Well, I Passed

I feel good about something today and really, it just occurred to me that this is something to be proud of. Now, I already knew it was something to be proud of, but I have a different reason for being proud than everyone else who passed too. Let's back up a bit.

When I started this year with the idea that I'd put things in my life to keep depression at bay, I had the idea to improve myself physically, spiritually, and mentally. Spiritually I had hoped to start attending various churches and temples and expand my spiritual knowledge; this never materialized however. Mentally, I was going to start taking classes (still hasn't happened), I would read a lot, and I put my thoughts into words using my blog. And as for improving myself physically, I had hoped to either join a gym or start taking some self-defence class or something. Well, after looking into a few including tae kwon do and tai chi, I remembered that there was a gym near my house that I'd seen called Ohio Krav Maga & Fitness.

I sent the person in charge, named Terri, an email saying that I'd like to stop by and watch a class to see if I was interested. She told me to come in for the intro class on thursday night, so I did. And, while I had only hoped to sit in the corner and see what the hell krav maga actually was, it wasn't long before Terri told me that I should go ahead and just try it out. The intro class wasn't bad, you learn the proper way to punch, throw knees, elbows, and do a clench. "Hey", I said to my mom, who was there watching as well, "That was fun!" Combined with the intro class you get to stay for the Krav 1 class which occurs immediately afterwards. Turns out the Krav 1 class is a lot more intense than the simple intro. About twenty minutes into the class I felt like I was going to pass out from exhaustion. I stumbled into the bathroom to splash cold water on my face and lean my face on the cold wall. And though it sucked, and it hurt, and I kinda thought I was gonna die by the end, I finished it. I didn't know what it would mean to me but I left knowing that I was going to stick with this gym.

And so, since that time in March, I've gone to a krav 1 class a couple times a week. In May I went to spring training camp and learned to take guns away from people who are pointing guns at me, I learned third party protection, workplace shooter defense, and aggression training. The point is, yesterday I took my level one test. In short, it was probably the most painful and difficult physical thing I've ever done. Now I've done some crazy difficult things before, hiking through Peru was doubtlessly harder and, obviously, longer, but the difference is I didn't have people hitting me and chocking me the entire time.

Well, I passed. And with that I'm proud of the fact that I accomplished something that assuredly not all 25 of us passed yesterday. But more importantly, I'm proud that I actually stuck with something that I decided to start this year. If you look back at my first blog on this site, I wanted to completely recreate my life. I was unhappy with almost every aspect of my life and I wanted to change it all. Well, of course that was rather unlikely and not very honest, but this is the one thing that actually has changed my life. And I'm really proud of that.