ray quadros
2nd poom | november 2023

Someone once said that a journey has no end, and that is proven true with this path I walk in taekwondo. Hello Masters, Friends, and Family. Taekwondo has been a significant thing in my life, and after doing it for 5 years, it has started to affect everything about me. Not just my physical fitness, but my mental fortitude and my personality as well. After 5 years, I think it’s time to look back and reflect onto how I started and how I ended up standing before you today.

When I first started taekwondo, I was quite young, around 10-11 years old and quite immature and in a sense, foreign as I just moved back from Singapore the year prior. This gave me a lot of free time and the willingness to do something within that free time that I would find enjoyable. Out of everything I could think of, my small mind came up with the idea of starting a martial art. The idea of flashy kicks and cool tricks always fascinated me when I was young, so this was almost a ‘first step’ for me to become like the people I always saw.

When I first started however, I found myself starting to realise a bit more about what a martial art truly is. But, since I was young and a bit foolish, it never really clung on to me or changed what I did in life. However, I kept going, past white belt, past yellow belt and slowly moving up and up the belt system. Once I became high
enough, I was invited to join the warriors sparring team and to train with them. For me, I never truly viewed competitions as something I wanted to pursue or to become good at. But I did however train to better my overall physical health and to also work on an area that I found myself lacking in.

This all came to an abrupt ending however with COVID and the constant snap lockdowns. This trapped our club into online lessons and the troubles of training within my small living room. These online lessons did generally have a heavy focus on technique and poomsae, which gave me the ability to learn the techniques well and familiarize myself with them.

COVID did end up hanging around for a couple years which led to me having to do my black belt grading online. This was an unfortunate, but profound moment within my taekwondo journey. The achievement of black belt however was only the start of my true journey in taekwondo.

Within the time between my grading and now, I’ve been pushed to the limits and with what I’m learning. From learning how to forward roll to learning 540* kicks, it’s been both enriching and an enjoyable experience. And thank you masters for always being the backbone of our many classes, giving us students the best possible experience within taekwondo.

Master Bryanna, thank you for being both a fun person to be around and a willing person to teach and inspire many.

Master Benecia, your enthusiasm for teaching has made my journey fun and exciting and thank you for helping me through my small period of warriors training.

Master Joyce, thank you for being such a kind soul, helping me at the very start of the journey as well as slowly along the way with many smaller things and even teaching other students. 

Master Brian, your attention to detail and your tough love is what has been able to push me to become a better martial artist and a better person throughout my life. So, for that I thank you.

I also want to thank my friends Keanen, Geri, Earnest, Chloe, and Charlie, as well as the many friends who I haven’t named. You have pushed me further and supported me throughout this whole journey that I’ve been through.

This journey is one that is never ending, and I am willing to walk this path and overcome the challenges that come my way.

However, without people supporting me, I could have never come here in the first place. I want to thank the masters again for being people we can look up to and people who are willing to help many others along their journeys as well.
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Thank you for listening.