White Belt, with Stripe

Reagan and I take karate together. We're both in the white belt class, which means that there are ten to fifteen 7 and 8 year olds in the room... and then me. Ok, to be totally honest, there is one other adult in the class, but he is testing for his yellow belt on Monday and will be out of the class after the Christmas break. Which just leaves me, the 35 year old, stay-at-home mom. Attempting to "do" karate with the little people.

Reagan earned two stripes last night, a blue one for completing Form 1 and a green stripe for attitude. I, however, walked out with one stripe: the blue one for completing Form 1. Yes, I am SUPER proud that I completed Form 1 correctly, but am humbled that my 7 year old earned a green attitude stripe and Mom didn't.

Humble pie is my dinner twice a week when we have karate class.

I enjoy karate, but it sure is teaching me some lessons! First of all, I am really not that flexible. Oh sure, I say I'm in shape--afterall, I run 5Ks. That counts for something, right?! Not when you're on the mat, with the 7 year olds, and you can barely touch your toes in warm-ups, or when the rest of the class is waiting on you to finish your 20 push-ups.

I'm also learning that I STILL get nervous in front of groups. I was one of the last ones to go last night, and I had to sit and wait and wait and wait for the other kids to perform their assessments. I was so nervous I thought I was going to have to excuse myself and go to the bathroom. The room was full of parents watching their kids do their assessments; my daughter was in the same room waiting to do her assessment. Butterflies all over my stomach-I was nervous for her and for myself!

She got two tries to complete Form 1, only because she hesitated the first time through, and when she was done, I wanted so badly to jump up and hug her and high five her. She had worked so hard for this! But, as per the instructor, we had to sit quietly against the wall. So I did (which, IMO, should have counted toward my attitude stripe, right?!).

I am also learning that practice makes perfect and that we have to practice karate a lot during the week. Just going to class and paying attention isn't enough. Reagan and I have to set time aside at home to practice. Which we do, and which allows us some more time to do something that is "just us".

I am going to occasionally throw these karate blogs in with my regular blogs, because one of the requirements for black belt testing (which is YEARS away for us!!) is that you have to have a scrapbook/photographic representation of your karate journey. I tend to be an optimist, so here I am, with my white belt with one little stripe on it, scrapping for the future.