Blue Belt

Chapter 2

                                                                            II.

  

 

            We were making good time, it was 1:30PM and I expected we’d be in L.A. by 2:30PM or so for the transfer down to Oceanside.  I was amazed how sweet these buses were now, with their big plush seats, ample leg room, a small LCD screen hanging down from the overhead every four rows, and what seemed like floor to ceiling windows on all sides.  I could see the gorgeous mountain range off to our West as we traveled South.

            I was on my way down to Oceanside to attend the Oceanside Karate Institute.  While my parents were hesitant, I had been determined to make it happen.  I wanted badly to do something that made sense to me.  The academic scene was not right for me at this point in time and I wanted a chance to build something which could make me feel better versus what I had accomplished at the end there in track.  Lane and I had always admired martial arts, and really he deserves the credit for sparking my motivation.  I think that this was probably bound to happen the moment I cut the advertisement out of Lane’s magazine and stashed it away in my room.  The countless times I looked at it my Senior year, not really sure if it was something I wanted to follow or not, were a hint to me that I finally followed up on.  Talking to Lane’s contact on the phone in June also pushed me over the edge to pursue this plan.

            Lane had gotten me in touch with a student attending OKI and a local community college down there.  Unlike me, he wanted to get his two year degree, receive an honorary belt from OKI, and then go to a bigger college in San Francisco.  The thing that impressed me most in talking with him on the phone was his enthusiasm for what he was doing.  I could tell he was going somewhere, and not just to check things off of a list, but because he had a passion for it.  His personality, even just over the phone, was infectious to me. 

            But I was also sent some good literature from OKI itself along with a signed personal letter from its director, Mr. Aaron Reeder.  What flew off the page is the intensity of all of this.  Lane won me over to martial arts in his desire to be a “tougher” person, and for his want to be able to defend himself and build up his physical stature.  But OKI, and this literature, won me over in its claim to follow through on this promise.  A percentage of the program graduates even went to other countries to further pursue their martial arts goals.  But it was a very specific on site program that interested me which included an optional work study option.  I was going to work thirty hours a week in addition to my training.  Mr. Reeder stated in the brochure that he believed in a “well rounded” approach to martial arts. 

            The pieces just seemed to fall in place for this in terms of the door being opened.  I used a couple of references from the track team, went through a couple phone consultations with administrative folks down at the school, and from there it ended up clicking into place.  The first year went through early June, and I was to start in mid-August.  I never went down to visit in advance, but from the literature and everything else, just did not feel I needed to.

            Both my parents, including my brother, tried to convince me not to go at all.

            “Do you realize how much money you could make working if you’re not going to go back to school full time?”  They would say.  “Why the sudden interest in karate?”  But again, they did not provide the full resistance.  I think that they felt they did everything they could for me this past year and they too saw some of the challenges I had faced and wanted to allow me to do something that at least gave me what they saw to be a glimmer of hope.  And both my parents worked a lot, and my brother was in school full time, so although some resistance was there, including some nagging and questioning, they would not fight me too hard on it.  But I had wanted to be stronger physically too.  And I, like my brother, wanted to do things full bore.  I guess this is what sets this experience apart from taking karate and working back home.  There was something about this place that made me believe I could be a stronger person, and not just physically.  I think my parents knew this about my motivation as well and it was yet another part of the reason they let me pursue it.