Bullies, taekwondo, moving on

As I prepair to grade for my black belt im taking advantage of the summer holidays to up my training and get into the best shape possible. The countdown timer on the right shows just how long I have to go before I grade. However my training regime will be in a later post as to be honest im not done getting up to what I want yet.

This post is in response to a thread on a martial arts forum ive stumbled across talking about the number of bullied children in their classes.

It got me thinking about the reason I start martial arts and how much the reason I train has changed over the years.

When I was younger ie a kid, I was the one that everyone picked on the little fat chubby geek who got some of the highest marks in the year but was always picked last in sports and never popular with the people in her year. The bullying in primary and early secondary school was always verble and never really upset me as far as im aware. I always had a solid group of friends so what other people thought of me was never really a concern, however by year 9 it had got a lot worse the school I went to at the time was split across two sites and break times were often spent unsupervised moving between the two sites.

On one day I was walking up to the upper site and this girl who had called me everything under the sun since year 7 was following my group of friends and me along with her gang. The name calling, throwing disgusting things such as banana skins, cigarettes etc was annoying but unfortuanly something I was used to. We eventually arrived at the upper site and thought that was the end of it for another few hours how wrong I was, afternoon break on that day is something I will never forget to this day.

One of the girls had a particular vendetta against me and it came to a head that day and ended with me getting a really good kicking before running home. After this was moved to a new school and my mam sent me to a taekwondo class she never thought id have the courage to stick it out or that I would want to.

6 years later im prepairing for my black belt (1^st Dan) grade which I will hopefully sit in December, looking back im glad my mam sent me down to taekwondo as it is something that I would probably never have had the courage to start but is something I now love.

What im trying to say is that bullies don’t have to shape a victims life in a negative way and in away id like to say thank you to that girl who attacked me as without that I most likely wont be training today and would have meet some of the great people I have along the way.

On the other hand id also like to go against everything in the tenants and discipline of martial arts and take on that girl 1 on 1 unlike what happened back then where it was a gang on one. This is just me trying to prove to her that I aint the little soft girl any more.

Bullies don’t have to runin lives anyone can over come it, its just a personnel battle which must be won.

old people - ignorance

Id just like to make it clear I normally offer my seat to old people and will hold doors etc open for them but this today has really got my back up. How rude can old people be they think that the world owes them something and that we should always consider them in everything we do.

My car is in the garage today so I got the bus to my work experience placement. It’s an hour’s drive away so around 2hrs on the bus which meant I left the house a 6am this morning.

Being the lazy person I am I had a shirt and black trousers on with my Leeds festival hoody pulled over the top. As the bus gets near to the hospital more and more patients going in for out patients appointments get on to the point that once you reach the hospital the bus nearly empties.

I was sat at the back in the corner as the bus filled it got to the point that the only free seat was next to me, this old lady gets on and walks to the back towards the seat however she then proceeds to stand tutting for the rest of the journey at the time I didn’t think anything of it and got off at the hospital.

An hour or so later im sat in observing the consultant and in walks the old lady off the bus. The look on her face was priceless and I though shed leave it at giving me a hacky look how wrong was I.

This little old lady proceeds to tell the consultant that I looked so threatening on the bus in my hoody and could have had a gun under it for all she knew. She then said to me was I aware hoodies are illegal now and that as student I should have more respect for the elderly and should have offered her my seat (Remember the seat next to me was empty).

Luckily the consultant calmly said to her that it wasn’t up to him what I chose to wear on my way into the hospital and that he frequently wore rock band Hoodies on weekends so did that make him threatening. He then asked me to step outside for that consultation.

The conversation when I came back in was priceless. Hopefully ill get my car back tonight or I have the same trip to make tomorrow. Which hoody do you think I should wear

Slipknot

Lordi

Leeds

Pink Gap

Taekwondo

You get the picture best bit is I look nothing like a chav or a goth

HCA - interview

I have another interview for a HCA job at a rather large teaching hospital on Wednessday. However it includes a skill for life assesment anyone have an idea what this is.

OMG

I didnt intend for this to become a martial art blog. However im hyper right now and need to let this out, ive been officially asked to put in for my DAN grade ie black belt grade.

Uni is over for the summer now and I start my work shadowing in two weeks so hoepfully more med application blogs from then on.