Savanna Keown
I slid on my white karate uniform, clean and crisp, while my heart pounded. I put on a white belt for the first time in three years. I grabbed my bag that contained a head gear, hand pads, feet pads, and a mouthpiece and headed to the car.Marty required all of these things that I had, including a white suit, white belt, and pads, to get my black belt. I knew that may become one of the biggest moments of my life because not just any average person can get their black belt. During the ten minute drive to the karate studio, my heart leaped out of my chest. I don’t think I had ever experienced that extent of nervousness.
The car pulled up under the “Marty Knight Karate Studio” sign, old and raggedy, and I became even more nervous. My parents went and parked the car and I went in to put down my sparring gear. When I walked into the karate studio I could tell that something wasn't right, but I just couldn’t put my finger on it. So I walked in, put my stuff down and sat on the mats like they told me to until the test began. Then I realized that Marty, the karate instructor wasn’t there. Just when I realized this, one of the members of the board, the group of black belts that decide if you passed your black belt test, announced that Marty just had to go to the emergency room and that we would have to do the test without him. At that point I didn’t know whether to be happy or worried about this. On one hand, without intimidating Marty it would be easier to test, but on the other now that Marty wasn’t there the board might make the test harder . But you got to do what you got to do and I had to take this black belt test.
“Everybody stand up, helicopters out, attention, turn to the flag, respect, turn to your instructor, respect. Run.” With that, we started stretching and my black belt test had begun. We stretched out really well and then we sat back down while the board decided what to do first. Silence filled the karate studio because off all the nervousness and because just like a test at school, we couldn't talk under any circumstances. We started out with our forms, there are seven. I flew through the first six with ease and then began the last one, the black belt form, the hardest one of them all and I just knew that I would forget a part of it. I talked myself through it and then became very relieved when I came to the end. I went through that form with ease just like the white belt form and happiness filled me. Next came the balance kicks. I had to do fifty balance kicks on each leg to show that my balance met the standards of what it takes to become a black belt. I had practiced these so they came very easy to me also. Then came the conditioning part of the test, during this I had to do one hundred push-up and seventy five sit-ups. This was probably the second hardest part of my test, but I made it through with someone there counting each push up and sit up. Then we moved on to the choke escapes. There are ten of these and it’s just different ways to get out of choke holds. I had known these since I became a yellow belt and I could fly through them. Now we had only two more parts left to the test, the fighting combinations and sparring. First we did fighting combinations. These are called out to you so this was probably the easiest part of the test and wasn't a problem for me. "YES, the test is almost over," I thought to myself. Little did I know that it had just begun and the next hour was going to be the hardest thing I had ever done.
I went and put on all my pads, starting with my feet pads, then my head gear, and then my hand pads. I was all padded up and sitting in the spot I was told to. We have to wear pads because we actually fight each other, the class is kick boxing, so we could get really hurt if we didn’t wear pads. They split all the people testing into different sections of the studio and the board members lined up in front of us to fight us. We would start fighting and then the bell would ring to tell you to switch fights. We fought a couple of rounds and then the yellow belts dropped out of the sparring because they had finished and had earned their yellow belts. We fought some more rounds and the orange belts dropped out, then the green, blue, and purple. The people testing for their brown belts and their black belts were still left to spar after about 45 minutes of straight sparring with no break. Then the brown belts dropped out. Breathing heavily, only black belt testers were left while we struggled to fight. The board of black belts had no mercy on a girl my size and they still hit me hard, too hard. Sweat dripping, I wanted to quit and tears started to well up in my eyes, but I knew I couldn’t, I just had a few more minutes to go. After a very long hour of sparring and getting beat up, the final bell rang and there is no word that describes how happy I became at that very moment. I clumsily took all my pads off and went to sit where they told me to. Now we would hear the verdict, who passed their test and who didn’t. All the board members lined up in front of us and if you passed they would call your name and you would walk down, get your belt and shake each person’s hand. They called the yellow belts, then the orange, then the green and so on in the same order that they had dropped out of the sparring. When they got to the black belts I was holding my breath because I felt so nervous. Then they called my name, Savanna Keown. I DID IT! I EARNED MY BLACK BELT! I walked down and shook everyone's hand that was on the board, some of which were my friends from karate class. I felt so happy and so tired at the same time. My legs felt like spagetti and I thought I might fall to the ground at any moment. Everyone began clapping for us and I started smiling from ear to ear. That was such an accomplishment for me and to this day, my grandpa still talks about how tough I am because he saw me endure one of the hardest moments of my life.
