Black Belt Essay
By Maia Cormier
My name is Maia and I have been doing karate for about 6 and a half years now. I’m going up for my Teen Black Belt.
I started doing karate when I was 5 years old and have been doing it ever since. When I started doing karate, I was very quiet and shy. But now, I’m not as quiet and shy. I know now that karate was good for me because it made me more confident in myself. It also made me start speaking up more often.
When I was 6 years old, I got my Dragon Black Belt right before I moved up to Juniors. Once I moved to Juniors, I started doing tournaments.
I have now competed in 6 different tournaments. To get up in front of a large group of people and do karate takes a lot of skill and courage. Tournaments are a great way to show you have skill and courage. My favorite tournaments are the two where I have done my favorite form - Statue of the Crane. I really remember the tournament where I did board breaking. That was a tremendous challenge for me. I tried time and time again to break the boards. I kept trying and didn’t give up. Karate has taught me to persevere and with a lot of effort I eventually broke all of the boards.
Then, in March of 2020, when I was 8 years old, COVID started and, at first, there was no karate. Then, they started remote classes. After doing remote and outdoor classes for a while, there were classes at The Dojo. But, we still weren’t making contact. Learning karate without making contact was very challenging. For nearly 2 years now, karate has been back to normal as a contact sport.
I was 9 years old when I did my first Boot Camp to earn my Junior Black Belt. Boot Camp taught me to never give up even when it was really hard. Since then, I’ve grown my karate skills as a Junior Black Belt by pushing myself to become stronger both mentally and physically.
This is my second Boot Camp. Boot Camp isn’t easy and that’s part of why getting a Black Belt is so special. Even when you feel like you can’t keep going, you have to remind yourself that you can do it. If you work hard and try your best, you do deserve it. Believe that you are capable of doing what you
are doing. Having the opportunity to do Boot Camp is an honor that you should be proud of.
Learning perseverance in karate has helped me in other ways as well, not just in karate. It has helped me in school and in horseback riding by teaching me to work hard and never give up - no matter what.
To be a black belt means you’ve worked hard. To me, being a black belt means you have achieved something very few people have or will ever achieve. Even when you are frustrated, know you can do it! Think about how it will feel to sprint across that finish line on Black Belt Testing Day. I can’t
wait to have that feeling on May 13th!