Change

 I have had Multiple times gone through change. Good and bad. Change is something in life that is a guaranteed. I have reacted multiple times in my life very negatively towards change. The best examples I have is Kung fu.

 When I joined Kung fu it was all for the wrong reasons and I stayed in it for the wrong ones as well. I started with a different school than Master Brinker’s. I started with another teacher that had connections to Master Brinker. My first instructor eventually sent me to Master Brinker’s school as a permanent. I was now in a new environment.

 I was an orange belt with 4 green stripes which meant at the time in the different school that I was almost ready for green belt. I just came to the new school and right away they cut off my green stripes and I had to start orange belt over.

  As a kid I was furious and resentful for them throwing away my “hard work”, but in reality they were making me apart of their school and had to re evaluate me to learn silent river kung fu way and go from there. 

 I was ignorant and kept that new attitude for the rest of my stay until 2nd degree brown belt. I took everything they did to me as an attack an unfair and making me try and jump through hoops to get what I want.

 They made Lao Gar (sorry if misspelled) now a new requirement to get your black belt. Before the only taught that form in a special class you could sign up for, but I did not and became even more resistant to them now forcing me to learn a new form I don’t know to get my black belt.

  I took the change as another negative and hoop, when it was designed to help me become a better martial artist. I took everything they through at me as “how dare they hold me back for my promotion to blue or green belt. How dare they. I know I am better and ready”I was not 

  All the instructors had nothing but my best interest for me and were offering me more tools to become better, not hoops. I eventually quit kung fu for 3 years. I thought of it as a scam and thought my life was better. It was mediocre.

  My mom was also a part of kung fu and I thought every year she failed the black belt test proved me right. I thought she would never get it because they rigged the system. Then one year she finally got it. She failed multiple times, but never gave up. She was sad, Sure when she failed, but it made her try even harder. It always made her reevaluate and try again.

  I finally saw what silent river kung fu was doing they made my mom not only a black belt, but a better person too. It’s not like she was horrible before, but she had better skills at coping with failure and taught me how to get back up.

 I came back to kung fu a changed person and saw now all the changes they made and continue doing so has always been them offering more tools at my disposal to become a better martial artist and a better human being. It was my choice to use the tools they offered and my choice to not use them. 

 I found using the tools offered helped me greatly and my goals changed in life and kung fu. I learned to evaluate change more often as an opportunity to improve or learn why the change was made. Most of the time change at kung fu is made to make all of us better martial artist or people in the long run. Kung fu has lots of repetition, but is also a living organism that grows and adapts with us as time goes on.

  Change can suck sometimes, but its not the end of the world. Maybe some change in the world or work, might be the wrong direction, but sometimes you got to ride the process out and see what the results might be, could be positive and so much better.

  In life change can be chaotic, but sometimes change is good and for all my experiences at kung fu I have yet to have a truly negative change at kung fu. If anything was negative it was because I had the wrong attitude and was closed off to new beginnings. Changes at the kung fu have always been better for the long run of things.

  Kung fu will change again and more tools will be given or altered to help us all. Change can be scary, but in reality it’s one of the few absolutes we have in life. 

 Anyways a really long blog today. Thank you for reading it. I do have numbers today.

Acts of kindness: 2150

Km: 1800

Sit ups: 8000

Push ups: 8000

Da mu hsing: 165

Drum stick form: 280

Spar: 108