More thoughts on Gratitude

I am grateful for my training in the martial arts under Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim. I have been training with Great Grandmaster Kim for over 16 years. A long time. Yet seems like a blink of an eye. When I was 10 years old, growing up in Tennessee, I used to watch all the Kung Fu/Black Belt Theater movies on Saturday afternoons...Bruce Lee was my idol and Jackie Chan was a close second. I watched how the masters (usually an old man with a long gray beard) trained their students and I was always drawn to that. I wanted to run away to Korea to train in the mountains with a master... I used to say that a lot.

When I found Jung SuWon and Great Grandmaster Kim, it was amazing to me. First of all, that she was a woman, training in the martial arts and having attained the rank that she was...that was truly amazing to me. I had a hard enough time training in tae kwon do in college because my mom would say "girls don't do that! boys won't like you." I really didn't care. It was something I had always wanted to do. Yet my mom gave me a hard time about it. That Great Grandmaster Kim was able to not only start training in Korea but also to achieve the rank and the honors that she has achieved in the martial arts...that was awesome for me.

Jung SuWon was different because the training was not focused just on the color of the belt and on competing with others. (When I was in college, I trained for competitions...)

I liked the fact that the training was more traditional. When I learned more about Great Grandmaster Kim, I realized that I didn't have to go to Korea to find a master to train with in the mountains...I could come to Milpitas (now Fremont)!

The training at Jung SuWon has been unlike any training I have had before. Getting physically older is imminent...but feeling spiritually, mentally and emotionally younger has been an incredible side benefit to training with Great Grandmaster Kim.