Starting over...

It's pretty interesting to re-think the way my forms are performed. It's fun to see how another school instructs and guides you through the forms. It's great to have someone take you under their wing and pretty much guide you through what you need to do because you haven't got the Korean. I am feeling confident that I'm going to make Ee Dan because I have fabulous support at BTK. I had fabulous support with DB and ST at USMA, but when things started changing and he switched the curriculum, I felt lost. Up until I joined BTK, I hadn't been seriously practicing. Anything. Now I'm back to working on jumps, especially when I'm wearing slacks at work and I'm the last one at work. Then I have a lot of room and can show off for myself. Nobody will see me look silly. Even if they do, there's one guy there who takes Jiujitsu and will understand my need to practice. He has a tendency to try to knock me down. He always goes after my knees when we spar. I'm learning to watch him for his signals. I think that'll help me with my sparring too.

Isn't it funny that a martial artist is awfully proud of his or her bruises? I have a huge bruise on my left shin that I took in sparring over a week ago. I also have a bruise on the underside of my left arm, courtesy of the young man I spar with at work. He pinched me in an attempt to take me down. The pinch was unintentional, but man! It hurt and is ugly now!! The bruise on my leg is now a pretty purple color. LOL!! I can tell you where each of my bruises is from and who gave it to me. That's pretty sad, isn't it???

Tuesday night, I have a "New Leaders" meeting for Cub Scouts at Starbucks. It's at 6:30, so I'm going to go down there *in uniform*, stay for 30 minutes or so, and then I'll head down the road to BTK and will attend class. I have my sparring gear in the car, my notebook will migrate there this weekend and I'll be set. I don't think anyone at the meeting will freak out TOO much for me attending in a dobahk. If they don't like it, I'll leave earlier and go play with the kids at BTK!
I do believe that I'd be allowed to help out if I wanted to, but until I feel more comfortable in my skin (and that means I need to stop the negative self talking I'm hearing in my head again!), I won't feel like I can adequately demonstrate something. Instead, thank you, I'll be a student. I won't be JUST a student. I will also be teaching myself how to be a better person.