Congratulations Tristan

After 8 years of training (and two grueling days at Power Weekend which concluded today), our 13 year old son Tristan earned his black belt today from Robinson’s Karate. He will receive his official belt on May 2 at the Black Belt Spectacular.

This achievement of Tristan’s is all the more inspiring to me because karate isn’t really his passion. As you can imagine, when you’re only 13 a span of eight years marks many changes and evolutions in who you are as a person. While Tristan has always been enthused and inspired by the truly great group of teachers who run Robinson’s Karate, his interest in karate itself has waxed and waned with time. As a person, he has become more introspective with a sincere passion for music. Being so close to achieving his black belt, however, we encouraged him to stick with it and keep his eye on achievement of this goal. To be honest, he often didn’t feel like getting up and going to class … but he did. It can be easy to chase down a goal when you’re lit with a fire from within … tougher when you’re pushing yourself to get there. He should be very proud of this achievement. And here’s the interesting thing … leaping such a huge hurdle has rekindled his interest. He feels more confident about himself and is having more fun with it. There’s lots to learn from this.