Personal Investment

I've always loved Asian culture. I've always loved the written symbols, the eastern philosphy, movies, books, anything (which is weird because the worst two years of my career were those spent in Japan). I've always had a thing for the martial arts, although either through choice or circumstance, I have not given it a solid effort since I was in high school.

SW started her training last week since the school is letting her for free for one month. The monkies have been having the time of their lives for three months now. The highlight of my week is watching them in their gi's kicking and punching. They had their pictures the other day and the photographer caught one of Princess doing a front kick that reached over her head. I am probably going to join them soon--to the tune of a lot more money than we actually have to spend.

The thought crossed my mind the other day that I have invested quite a bit of my own hopes and fears in these kids doing this. Princess was selected to move up to a semi-private advanced instruction designed to get her to Black Belt, and Cowboy is sure to follow soon. As we were discussing dropping the additional funds to get the extra equipment for her, we decided to wait a short while to make sure that they're going to stick with it for the long haul.

The thought that they would stop doing this was crushing to me. They are having so much fun, and have shown such a huge talent for it. SW and I are jumping in too just to keep their motivation up should it falter. But honestly, if my history is any indication I can see them just wanting to drop it and go play. I was wondering how far we'd push them and not allow them to quit. The thought of having two kids becoming Black Belts before they were teenagers bings tears to my eyes.

If that happens it's going to break my heart.

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