Grading

Today, I graded for my Zenshin Karate green belt (4th kyu).

I enjoy gradings and even the fact that I had to go for a run before (I hate running!) didn't detract from the occasion. Not that it was a very long run...

It doesn't seem so long ago that I was a white belt and I remember my first grading quite well. I was looking in awe at what the higher belts had to do. What seemed far away and almost unattainable at the time is now reality. As I'm progressing through the kyu grades, my fitness level is improving along with my skills. Sometimes I get caught up in it all and it's good to reflect on the progress made, rather than looking at that oh so distant goal of shodan. And knowing that that is where it really all begins, that's a big task ahead.

Well, it's the journey that's the most important to me, and the little milestones which I reach on the way, a skill attained here, a problem overcome there.

So the new belt is a milestone, one of the bigger ones. But the best thing about it is that I'll be learning new stuff now, new moves, new katas.