Doing some TaeKwonDo at the North Carolina Seminar really put me down memory lane. I used to attend Young’s TaeKwonDo way back in the 90s when I was a little kid in middle school. My parents made me take classes to boost my confidence and have me active in an activity. And boy was I active. I remember going to class EVERY. DAY.
I didn’t manage to keep much of my TKD days. All the trophies and belts are gone. I did manage to find some medals that my mom mailed me a while ago and my black belt. At least. The belt has a bit of a scuff or something on it. I’m going to try and clean that up eventually. It’s just sad realizing I went through so many belts and at one point, my Dad had created something to hang each belt up on: white, yellow, orange, green, purple, blue, brown, red, and black.
The pictures are a strange size. I was testing out the full image function on my cellphone’s camera. I used it a ton for the seminar weekend. I wish that I had been better at kata when I was doing TKD, but I was more of a sparring person. I did my first tournament when I was a white belt. I still remember being paired up against a girl that was much larger than me, and she had a yellow belt. I barely remember anything beyond her kicking me in the face at one point. But I won all my matches in that tournament!
Attending TKD was also one of the things that helped me get glasses when I was in 7th or 8th grade. I was having a hard time seeing anything and never spoke up about it to anyone. My grades in school had slipped because I wasn’t able to see the board. My karate instructor mentioned to my Mom that I had to lean forward quite a bit during class and was squinting a lot. So she took me to get my eyes examined… and I promptly was given glasses.
I don’t believe that Master Seo Young’s school in my hometown is owned by him any longer. I think it ended up being sold. There’s actually a chain of Seo’s Martial Arts in Georgia now that’s being run by his son, Shane. So that’s at least comforting to know something from my childhood still exists in some form or another.
I still remember the student oath we’d go through in every class:
- Observe the tenets of Taekwondo.
- Respect all seniors and instructors.
- Never misuse Taekwondo.
- Be a champion of freedom and justice.
- Help to build a more peaceful world.
The tenets of Taekwon-Do are:
- 1 Courtesy
- 2 Integrity
- 3 Perseverance
- 4 Self-control
- 5 Indomitable spirit
I’ll be honest… middle school me had a very hard time reciting the last bits of the student oath so they’re fuzzier. I really need to brush off my TKD forms. It might be nice just to get back into practice. Looking through videos, I think I’ve begun to realize that the TKD I did follow a lot of the ITF (International TaeKwonDo Federation) rules. When I looked at videos of the “white belt” form, I recognized the Chon-Ji and not the Songahm 1 which comes from the ATA ( American Taekwondo Association). I’ll have to do some more research.
Anywho, thanks for stopping in and reading my post today!
Atelier Whootique 