Saturday, November 08, 2008

Decision...for now

After some thought, and consulting with the hubby and my good TKD buddy Sandy, I came to the following decision. Drew will take his break. It may be permanent, and it may not, we'll see. I decided for myself that I will continue for the next two months (which equals a cycle), at least until the end of the year, and then make a decision about myself, whether to continue or not. I guess on the plus side, I can go back to adult/teen classes again, and have to contend with a bunch of grade school kids all the time. Even when telling SW that Drew was taking a break, I didn't say anything about myself other than applying Drew's tuition to myself next month instead. She pretty much responded that it wasn't a problem, that Drew is one of those kids that needs breaks and he always comes back doing better, so it was fine. She also added that she didn't want me to feel that just because Drew was taking a break that I needed to take a break too because "you like it for yourself", as she said. I didn't admit to her how I haven't been too thrilled for months and the temptations of stopping or going somewhere else. I just nodded and said that's why I'm still going, and at least perhaps with the adult classes, I might have the cameraderie back with the teens and adults, and I'll be more challenged again, even with the "boring stuff". We'll see. I'll take it one week at a time.

So there you go. Perhaps the winding down of an era, perhaps not. Only time will tell.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi, this is my first time visiting your blog, but I find your dilemma very interesting. I've been teaching martial arts for awhile, and I can tell you that youngsters go through this love/hate situation a lot. They spend a lot of time trying to figure out which activity is right for them, meaning they pop in and out of the dojo. It's always a tough decision for parents to decide whether they should push the child further (for their own best interests) or leave them to roam around different activities.

As for yourself - if you'd like to continue in martial arts, I recommend not taking an extended break. Adults very easily fill their time with other tasks and before you know it, going back seems like a far cry from reality. Whether you stay at the current dojo or seek out a new one is a difficult choice, but you'll have to do what keeps you motivated to improve. One thing I can say is this - never be afraid to start over because martial arts learning always builds.