cassandra hui
1st poom | september 2021

Hello fellow masters and peers, 

I am excited to have you here for my Black Belt grading. 

Three years ago, along with two of my friends, I joined the club, which then was known as Joon No’s Taekwondo. There I learned some of the fundamental skills in Taekwondo. I just had my first grading, and I was a green 1 when the club changed. The name was changed to WeiWu Taekwondo. Now I had two classes a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays. Everything was fine until I was yellow three. 

At around yellow three, two events happened. They probably affected my journey as I faced many dilemmas and hard decisions.
 
My best friend, also my mentor because he had done Taekwondo before, left because he had to move to a new house. He no longer attends my school anymore.

and I was given the opportunity to join the Warrior team.

When I joined the Warrior team, I now had four classes a week, not to mention the after-class poomsae training on Fridays. I was also too young to compete in sparring events. So I took up poomsae instead. I learned how to perfect my techniques and learn the right movements when I was in the Poomsae team.

As well as doing the Poomsae training, I did lots of Warrior training. Soon I got better and stronger. But I think I still preferred poomsae. 

Soon, my other friend left. I faced a dilemma. Should I stay or should I go? In the end, I decided to stay. If I had left, I would not be presenting this essay to you. I worked hard and trained hard. At my first competition, I was very nervous, but all the hard work I had put into practicing my poomsae paid off and I got gold. In the next competition I got silver. 

Soon, I had competed in many competitions, getting 2 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze, not to mention the 2 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze from the WeiWu championships. I have competed in many poomsae competitions, although I have only competed in one sparring event from the Victorian Championships and 2 sparring events in the WeiWu championships. The rest are poomsae events. 

Now I am here, presenting my essay to you, for my black belt grading. I also want to thank my masters for helping me on my journey to Black Belt as I would not have done it without them.

Master Brian, I know that you are sometimes strict but it is because you want us to learn our technique properly.

Master Joyce, thank you for helping me learn my technique properly and make sure all my blocks, strikes and kicks are correct.

Master Bryanna, thank you for helping me persevere through hard challenges and make sure I never give up.

Master Benecia, thank you for also helping me persevere through all the tough problems that I have. Also thanks for coaching me in Warriors.

It has been a tough journey throughout the years, but I made it to Black Belt. I wonder what challenges will come next?

Thank you for listening to my Black Belt essay.