I felt like I had to unlearn the things I knew. I had to keep a stance that wasn’t square, which was annoying for me because my karate sensei was always trying to get me to be square. I had to speak Japanese words as I hit imaginary foes. I initially thought Jo would be similar to Bo, which I had experience with from the weapons portion in my Shotokan days. That led me to searching for weapons-based arts and I discovered Jodo (Joe-Doe). I watched some other styles of martial arts at a few other places and I felt that weapons were an important thing for me. It was alright, but I barely broke a sweat, the other students were not accepting of other martial arts, and the cost was exorbitant. I also knew I was particularly interested in weapons and since Aikido practitioners don’t touch weapons until several years of training have happened, I decided Aikido was not what I was looking for.
The other dojo I participated in a class and I did not enjoy the throws. There were two senseis there, one like mine and another that was dismissive of my interest. Armed with that guidance, I checked out two Aikido dojos. I spoke with my sensei and she advised that it’s not the particular art, but the teacher that was the most important thing to look for. I came from a small town where the furthest distance across town was about 30 minutes, so a 20-minute drive was far! I initially looked for karate dojos, but most were not near my home or work and at that time the idea of a 20-minute drive being considered close in proximity was ludicrous to me. I did extensive research and visited many dojos as I knew more about what made a good teacher and school. This time it was for a love of martial arts and not simply a need to be active that I was interested. I moved to a new city and knew I needed a martial art in my life. Later, I decided to try out Goju Ryu Karate, but my life was filled with multiple stresses and I could not focus on learning new things, so though I truly enjoyed my time at my second dojo, I doubt I can recall any of the exercises or katas (kah-tahs) I worked on during that period. During the journey to blue belt I eventually was able to do 1,000 kicks for the fundraiser the dojo had that year. I was not athletic prior to this, and I was overweight, which made the workouts difficult.
I chose my school or dojo (doe-joe) based on having the teacher or sensei (sen-say) as a classmate in a couple of business classes. My reasons for joining karate were mainly because I was curious about martial arts and felt I needed to do something active after completing a degree in business. My martial arts journey began in 2010 with Shotokan Karate, where I worked my way up to a blue belt. An essay I wrote for a course I took on learning:
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