Joey Martial Artist?

Hiya.  So, a little background.  My dad is really in to karate, like he’s a forth degree black belt.  I don’t know if it was a kind of unspoken rule that his kids practice the marvelous art, or if most of us just wanted to, but I am my father’s daughter.  I wanted to learn, but, I’m sure, you can see one obvious issue.

Nonetheless, in 2009, when I was still in college, I saw, in the PE category, Self Defense/Martial Arts.  Awesome, I thought.  I’ll do it.  Everybody should know how to defend themselves.

To simplify things, I was the only crip student in a class of nine.  No biggie, I thought-I suspected as much.  However, I was a bit surprised to learn I was the only disabled person my teacher Ever taught.  I expressed that, given my obvious challenge; I was more than willing to give it my all, but, throughout the semester-despite my positive and eager spirit and my physical arm strength-it became clear that my teacher a) had no idea how to handle me, and b) really wasn’t interested in learning something he didn’t know.

I finished the class, earning my yellow belt with everybody else, but I really did not feel like he allowed me to be as active in the class as he stressed to everybody else.  Despite that experience, I still really want to learn, but I don’t know who is open-minded to teach somebody different.

Having said all that, my teacher did say two things that really stuck with me, after all, I am into Psychology.  1. “Nobody ever walked away from an exercise program and said they wished they hadn’t wasted time doing that.”  Think about it.  Yeah, you might go, “Oh, man, I’m so tired,” or something like that, but-provided you did it properly-have you ever said exercising was a waste of time?

And 2. “After you’re 18, and absolutely after you turn 21, you are in Full control of Each decision you make.”  Let’s make this world an open-minded, loving one for all people.