Friday, October 10, 2008

1st draft: Karate-do and I

What are you thinking when karate-so word comes into your mind? A man wear a white suit and black belt? Japan? Ninja Turtle? Or maybe a “ Wachaaaaa!!!!” phrase. Maybe some of you join karate and maybe some of you not joining it. It depends on the individual’s experiences to interpret the meaning of the words itself. Well, for me karate-do is something that use to be a part of my life. Thinking again, it’s been 3 years already I quit from this martial art and how I miss it so much.


The memory of five years ago is still fresh inside my mind. On that day, my friends boasted about karate performance that was made by Malaysian athletes in our institute’s hall. At that time, they were recruiting members for karate club and my friends asked if anyone interested in joining it. At first, I just ignored them since I was not interested in any activities that involve physical. For me I’m hopeless in anything that related to sports since I’m quite chubby ( or maybe I rather called it as fat) and doing those thing only make me look stupid in front of others. Therefore, I told myself like this;

‘ Meddy, look at yourself first and think carefully. Do you still want to join with this kind of physical ’

With this kind of thinking, I managed to ignore the desire to ask them about karate-do and joining the club.


However, I lost to the words of persuasion. My friend managed to persuade me to join it with beautiful promises about it. Her words is still ringing in my head right now and the most words that I can not forget is


“ Meddy…join it! You can be slim when you join it!”



That’s it! Hearing this words I was immediately took the form and signed it. Now, remembering it again makes me think how gullible I am at that time, easily fall into promises. Starting on that day, I become a karateka and the journey of my life just started here.

Being a karate member was not easy. I saw many people joined it half way and quit from it when they could not stand with the physical activities during the karate training. From sit up to running around the gymnasium and even jumping in the air, the training was like a hell to us. Our clothes were drenched with our sweat and some boys were managed to squeeze it from their clothes. Can you imagine how great the karate training is? The one and half-hour training was able to make our muscles pained and tired on the next day. When everyone saw all karate members walking like an old people, they already know that we had gone another hell training the night before and just smiled when looking at us.


If anyone asked me why I did not quit the karate-do during that time, I could not answer it. Honestly, never once the word quit ever leave my head from the first day I joined the club until the end. Every time I went through all the training, I was thinking of quitting the club because of many reasons. The feeling of incompetent physically comparing to my friends is the main reason why I wanted to quit from it. Seeing your other friends able to do thing that you could not do make me feel so sad. In addition, all of them are improving and become advance in front of me, whereas I was stuck at the back with no improvement. The desire to get out from the club became stronger and stronger . However, I could not manage to say about my intention to quit from the club to my sensei (karate’s instructor) and to all my friends. Searching of a good way in telling them so that nobody will get hurt, I did not realise that two years has past. Even though the intention to quit was still inside me, but it the desire become less and less from day to day. That time I did not realize that how I was improving a lot physically and mentally.



Throughout these 3 years, I reflected back what I have gone through during the time I joined karate club. Surprisingly, I did not realise how I improve a lot in my karate and become better in physical activities. I even can split my legs into two and sit on it comfortably. Remembering those memories could not stop me from smiling right now. But the most valuable thing that I ever got from karate training is confidence that I have within me now. Before this, I was not confidence in anything including in my studies. I prefer to be in the dark rather than going in front of speaking aloud about what I think and what I want to ask. Now, I become someone else. I gain my confidence and I’m not afraid anymore.


Karate taught me that if you did not have confidence within yourself, don’t you ever think about protecting yourself from the danger. In fact, the main reasons of you become strong are the confidence and belief on yourself as well as the strong will that you have within your heart. From this I learned that how important for me to be confidence and be strong within myself so that I would be able to face any obstacles in the future.


As the time pass by, life become more busy that before. A lot of commitments and lacks of time make me quit from karate-do. Thinking again, I am at loss when I quit the club. But, there are certain things in our life that we have to leave it even though we love it so much. Though I quit the club, but still I love karate so much and practised the principles that I learned during the training. For me karate-do will never dies within my heart forever.

9 comments:

yagami said...

First thing, u have revealed your identity, second, what do you mean by incompetent physically? maybe you should check some grammatical mistakes such past n present and I was immediately took the form should be: I immediately took the form

Ummi Nisrina Adni said...

What an interesting topic to share with us. You elaborate well on your feelings and you managed to capture my intention until the end of your writing.

I was once fat too and had a low self-esteem. I had experienced of being making fun off because no one know the reason why I became fat. After I went through the operation, all of those killing and hurting words stop. Your story is inspiring and maybe a little bit of editing, it will be perfect. Good job!

babysbreath said...

I still cant do split!!! Karate reminds me of Eito Ranger (although they don't do karate. Heheh!) Your essay was pretty good. Good flow and elaboration. Maybe a few grammar errors that need to be checked. Maybe you wanna add sweet memories you have when you entered karate.
~some things we have to leave behind when we are to busy nee? I miss those time as well...

fahmi said...

what a fun and motivated story. your story show that we can do what we want if we give our heart on it. Very good attitude when you not thinking about quit.

for me to make your story much more fun you should focus more on your memory learning karate. you also should tell more about moral valued you learn from karate.

karate is one of the sport beside of martial art. so you should strees on how joinning karate activity can improved your physical fitness.

nEuRuLe @z@Ni said...

that was a nice job to a beginner blogger like us. watch out for grammar mistakes.. maybe we can improve our draft next time. i like the way you use monologue or dialogue i your blog. by writing blog we can reflect our life journey and appreciate our life more...you are a good karate-ka i'm sure..i'm amazed that you are reducing weight and become more prettier and confident nowadays. not only because you join the karate but also i believe the strong motivation that you have in your self. keep up the good work and HIDUP karate! once i was the karate members too. and that was one of my BESTEST memory i my whole life..

lupikirlah sendiri said...

i love ur posting abt karate!! it reminds me of my sweet moments of it once upon a time huhu. i cant be more agree with u, so a compliment from me of ur good content, u express ur feelings in effective way ok gambate

hanmie7227 said...

Thank you for your lovely comments. I read it and a lot of you mention about grammatical mistakes. Can you point it out where is it.It would be lovely if you done so. Besides, i'm quite weak in recognizing in the mistakes that i have done.

cRix said...

hello...ano..is this one of your tasks? uwahhhhh すごい!!! いいですね!!!ne...so what should i comment? bout the contents? grammatical mistakes? hahahhaha i m fail both :D btw, keep those precious moments in your life journal. who knows maybe u can 'story-telling' to your kids? :D

Ummi Nisrina Adni said...

thanx for your comment too but can you clarify more on my grammatical errors so that I can improve on it. This is because you stated that there "maybe" a few grammatical errors in my writing. Is it that you are not sure yourself? This is because I am confused of the word "maybe". It is really appreciated if you can do so. Thanx =)