We all have new belts here tonight. Drew got his full orange tonight, and was very excited and happy. He behaved well during the graduation, and sat patiently, etc. It wasn't too bad. He's just happy he has his full orange now. He's not getting another belt until the fall, with him skipping the summer and all.

I got my green belt. I think I'm a little disappointed in the end. I had mentioned that I had hoped that maybe my leadership uniform would be in, and that everyone would see me get it. Evidentally, this was not to be. Either the uniform isn't in, or she just doesn't play like that. I thought that maybe I'd get some sort of acknowledgement, but not that either. I waited until the end, and nada. So, when we were all done, I just left quietly among the hubbub of activity, as the place was super packed. To backtrack, everything went okay. Not great, but okay. I had been practicing and practicing, and I didn't think I was that nervous, but evidentally I was because I screwed up. Enough that I was embarassed, but I wasn't made to feel embarassed. It was self-inflicted, the best kind, don't 'ya know? I had just finished telling Sharon that she should not pay attention to the rest of us, and just go at her own pace, and she'll find that she'll do better. The adults, fortunately, didn't have to do it with the teenagers, which helped tremendously. I do feel like not having the personalized attention of that one class finally showed that it took its toll. At least I remembered the ki-haps at the right sections, considering I just got them down today. Ma'am didn't make me feel bad. I mean, she acknowledged that this was a hard form. And considering that the rest of the color belt adults above me were actually about 3 ranks or more above, I guess I did okay. I'm just concerned that this is the form that I'm going to be using for the regional tournament, and here I screwed it up when I really did know it. I had even been practicing the finer details of head turns and everything, and it all went down the toilet tonight. I think I have to email Ma'am and see if maybe she can schedule an afternoon before the tournament to work with me to get the kinks out. The worst she can say is no. Weapons went fine, although I think I was probably lame at the end, but then again, I don't even have to do weapons at this point. My first graduation sparring went okay, as far as I could tell. Again, I was fortunate that I would go up against Sharon, and we only had to do one round. We were laughing because we usually spar together, so we know each other's weaknesses. I know I did one illegal punch, as far as I was figuring, but I got a lot more kicks in, so hopefully that balanced it out. I think just thinking that I was going to be congratulated publically for joining leadership would happen, and it didn't. Maybe because there's enough people doing it that it's not that big a deal. I don't know too many adults, though, who are in the program, or for that matter joined up this early in the game with it. So, we'll see.

But I'm a green belt now. Once I complete this belt's form, etc., then I will be halfway up the ladder of belts to the black belt. But I can say that it looks like going from brown to red, and red to black belt recommended, then recommended to full black takes some time. I guess I'm not in a rush.