Two Major Milestones



Yesterday I received two very important notices, both representing major milestones in the ever-growing resume that is my life. The first notice came in the mail and informed me that next month is my ten year high school reunion. The second came later that night from my senseis when they let me know I’ve been invited to test for second degree black belt, something that will also be happening in June. Yeah, it was one heck of a day for your man Adam.

Testing for second degree black belt is something that entered my mind about a year ago. I had been coming back to karate regularly for a while, and even started going twice a week at around that time. I think I had a few motivations, but oddly enough one thing that wasn’t a motivation was the amount time I had been a first degree black belt. For some reason that never bothered me as in my 20’s I discovered it’s much more important to really know the material than to just be able to show it. Looking back perhaps that’s because unlike the vast majority of people in class I’ve actually had to use my martial arts skills, I was not the tallest tree in the forest growing up, so I know the importance of actually being able to do the moves.

My first motivation for wanting to test was simply to have a good long workout. Yeah, crazy, I know, but I’m so motivated at the gym that I’m pretty sure I can take whatever they throw at me at the test. I’m in the best shape of my life, far better than when I tested for black belt all the way back in 1994 (I told ya it had been a while!), and the nutrition aspect of my life is also completely on point. So I guess my own personal ego could be considered reason number one for wanting to test, not the ego of wanting another stripe on my belt, but rather the ego of seeing how much more prepared I am for the actual test than everyone else.

Reason number two I’ve been wanting to test is that I’ve seen some higher ranking black belts in class and straight up and down, I think I’m better than they are and there’s no reason I shouldn’t have at least the same amount of stripes on my belt as they do. It’s never cool to rip your peers but I know why my eyes see. I see a lot of people who only want to take one aspect of what we’re doing and focus on that rather than attempting to understand and work on the whole thing. Perhaps it’s because I’ve been doing this for 20 years, maybe that’s why I’ve grown into it in such a way, but whatever the case may be that’s been my other motivation for getting that test invite.

The black belt test is only a few weeks before my ten year high school reunion. In the span of ten weeks I will have done something every weekend except for one, which is still open for scheduling. Talk about stacking my weekends! I’m really looking forward to seeing all my old classmates again, even the ones I wasn’t friends with. We were all pretty much jerks in high school, I think it’s actually in the job description of being a teenage boy that you must be a jerk of some kind throughout high school, but it’s been ten years and we’ve all grown so much, it will be interesting to see how we all turned out.

The reunion dinner will be in a place I know pretty darn well, the Barone Campus Center at Fairfield U. For those of you who’ve been paying really close attention you already know that’s where WVOF is, so I’ll be having my ten year reunion dinner in a building I will have been in twice earlier in the week, including that Friday! I find this hilarious. I literally laughed out loud when I saw the listing on the notice and jokingly said to myself “gee, wonder how I’ll ever find the place.” Heck I may even know the DJ who’s on the air at the time.

We all have certain events in our lives that we look back on as major and I can see both of these being of that kind of importance. I also think I’m having one heck of a two month run that will have included speaking at Hofstra, testing for second degree black belt, going to my ten year reunion, attending ten concerts / events and going to a baseball game. Now if only I could place that dang feature story I have sitting here, then I’d really have something to talk about!

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