| There's Nobody My Age! It is a common complaint. When students reach a certain age, and some of the other students their age have dropped out, they too begin to come less often to the dojo and complain that "There's nobody here my age!" Of course the result is that now there are less students their age and when another student that age shows up and finds fewer students, he too will echo this complaint. I always use the same analogy because it is so simple and so true. Someone comes to a party, takes a look around and sees there are very few people, decides it is boring, and goes home. A few minutes later two others show up, survey the scene and reach the same conclusion. They too go home, and so on and so on. By the end of the evening 50 people have come. looked inside, decided the party was boring, and went home. In the end only 10-15 people attended the party and it was declared a flop, another one will not be attempted. Of course had each of those 50 people stayed a little while others would have joined them and it would have been a really nice get together and everyone would have had fun, but instead each person thought only of the short run, and went home. Truly a shame. As our rabbis say "Who is wise? he who see's that which is yet to be born." If you want the dojo to have students your age, stay, others will join you. We have several adult students, they are not complaining that there is no one their age, sometimes they have to train with children. They are leading the way and hopefully others will follow and we will have an adult class. Be a leader, stay and train if you are serious, others will follow you. |