“Good job!  You did it!  After all your hard work, you finally got it.” I wasn't really listening when he told me all this stuff, I just wanted mine.

“Thank you.” I mumbled and I finally got it. That was at the end now let’s start at the beginning.
It was a couple of years ago when i got my black belt. I was in Taekwondo for about 5 or 6 years and i was finally going to get it. I trained for a long year and was finally going to get my black belt. It was a crisp January day there was still some snow on the ground. I was thinking on the way there, OMG I’m getting my black belt, this is so cool.
We started out running a long mile. Every 5 laps we did 25 sit ups, 25 push ups and alternating between 25 jumping jacks and 25 jump squats.  In  total we did 100 sit ups,100 push ups, 50 jumping jacks and 50 jump squats.
That was just the beginning.  After that, we had to do Kicks, Kicks were horrible.  We had to do over 100 kicks, 10 times off each leg.  What made it so horrific, was that if you messed up, you had to do it again, so you didn't want to get lazy and restart.  During that we two 2,5 minute breaks.  I thought during the first one, this is really hard I might give up, but didn't.  During the second break, one of the guys threw up and it smelled vile.
   After we did kicks, we got to spar.  Sparring was bad because I was pretty worn out from the running and all the kicks, so I thought this would be a walk in the park, but no, it wasn't. The reason you was  because the guy I sparred against was as  hyped as a little kid who had too much soda  so he went really hard on me.  He kept on hitting me in the gut and head.  It gave me a massive headache and made me so tired and worn out. 
After that, we did forms and one-steps which were really easy for me.  Finally, we did board breaks.  We had to break a board with each limb.  It was pretty easy for me, but for 2 of the guys it took a little longer for them.  I thought to myself, when will they break them?  They were so upset it was like when the Seahawks lost the Superbowl.  They were crying and had to be with their Moms’.  It was so bad.
   They finally broke their boards and we got our black belts.  It felt really good to get mine, almost as good as winning 1 million dollars, but better.  After that, we went home and I changed and we celebrated by going out to dinner.The next day my legs felt as if they were spaghetti noodles
   Since I am older, I learned if you persevere you can get through anything.  I realized this because it was really hard work getting my black belt and a lot of times I really wanted to quit, but I didn't and I persevered through it.  This memory is important to me because it taught it me the importance of not giving up when it is hard and persevering through the tough times.  I probably wouldn't be the same person as I am now without going to Taekwondo.