10 year anniversary
Last evening we celebrated the 10 year anniversary of our martial arts school. Ten years was a wonderful milestone for the master and his family. Most martial arts schools are mom-and-pop businesses. Often, the family has "day jobs" in addition to teaching martial arts classes and running the school. It takes incredible dedication to provide an excellent martial arts education to students, test students for belt advancement, remain humble, and to keep growing as a martial arts professional. In the early years, the class was the master (left), his son (second from left) and his wife (right). Our school also survived a political shake-up almost three years ago that nearly destroyed us as a school. But our master and his family perservered, at great cost to their personal lives, and many loyal black belt students stood by their side. Several of us (including yours truly, second from right) received achievement awards for our long years of study, loyalty, skill, and other outstanding attributes.
This martial arts community is also like a family to many of the students, including myself. I have been attending for eight and a half years and I liken my feeling about it to the feelings many people have about church. There is a sense of ritual, the caring community, and sense of order and being rewarded for doing "good". How many institutions these days reward one for loyalty, skill, perserverance, and helping others? What institutions require that you respect each and every member that walks through the door, and insist that they in return respect you? Very few on both accounts, but a good martial arts school should do just exactly that.
Here's to another ten years. Thanks, master. And thanks to your family.
posted by junebee @ 8:40 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
So nice to see a business - or much more than that, as it seems - perservere. I respect that. Congratulations to you on your achievements and to the family for their contribution to the community.
Excellent! well done...and yes another ten yrs to good health!
Congrats!! That is a huge accomplishment in any job much less a venture like that.
Happy Anniversary, June!
You should be proud of your commitment and accomplishments.
Congratulations, Junebee!
I'm glad that you have been fortunate enough to be part of this community/family.
You raised some important questions here:
How many institutions these days reward one for loyalty, skill, perserverance, and helping others? What institutions require that you respect each and every member that walks through the door, and insist that they in return respect you?
It is pretty rare these days...
Take care out there, Junebee.
Your Pal,
Zambo.
That's great! What kind of martial arts do you do? I'd like to learn, but there are so many different kinds-- I'm not sure which one to go with.
Wendy: They have a couple of other businesses also that are thriving, and the master plays in a local rock band.
These people never stop...I wonder when they sleep!
Black Feline: Here, here!
Liz: I know, I don't think I've done ANYTHING for ten years! Except, you know, drink beer...
Spiderwalk: Thanks, I try to remain humble as I was trained.
Lagato: mmmm....drink...
Zambo: I know, when I wrote this, the only other example that came to mind is the military. And even they have secret hazing of underdogs or new recruits.
Chanchow: I study Hapkido, which is a Korean grappling art. It is similar to Aikido, which is what Steven Seagal does. For more info, click on my Royal Dragon Martial Arts link then click on Hapkido. It's a great method of self-defense for women because it uses joint locks to put the opponent in pain. It does not require major amounts of strength or high spinning kicks (which are great if you can do them, but not everyone can!). It does use kicks to the lower portions of the body.
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