Martial Arts Fever
I have always been, and still is, fascinated with any form of martial arts. I find it really cool to be able to "fly" and kick butts. Thus, when I was in college, I joined its lion dance troupe, hoping to learn some "Bruce Lee Kungfu", or so I thought.
On my first day with them, the other girls in the troupe and me, we were made to stand at one side of the hall, next to the drummers, while the guys ran around the hall with the "lions", performing their stunts. I was given a pair of cymbals. I looked at them and then at the guy who passed them to me. He told me what to do with them. "Hello! I'm here to learn kungfu, not to clang some silly cymbals!" I wanted to tell him. In the end, after some disastrous cymbal-clangings, I left the troupe.
I found my "home" in my college's Taekwondo Club. There, I really learnt what I've wanted to learn...to kick butts. As most of us were totally new, we started from scratch and soon, we learnt a few different types of kicks, mainly front kicks, side kicks and back kicks. It was really fun and I thoroughly enjoyed myself in the club. I looked forward to every single session, and I joined it without my parents' knowledge. As I play the piano, I know that my parents would be against my learning it for fear of hurting my hands. It was only when I needed money to buy the gi (Taekwondo attire) that I told my dad about it. I had to promise him that I would take care of myself before he finally gave in to me.
I had fun sparring with my friends, and I especially enjoyed sparring with my guy friends, as I find sparring with girls not challenging enough. At one internal sparring tournament, I was paired to spar with a girl, and (no applause, please) I won that round. Haha. My instructor commented that my kicks were very powerful and he was very pleased with my performance.
Later, I was elected to be the secretary of the club. I had to jot down notes and timings at meetings. In one particular meeting, we chose a fast-food restaurant as it was saturday and we didn't want to meet in school. We had discussions about an up-coming event, and I, in the process of writing and eating at the same time, jotted down notes blindly. Later, I handed a neatly-typed copy of the meeting to the president of the club for verification. Apparently, I didn't check what I had typed, because the president burst out laughing after reading one sentence. I had typed "the school bus will ferry us from the school canteen to the school hall"! It later became the joke of the year.
I "graduated" after one year in the club as my dad finally insisted that I stop completely. I was very disappointed but I had no choice. I had to be contented with my "white belt, yellow tip" level.
Up till now, I still have regrets of not completing my Taekwondo course. Seeing my brother obtain his black belts in Taekwondo and Judo made me even more depressed. Nevertheless, I was glad to have learnt what I've always wanted to learn. I shall be the next Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi or even Jackie Chan...in my dreams.