Operation November Off (as I’m calling it) is just about set up. I’ve officially decreed I will not be writing for the whole month, and tonight I booked time off at the dojo. My poor sensei. My attendance, which has never been stellar, has been pretty darn abysmal the last few months. Last two months, really. I think he thinks I’ll leave and never come back. That’s unsurprising, really. I’ve seen this happen a lot from the other side of things. I’ve watched at least three people struggle for their brown belt and then, after passing the exam, quietly leave the dojo. God knows how many students he’s seen drift away. The ghosts of sempai past, as it were.
I don’t know why so many people drop out after their brown belt exam (I think dropouts at brown belt are something in the order of fifty percent, and god knows what percentage of people actually make it to brown belt). Maybe it’s because they found what they were looking for, or maybe it’s because they’ve decided that way isn’t for them, or whatever. I’m sure they had their reasons.
I miss each one of them. I miss Sarah’s ability to distill what was wrong with a technique, so that you could fix it. I miss how hard Kieran would train – he would bring us all up. I miss the way Rob would quietly cream me when we sparred, and then teach me whatever it was he was doing, so I could have a go at creaming him. I still wish, and still cling to the hope, that one day they might all come back and train with us again.
I’m not done with karate, nor am I going to drift quietly away. I’m on hiatus. Operation November Off lasts only as long as November does. And then, back to the dojo. I promise.
So what’re you planning to do for a whole month?
Noooooothiiiing!
No, really. I’m going to just go to work, come home, make dinner and chill out like normal people do. I might do a little qi gong, but I’m really focusing on healing all my built-up hurts from karate.
Argh, I’m in with those that drifted away after getting their brown belt…
I was just counting people in my dojo, I’d actually forgotten all about that.
I don’t know what it is about brown belt, but green belt and brown belt seem to be the two big hurdles in the realm of the coloured belts. It’s odd, isn’t it?
I wonder how much coincides though with life changes. Most of us get to those levels when we’re also settling into a different phase of life.
For me, I drifted away from aikido due to school and work commitments that picked up – coincidently as I was starting to get into the harder stuff. And then add kids. Martial arts were an extra that had to go like so many other extras…
It’s true. You (the general you, not only and specifically you) seem to sort of get five-to-ten year intervals of peace, and then you get a few years of upheaval.