Reflecting on 2020

So I started 2020 excited for Kung Fu. I was looking forward to growing my tiny school into a less tiny school, find a permanent place to teach out of, and start to fulfill me dream of bringing Kung Fu online. At the time I had these thoughts, I was at my teacher's Chinese New Year Party in Massachusetts so naturally, most of what I was thinking about was Kung Fu-centric.

Then March happened and everything changed and the world shut down.

If COVID taught me anything, it is that in times of extreme pressure and stress, you can either focus on the negative, or watch a lot of Netflix and stoke the faint embers of hope. And so, after finishing a few seasons of Parks and Recreation, I decided to transform my home into teaching studio. I bought everything my students would need, purchased 1300 square feet of mats ('cause who doesn't love hip throws?!?), and upgraded my lighting and camera equipment to a professional level ('cause I didn't want my virtual students to try and figure out what we were working through the haze of a low-resolution web camera).

Over the various shutdowns, re-openings, and additional shutdowns my students and I endured during the year, I was reminded of the oft-used martial arts marketing tag-line of "transferrable skills" (more or less a fancy way of saying that training martial arts helps develop your mind and character to endure any challenge life throws at you).

Kung Fu helped me survive the pandemic. Practicing forms helped balance my mind, and create the best learning environment I could for my students helped me turn my home into something I'd been looking for for years: a permanent place where I could share my passion for Kung Fu with my students.

Looking forward to 2021 and achieving my next goal: bringing my love of Kung Fu online (stay tuned for updates on that one).

Practice hard, be humble, and become your best.