“I signed you up for Taekwondo,” Mom said bluntly one normal, frigid, January afternoon. Mom was not usually this straightforward, but this time her delivery was different. 

“Why?” I responded. 

“Because you need to learn how to be more confident,” she said. 

Little did I know this would be the most important moment in my life, on an inconspicuous winter day.

Every belt I earned taught me an important trait. A trait that my class and I cultivated every day until it was mastered. Only then would we be able to move on to the next belt. Each trait was also posted on the wall for everybody to see when they came into class as a reminder of what they were learning. Not only was this method of teaching effective, it completely changed the way I looked at life.

White Belt -- Perseverance. Each day I went in, believing that I would be able to cruise through each level of belt by simply showing a shallow guise of hard work and determination. My instructor, a short, sturdy man named Master Kim, saw straight through it though. While stagnant at white belt, my classmates, who had been learning with me, were progressing at a faster pace, leaving me behind. I was confused, why am I not progressing as fast as the others? and then I realized… I was not truly invested in mastering the trait of perseverance. While I was trying hard, I was not exhibiting the dedication required to persevere through the challenges that I faced by learning the basic self-defense moves. The combination of gradually learning about how to apply the trait, along with finding myself in a situation that required the use of it, showed Master Kim that I was ready to test for my next belt. After countless days of hard work mastering perseverance, I was finally ready to be promoted to the next belt.

Blue Belt -- Responsibility. As a blue belt, a lot more was required of me. Not only in the dojang, but in life in general. This was my first year of high school and I was now the age where I was being relied upon more. This was also when I started to study the trait of responsibility. I now had to be responsible for my schooling, I had to be responsible for being helpful at home, and most importantly I had to be responsible for setting a good example to the younger generation. At home, I was a role model to my two younger sisters. At Taekwondo, I was a role model to the children. By using traits that I had learned from previous belts, like perseverance, enthusiasm, and hard work, I taught by example -- leading them to learn these traits that stuck with them intrinsically. Master Kim noticed the progression I made towards mastering the trait of responsibility and promoted me to the next belt.

Black Belt -- Confidence. The trait of confidence was the driving reason for why I started training in Taekwondo. It was a trait that I lacked my whole life up until then. The black belt test was a culmination of all my training I had done, which included confidence, and all of the traits that I had learned from past belts. Outside of Taekwondo, my increased confidence helped me accomplish important life events like getting my first job and getting more involved in school. In the dojang, my months of training concluded on one eventful day where intensity, emotion, and confidence were all utilized in a performance that impressed both my family and instructors. At the end of the testing, I gave a speech that summarized my learnings from Taekwondo.

I said, “Each new belt has brought me a fresh experience to Taekwondo that I haven’t been through before.”

Not only did the experiences I had and the traits we learn help me become a better student of Taekwondo; they also shaped me into a better person -- who I am today.