access to Karate
It was January and the New Student had moved into his dorm room. One of the first students on campus, he was enjoying some independence. First time out on his own. It was an adventure.
He’d had some small adventures in the past couple years, working the weekends as a theatre projectionist, then transporting the weekend films down to the distribution center in the mighty metropolis to the south. He would spend his weekend’s earnings in the big city, trying to find work. He knew there were several attractive martial arts schools in the city.
He spent the fall semester in that routine, but it didn’t work out. He decided to go back to school, this time at the biggest school in the state. He was excited to get started.
In those days, students were given a class catalog on paper. It would show all the different classes being offered that semester. You’d figure out what classes you wanted, then go to the registration area at your appointed time slot, determined primarily by last name. There you would go to the different stations, one for each class offering. The students would end up with a small stack of computer punch cards, one for each class they are enrolling in. If all the cards were gone when the student got to the station, that meant the class was full. The student was out of luck.
Going through the class catalog, the New Student found, in the Physical Education section, “Introduction to Karate”. This was it! Finally, the student was going to be able to explore his passion. It was a bit scary. What was he getting himself into? It didn’t matter. He was going to do it. He hoped there would still be room in the class. He did not have a very early time slot for registration. Of course, it worked out. He got his punch card and was full of nervous anticipation for the first class, Tuesday of the next week.
Tuesday morning came and the student went to the gym. The class was held in the “dance” room, whatever that was. He walked in and found a large room with a hardwood floor, mirrors on the walls and ballet bars. Cool. The other students looked a lot like him, anxious to get started, but with an undercurrent of fear of the unknown.
The Sensei walked in wearing a warm-up suit, not a karate gi. He introduced himself, spoke a bit about the history of the art and demonstrated what we would be learning in this “introductory” class. The New Student was feeling more comfortable all the time. The material did not look that intimidating. The Sensei was very kind and had a way of putting his students at ease. This was going to be fun. It was going to be a step-by-step progression, each new lesson reinforcing the previous lesson and building on that previous lesson.
The New Student knew he had much to learn. He hoped he would do well. He was finally here, at karate class, where he had wanted to be for several years. Life was good.
To continue the story, look for the blog entry labled “White Belt: Fear…”.
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