PROUD MOMENT

Last Saturday, May 31, 2008 was a momentous day in my son Ramie's life. After 7 years of training in Taekwondo, he has finally earned his Black Belt, 1st Dan. He had trained hard the whole summer and with some help from me completed his thesis requirement on time(earning for me about 5% of his black belt). The anticipation was high during the past week but he never showed that he was nervous even during the promotion date (although, afterwards he said he was actually very nervous). We left the house at about 1:30 PM and I dropped him off at the La Salle covered court where the promotion tests will be held. The whole process for the black belt involves demonstrations of all forms learned from yellow to high brown belt, a sparring session with 2 black belts and the braking of boards and blocks. There was also a welcoming ceremony which I had no idea about. I was the nervous one and was not really keen to watch the sparring because Ramie warned me that it could be scary. But even if I got back about an hour later, they were just finishing the red belts and haven't even started on the browns yet because the master who would be conducting the black belt promotion was a little late. After about 30 minutes, the master arrived and the promotion tests for the brown belts began. Soon, it was the group of Ramie. There were 7 of them, 3 for junior black and 4 for senior black. Ramie did the first part with flying colors! I was so impressed that he could do all the forms flawlessly...I know that it was tiring because this first part alone took almost an hour. Then came the sparring session...first it was one on one with 2 different opponents then, 2 black belts against the one (meaning Ramie) being tested. During the one on one sparring, Ramie took them on quite well, their kicks not really hitting him, in fact because he was big they would be the one falling when they try to kick him :) but when it was 2 against him, he took a hit in his face and while he was trying to shield himself with one of them, the other gave him a kick behind his head which stunned him! I could see him trying to get his balance back but he was really hurt and he fell flat on the floor! I stood up to see if he was okay but he didn't stand up, so that I walked towards where he was surrounded by all the players to check on him but just as I reached him, he stood up to get back to the mat and everyone cheered...but the master made a sign to discontinue the sparring. I think even he got worried that Ramie could be seriously hurt because hitting backside is dangerous...even if it was not intentional. I was so proud of Ramie...how brave he was and how he was able to have enough endurance to finish everything! Well, I thought this was his end-point but he told me, he's going to try for 2nd Dan which will be after 4 years...oh well, by that time hopefully, he will be graduated from college and I don't have to be his audience anymore. Oh, and all these taekwondo training have some other benefits...this semester of his sophomore year, he was awarded a 50% athletic college scholarship as part of his being a varsity player :) That gave me even more to smile about (^^)