When I first started in martial arts there was one evening that massivelt influenced whether I would succeed or not.
We had just finished class and had circled up for the finalbit of advice. Shun Shifu Perez had entered and was at the front ready to speak. We all anxiously awaited his wise words.
There were about 30 people in the class. All very new white belts. Enthusiastic and eager.
He told us to look around. To look at each person in the group. To look at their face and make eye contact.
He then told us that IF any one of us made it to the next level that none of the people that we now saw would be there.
I don’t know what got into me that night but I got angry. Very angry.
By that point in my life I had had a lot of discouragement thrown at me. I had just finally got out of two years in an out of the hospital. That had left me with the loss of sight in one eye. That having happened just at the start of my college years I had lost out on what I had thought was a bright college future as well.
At that point in my life I really wasn’t one to fight back against the misfortunes of life. I wasn’t one to reject the discouragement thrown at me.
But at that moment, for reasons unknown to me, I was. Instead of facing the reality that statistically I would not make it and because I did not seem to be one of the stronger students in class I was very unlikely to make it, instead I got angry.
And the anger of that moment has carried me for decades.
“EFF U Shun Shifu Perez”
Thank You Shun Shifu Perez!