BLACK BELT PATHWAY ESSAY
By Rowen Stewart
Nov. 2024
Ever since I started off as a white belt, I have always questioned how far I would make it in my martial
arts journey. When I started, black belt seemed like it was so far away. When I was a white belt, I
sometimes thought I was not good at martial arts and sometimes I didn’t take it very seriously. Now, I
have more confidence, and I take my time that I get to train seriously. I have been doing this for six
years and counting, and I have met many friends along the way.
On what I said about making friends through this journey, I have gained and lost them through this path.
Some friends that I made were in another class than me or decided not to keep training martial arts. In
my black belt cohort, I became close friends with a really nice friend named Bryce. What I like about
Bryce is that he has brought me many fun times while we train together. He is a kind person, and he has
also helped me by telling me not to give up. Emiliano is another friend that I have made in the class. He
is a good friend to train with and we push each other so that we can get better at what we are working
on. Besides Emiliano and Bryce, I have made so many other friends along my journey to being a black
belt.
Thinking about how far I would make it, it has always been my dream to learn Karate and know how to
defend myself in that kind of situation. Once I started training and taking it seriously, my dream was to
earn my black belt. As a white belt and lower belt, I didn’t always take it seriously. I didn’t realize early
on that this was something I had a love for. But over time I have realized that this is something that I can
see myself doing for a while. There have been times where I wanted to quit but as I got further in the
journey, I realized that I can’t just quit. I couldn’t just quit because I knew that I had worked so hard and
for so many years to reach this goal. The late weeknights or the early Saturday classes where I had those
bad thoughts turned out to be some of the best classes.
Two life lessons that we talked about at journey were to be brave and spread kindness. I thought about
what this means when I was doing my service projects. With Meals on Wheels, I delivered meals to
people in the community who can’t go get their food. I thought this was a good way to show kindness.
In my other project I made holiday cards for soldiers who are overseas. To be brave means to face your
fears and the soldiers do have to do that when they are protecting our country. I felt happy after finishing
my project and hope that what I did made someone else know they are appreciated.
In conclusion, it has been an exciting journey, and it is nowhere near the end. I have learned so many life
lessons that most people my age really don’t have a chance to learn about. I have made friends at
Journey that I would not have met if I never started doing martial arts. As I got higher in the belts I
started training more seriously and now as a black belt candidate, I have realized that this is something I
can be good at, and I can always find something new to learn to get better. I feel lucky to have this
chance and I thank all the people including my family, my instructors, and my friends I have made for
helping me and not stopping.