Jake Bernier’s Black Belt Essay
I joined NextStep when I was 5-years-old because I watched my friends doing it and I became interested in trying it. So, I joined with my brother, Max, to see if it was as fun as it looked, and it was!! My favorite thing to do then was to play Bowling for Ninjas and all of the other games. They made it so much fun that we didn’t even realize that we were learning Tae Kwon Do. I really enjoyed getting my first belt!
Some of the challenges that I faced were having to take breaks during the fall due to other sports and my mom’s job as a Coach. That made it so that I wasn’t able to get my black belt with the group of friends that I started with. But I was always excited to start back up again and never lost sight of completing my goal.
The biggest challenge I faced was going through months of preparations for my black belt test and then injuring my leg three weeks before the test. I was a little upset about it and bummed that I wouldn’t be able to take my test again with the group that I was preparing with. But then Mr. George sent me a video that he would step in and represent me during my test. That made me feel really happy that he wanted to work hard to take the test because he knew that I would too.
I am most proud that I was able to memorize all of my forms and also increase my intensity with my movements. My favorite part of training at NextStep is spending time with the instructors in one-on-one sessions because they have taught me so much and really care about teaching me the correct way to do Tae Kwon Do.
I am grateful for all of the friends that I have made at NextStep and want to thank all of the instructors for helping me all these years. I want to thank Miss Laura for not allowing me to just do the forms and teaching me to do them the right way. I especially want to thank Mr. George for believing in me enough to step in to represent me in my black belt test. And lastly, thank you to Master Jay for creating a place like NextStep that I always want to be in.
Jake Bernier