A Special Visit
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| So recently during a night of training where the schedule was all out of whack. I had the joy of getting a visit from one of my former students.- Sean Azevedo (I hate saying that because he is still a student just not actively training on his Martial Arts. At least that is how he and I look at it.)Since all the members were working on a fitness class that overlapped their class time. I got a little extra time to visit and catch up. However after we quickly caught up, Sean became more interested in seeing what the students were doing and watching them train. He would visit shortly with each student as I would introduce them to him.He would quickly start asking them questions about their training. It was fun to watch the interactions. Since the class schedule was all out of whack, I asked Sean if he wouldn’t mind addressing the students a little about the value he found in his training.
The class was predominately teens so I thought it would be good for them to hear, since Sean started when he was 12 and trained consistently until about the age of 21. There he started working on his career at the Sherriff’s Department where he is an acting Sargent. He has been intermittently active with his training since and his daughter Ashley trained with us for about a year. It was incredibly humbling how he stated to the class that without a doubt he would not have enjoyed the successes in life he had without applying the lessons he learned from his Martial Arts training. He was incredibly encouraged by what he saw the kids working on and how he felt their development surpassed his at the same age and rank. He did stress the importance he learned from expressing respect that he remembered and how even though it was “unpopular” in today’s culture that developing that attitude took him farther than he was sure they could ever imagine and if there was one thing he would recommend is that they go out of their way to develop an attitude of respect to the Sr. Ranks, fellow students and themselves. He wrapped up his discussion to a huge round of applause from the class. It was again humbling to hear his words and then a little saddening for him to leave so we could get on with class. He texted me a “Thank You” for the opportunity to share. Truly the “Thank You” was all mine. |