The car pulled up under the “Marty Knight Karate Studio” sign, old and raggedy, and I became even more nervous. My parents went and parked the car and I went in to put down my sparring gear. When I walked into the karate studio I could tell that something wasn't right, but I just couldn’t put my finger on it. So I walked in, put my stuff down and sat on the mats like they told me to until the test began. Then I realized that Marty, the karate instructor wasn’t there. Just when I realized this, one of the members of the board, the group of black belts that decide if you passed your black belt test, announced that Marty just had to go to the emergency room and that we would have to do the test without him. At that point I didn’t know whether to be happy or worried about this. On one hand, without intimidating Marty it would be easier to test, but on the other now that Marty wasn’t there the board might make the test harder . But you got to do what you got to do and I had to take this black belt test.
“Everybody stand up, helicopters out, attention, turn to the flag, respect, turn to your instructor, respect. Run.” With that, we started stretching and my black belt test had begun. We stretched out really well and then we sat back down while the board decided what to do first. Silence filled the karate studio because off all the nervousness and because just like a test at school, we couldn't talk under any circumstances. We started out with our forms, there are seven. I flew through the first six with ease and then began the last one, the black belt form, the hardest one of them all and I just knew that I would forget a part of it. I talked myself through it and then became very relieved when I came to the end. I went through that form with ease just like the white belt form and happiness filled me. Next came the balance kicks. I had to do fifty balance kicks on each leg to show that my balance met the standards of what it takes to become a black belt. I had practiced these so they came very easy to me also. Then came the conditioning part of the test, during this I had to do one hundred push-up and seventy five sit-ups. This was probably the second hardest part of my test, but I made it through with someone there counting each push up and sit up. Then we moved on to the choke escapes. There are ten of these and it’s just different ways to get out of choke holds. I had known these since I became a yellow belt and I could fly through them. Now we had only two more parts left to the test, the fighting combinations and sparring. First we did fighting combinations. These are called out to you so this was probably the easiest part of the test and wasn't a problem for me. "YES, the test is almost over," I thought to myself. Little did I know that it had just begun and the next hour was going to be the hardest thing I had ever done.
I went and put on all my pads, starting with my feet pads, then my head gear, and then my hand pads. I was all padded up and sitting in the spot I was told to. We have to wear pads because we actually fight each other, the class is kick boxing, so we could get really hurt if we didn’t wear pads. They split all the people testing into different sections of the studio and the board members lined up in front of us to fight us. We would start fighting and then the bell would ring to tell you to switch fights. We fought a couple of rounds and then the yellow belts dropped out of the sparring because they had finished and had earned their yellow belts. We fought some more rounds and the orange belts dropped out, then the green, blue, and purple. The people testing for their brown belts and their black belts were still left to spar after about 45 minutes of straight sparring with no break. Then the brown belts dropped out. Breathing heavily, only black belt testers were left while we struggled to fight. The board of black belts had no mercy on a girl my size and they still hit me hard, too hard. Sweat dripping, I wanted to quit and tears started to well up in my eyes, but I knew I couldn’t, I just had a few more minutes to go. After a very long hour of sparring and getting beat up, the final bell rang and there is no word that describes how happy I became at that very moment. I clumsily took all my pads off and went to sit where they told me to. Now we would hear the verdict, who passed their test and who didn’t. All the board members lined up in front of us and if you passed they would call your name and you would walk down, get your belt and shake each person’s hand. They called the yellow belts, then the orange, then the green and so on in the same order that they had dropped out of the sparring. When they got to the black belts I was holding my breath because I felt so nervous. Then they called my name, Savanna Keown. I DID IT! I EARNED MY BLACK BELT! I walked down and shook everyone's hand that was on the board, some of which were my friends from karate class. I felt so happy and so tired at the same time. My legs felt like spagetti and I thought I might fall to the ground at any moment. Everyone began clapping for us and I started smiling from ear to ear. That was such an accomplishment for me and to this day, my grandpa still talks about how tough I am because he saw me endure one of the hardest moments of my life.
4 comments:
I liked your first sentence. It had great details and descriptions. I could imagine what you were talking about.
I love how you describe everything! I can picture it really well in my mind.
Yeah I agree with Lizzy.
Your first sentence is awsome! It really stuck out to me.
Gosh I could imagine how painful it was. 100 push-ups, gosh I would literally die.
Well said.
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