Tae Kwon Do is a Korean martial art and the national sport of South Korea. At one point, it was the world’s number one martial art in terms of the number of participants. Tae Kwon Do teaches discipline, philosophy, self-defense and respect. I learned to be a better person because of my time spent at the dojang. A dojang in Tae Kwon Do is the equivalent of a dojo in karate. I have learned Tae Kwon Do for about 6 years, from when I was around five years old until I was eleven. I’m a second degree black belt and I was one of the youngest to have ever gotten a black belt.
I first started Tae Kwon Do because my mom forced me to join. She didn’t even ask me if I wanted to join or not. She made me join because I was a weak and lethargic little kid at a young age so my mom thought that it would be a good idea for me to get some exercise by practicing Tae Kwon Do. At first, I enjoyed it. It was fun and I actually enjoyed learning; but after a while, I started to not enjoy it as much. Everything got a lot more difficult and the instructors went a lot harder on me. I think they forgot that I was still just a little kid. They even made me cry one time by physically forcing me to do a full split for 10 full seconds. Although Tae Kwon Do wasn’t as enjoyable later on as it was at the start, it still had its good moments.
After reflecting back on it for a while, I have come to realize that I don’t regret practicing Tae Kwon Do. It has definitely helped improve myself overall, both physically and mentally.
