Martial Arts has been apart of me for many, many years. I started Martial Arts around 1992. I was born 1984. That means that I was 7 1/2 when I started Martial Arts. I don't even recall exactly how I got interested in Martial Arts. I do remember asking my parents if I could learn Karate. I did Tae Kwon Do and I reached brown belt. Tae Kwon Do is not my [[Martial Art]] of choice but it was a nice learning experience and a good form of Martial Arts to start as a child. After I reached my brown belt, I realized that this was not the Martial Art that I wish to continue on for the rest of my life. My parents told me that I had to let my instructor know personally. I didn't want to confront him myself. I was scared of letting my instructor down. I was his best student and I was one of the few that he didn't pick on. I confronted my instructor and let him know that I no longer wanted to practice Tae Kwon Do. I could tell that he was disappointed in me and I felt the pain like a stab to the heart. I didn't want him to look down on me but I knew that I couldn't go on in Tae Kwon Do. I took a short break and then joined Kosho Ryu. Kosho Ryu is not very well known and it is its own form of Martial Arts. There really isn't a form of Martial Arts out there [[like Kosho Ryu]]. I remember the day I joined. They told me I could keep my brown belt but I felt that wouldn't be right. I told them that I didn't believe it was right to keep my belt in this form. They told me that it would be because I earned the belt that I own. I told them that wasn't the point and the point was that this was a very different form from Tae Kwon Do. I felt that by wearing this belt in Kosho Ryu would be a deception of my knowledge. Keep in mind that I was only a child while I was thinking like this. My first lesson, I had to wear my brown belt to class because my white belt had not come in yet. The students gasped as I walked in (I'm not kidding) and they asked me if I was really a brown belt. I told them that I was truly a brown belt but not in this form. I told them to ignore my belt because they would not see this belt again after I had received my white belt. While in the Martial Arts school, I had worked my way up the latter and earned a couple nick names in the process. My first nickname from them was The Rat because of my fighting style. I would use defense until corner and then I would attack full blown once I had no where to run. Then the head instructor started to call me his little warrior. I was a very small girl so it was appropriate. I became a very serious student and I feel I was highly respected. I earned the snake badge because of my speed and accuracy. I was very honored by my snake badge and I felt I earned it. While practicing Kosho Ryu, I attended many tournaments. I remember one of my tournaments I attended where I was fighting in the female, intermediate, light weight, lower rank belt, sparring for younger age groups. This young woman who was at least a few years older than me, twice my size, twice my rank, and certainly not light weight missed her fight and asked the judges permission to let her compete in our fight. All the girls were terrified. I'll say that I wasn't exactly feeling brave either but I would take her on if I must. My first fight was not a problem. Then sure enough, the final round was between myself and the large young woman. She was not following the contact rules in which it was you were to use light to no contact period. I didn't really care about the contact because I didn't get hurt easily. I got one point in on her and I believe she was highly upset because she started to attack even fiercer. She did a side thrust kick to my hip, I went flying several feet out of the ring, and I was knocked flat on the ground. It didn't hurt but that could have been from the adrenalin. The judges ran over to me helping me up. The young woman was about to be disqualified but I told them that it was fine and I wished to continue the tournament. Well just say that I lost the fight 1 to 3. That was fine with me because the challenge was great and I did better than any of the other girls in my ring. Sadly, these Martial Arts weren't making enough money and had to shut down. However, I was lucky that one of my instructors lived in my home town and wanted to home school me. I agreed without hesitation. We worked hard together and I became a very good fighter unfortunately, my instructor had wounded his knew at work and was no longer able to teach me. This is where my Martial Arts training had been cut off. I will continue Martial Arts again as soon as I have the money to attend a school. Martial Arts are too much a part of me to give up at this point. I spent the bare minimum of 9 years in Martial Arts and I do not wish to stop there. When I start my training again, I most likely won't mention that I have had prior training in a Martial Art unless asked to prevent biased training.
