Final Thoughts on the Cycle

It's over.  We're done.  Hopefully everyone did well and passed.  The mat during the Tea Ceremony is going to be crowded, though, that's for certain.

This Cycle was so different from the rest.  While I did, occasionally, question my sanity for signing up to do this all over again, I never actually found myself wanting to quit.  Both times before I had to remind myself, "Always finish what you start," in order to push through.  This Cycle was also full of injuries.  I sprained my ankle before it even started and that prevented me from getting back into sparring class prior to the start in July.  Then I damaged my finger in sparring class during Week 2.  Gabe tried to adjust her roll during Friday night's testing to avoid rolling into someone - and hurt herself in the process.  (For everyone following along at home, she's mostly fine.  Nothing is broken and she's got some medication to help with the sprain and the swelling and should be back in the mat in under a week.  We're both very grateful for everyone's concern and well-wishes.)

I learned an awful lot from the reading and research for my papers.  I also learned that one of the best ways to learn and train is with friends.  We didn't get to do it every week but getting together outside of the dojang really helped lock in all the new forms we had to learn.  This was also the first Cycle where Gabe and I really spent a lot of time training together at home and not just working on our own.

For me, there were a lot of new faces on this Cycle.  Like Master Evins said on Saturday, that single moment will never come again.  But Instructor (soon to be Master) Courtney tested with us three years ago and crossing paths with her again despite being at different schools was really awesome.

We heard on Saturday how every one of us that was on that mat brings different skills and abilities.  I also find that's true when we're training with any sort of instructor, Master or otherwise.  You'll learn different things from different people - I actually thanked Master Dege for drilling proper front stances during stick forms into my head.  I also learned from Master Shin that, yes, it's possible to do a speed break with a thicker board.  I thought he had grabbed the wrong board for me but he had more faith in my than I did.

I'm not quite as eager to jump back into the thick of things as I was after earning my First Dan and I know the next time around is going to be longer and harder than before.  Maybe it normally takes this long or maybe I'm just slow on the uptake but I'm starting to feel like I just might actually know what I'm doing.  Then again, that feeling will probably go away next Black Belt class once Master Evins start fussing at us all over something that we should already know.

Thank you all for being on this journey with me and I hope to see many of our new First Dans again on the Cycle in three years.  And thank you to all the Masters and Instructors who trained and guided me over these last three months as well as the last five and a half years.  Most of all thank you to my wonderful wife who is such a source of inspiration.  I hope this is the last time we're not on the mat together.