Amy stepping it up

Amy's been doing tae kwon do at Top Kick for three and a half years now, and it's been really great for her. She's "graduated" to the next belt level each semester she's been enrolled. Now that she's worked her way up the ranks, however, things are getting tougher.

Amy is now a red stripe belt. Next stop...black belt. Apparently this is where things get serious at Top Kick. They require you to go to extra classes each week (beyond the usual 2 classes) and also attend a black belt test prep class on Saturday mornings. Amy diligently attended the necessary 24 classes and went for the black belt pre-test. It was a hard test. A really hard test. It was held on a Friday night and lasted about an hour and 20 minutes. And that was non-stop exercising. No messing around. It was all about stamina and determination. Amy worked so very hard, but came up a little short on the test. It was tremendously disappointing for her, especially since it was the first time she'd ever failed at tae kwon do. It was really hard for her and also very hard for us to watch - we knew she'd worked so diligently and to see her not rewarded was sad. We all understood where her weaknesses were during the test, and knew it was fair that she didn't pass. That didn't make it any less disappointing for her, though.

After this happened we weren't sure how Amy would react. We were afraid that she'd be so discouraged that she'd want to quit altogether - she's been wanting to try something different lately anyway. We managed to convince her to go to a class a few days after the test, but we had to resort to a bit of bribery. But she did it, and felt better for it. Then we took a week off. It was a little tough to get her to go back again but she did it. Now she seems resolved to work toward her black belt again. I believe in her and know she can do it, now that she knows more clearly what to expect from the testing process, which was very different from any past testing she'd done.

I don't think anything can stop her if she puts her mind to it. We're rooting for her!