Yes, it’s true. I’m still here and still in karate. I’m now a green belt. I’m officially half way to black. Big D is now a green belt too. Little D had joined us again and is an orange belt. We all began sparring classes for credit in January and doing well. Little D absolutely loves it. I swear, he wanted to wear his gear all day long the day he got it. He came up to me after his first class all sweaty and exausted with a big grin on his little face. Big D on the onther hand is still afraid to get hit. I think he’ll grow out of that as he gets better – which won’t take long at all. He has a wicket roundhouse kick that can reach my head. Once he learns to aim and control it he’ll be a force to be reckoned with. As for me, I’m enjoying sparring for the most part. It is a bit harder on me than the kids. I’m literally the oldest one on the mat – older than the instructors too. It hurts more when I fall and the bruises aren’t pretty, but I’m holding my own. I think the kids in the calss probably feel like they’re sparring with their mom when they get me for a sparring partner. They’re all really good about it and don’t give me a hard time. Some of them went kind of easy on me at first, but I didn’t want to be babied so I told them they can hit me. Stupid me – right after that I got a big spinning crescent kick to the head. It was a really nice looking kick and I saw it coming, just didn’t get out of the way soon enough. Oh well, I consider it a ‘learning opportunity!’
