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Aidan,
In 2014, your karate journey began. You were a wiggly, squirmy, excited, fun-loving, bouncy, kind, gentle, amazing 3 year old.
Today, you reached quite an accomplishment: you have attained the highest belt that a Little Rhino can- the black stripe.
For the record, you are still wiggly, squirmy, excited, fun-loving, bouncy, kind, gentle and amazing. Now you're 5 (almost 6).
But, you've grown so much thanks to karate and during your lessons with Mr. Garcia and the Pro Martial Arts gang.
You've learned lessons on patience, respect, responsibility, and confidence (this was one of your favorite lessons, often asking us to repeat the examples of not confident vs. confident).
You learned a lot of skills, including Anjo (sit), Jerryip (stand!), Joomby (ready stance), sparing stance, backwards brake fall, star block, escape from bear hug and run away shouting "you're not my mom! you're not my dad. FIRE!!!!!!!!!", and how to properly make a fist.
You earned many stripes on your belts for behavior at home, doing good deeds and chores without having to be asked.
You learned and loved many great games here, including TAG, dodgeball, and don't get hit by the ball (you really like to get hit by the ball).
You overcame adversity. A very pretty female teacher kind of made you too shy to even enter the building for many weeks. We thought you might want to hang up your belt, but you chose to continue and continue working at karate.
You had fun!
You grew so much. When you started you could hardly hold still long enough to participate in activities, but now you have poise, patience, and preparedness. You have grown so much as a Little Rhino, and we are SO proud of you.
This may sound a bit like a 'goodbye' to karate. And in a way, it is. You're going to take a little bit of time off from Karate to really focus on Swim classes, which you really, really like!
But, it doesn't have to be goodbye- it's just a pause for now. You can always suit up with your black stripe again if you so-choose.
And, swim lessons are right next door to the Dojo, so you'll always be able to drop in and say KI-AH!
We are so proud of you, and so proud of what this accomplishment up 9 belts in about 18 months means for you.
You can do anything you set your mind to, and you are a great example for others.
Every class ends like this:
Salute to the flag.
Salute to your instructors.
Salute to your families.
You run -and salute- off the mat into your family's arms with a huge grin and a sense of accomplishment. You are proud. And we are SO proud of you, our little black-stripe karate kid.
TANG SU!
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