arts training. I started again not because I felt I needed to learn to defend myself, but because I missed the atmosphere of Tae Kwon Do training. I remembered what it felt like to be part of a school where the students and instructors cared about each other.
Now I am about to test for my black belt and see that the goal I had as an eight year old is almost realized. I know that during my training both at Golden Tae Kwon Do and before that a black belt is not just an ending but also a new beginning. It is not only a symbol of what I have done but also where I am going. It symbolizes that while I have learned to defend myself that I am also a self-confident leader. My new black belt shows that I had the self confidence and perseverance to work toward a goal and achieve it.
So what does a black belt mean to me? Self-confidence, leadership, perseverance, obtaining goals, maturity, self-control. Yes all of those. But to me it also means finally seeing a goal I set so many years ago finally come to and end and learning that this is not the end but only a new beginning. A new beginning to work even harder to be a better person, father and husband. A new beginning to work toward higher ranks and be an out spoken advocate of what Tae Kwon Do is and means to its students.