This past Saturday was a special time for my family. My 16 year old son, after 9 years of training tested for his Karate Black Belt. This was significant to me for many reasons.

First, Sedio Karate is one of the only things now that my son at16 years old wants to share with me. Those of you with teenagers know what I am talking about. In many ways, he is like me, so he wants to be not like me. I have been training for 7 years and although I am far behind him in skills, it’s alot of fun to do at least one activity together as father and son. I even had a chance to fight him during the test. After 4 hours, he was exhausted so it was my chance to get a few punches in!

Secondly, it is an amazing achievement for a teenager of 16 years old to stay involved in this subtle ancient art form for so many years with all the distractions of growing up. Karate has shaped him and molded him to be the strong man in body, mind and spirit.

Finally, his test on Saturday was enlightening for me. The test is a 5 hour grueling physical and emotional rollercoaster. About mid way through the test, he became light headed and had to sit and lie down. After a brief period of time, he came back to the board breaking part of the test. This showed incredible resiliency and bounce (as my book says) for a 16 years old, not to call it quits despite how he was feeling physically (tired) and emotionally (defeated).

He learned at 16 that the test did not turn out quite the way he had planned- an important lesson in our journey of life. I can’t remember too many days in my life that turned out as planned, can you?