When I was young I was very active in extracurricular activities. I tried a multitude of different sports and hobbies to bide my time. I did sports like basketball, volleyball, softball, and cross country. I also found a love for music when I was learning to play the guitar and piano. However, the one thing I didn’t really think about was martial arts. That was until my fourth grade science teacher was sharing a story about her karate class. This immediately peaked my interest, she spoke about how karate helped her form more discipline in her life and how much fun she had earning the next belt. After I heard her speak about her love for karate I went straight to my mom to ask her if I could sign up for karate class. My mom said yes and the next week I was in my first class.

We spent the first class learning more about the rhetoric of karate and the importance of discipline. While I found this class quite boring as the most exciting thing we did was practice a simple punch. However, this was only the first class and I continued to hold out hope for the next one. The second class came around and we learned how we leveled up belts and practiced a punch and a kick. While I enjoyed this class a little more, I was starting to feel like no one in the class took it seriously. While I understood this was just an entry-level karate class, I hoped for a little more structure and practice.

What really bothered me was the way you earned the next belt. You would typically think that you would demonstrate what you learned to level up but, in order to get the next belt you had to do kind deeds. While I understood the sentiment, I was completely baffled that the way to level up had nothing to do with karate. I ended up telling my mom about it and she found it odd too. With this new information I decided after that class to quit. While I could have tried a little harder I couldn’t get past the lack of actual Karate was done during the classes and the unrelated way to level up. It’s as if someone was tasked to paint a flower to become CEO of a technology company.

While doing good deeds is a nice aspect to instill in children, it had nothing to do with the class I signed up for. I found that taking that karate class was entirely a waste of money especially after hearing what went on later in the class. My friend who also took the class and said the next five classes were about the same. They spent more time talking then actually learning karate. Karate could have been another fun activity but it turned into a bore. Not all activities may be right for everyone and some policies within the activity may not translate well.