Taekwondo is a powerful martial art from Korea. The kicks and punches can be deadly, but that's not all that Taekwondo encompasses.
Taekwondo is about respect, integrity, self-control, and determination among many other characteristics.
Before Taekwondo entered into my life, I lacked control in some areas. I controlled many other things, for example I never smoked, did drugs, or drink. I still don't. It's important to me to have complete control of my own thoughts, and complete awareness of my surroundings. However, when I started college the only thing I said yes to was food. "Yes", to my friends when they went to dinner, and "yes" again to another group heading to the cafeteria.
I gained quite a bit of weight in college, and when I say quite a bit of weight, I mean I gained an entire person, and when I say an entire person, I mean I gained about 60 pounds. While some gain the freshman 15 in college, I gained the sophomore 15, the junior 15, and the senior 15.
I had no will or desire to do anything, but sit on the couch for hours and watch TV. It took me about 5 years after I graduated from college, and took a look at a photo of myself from before college and after college to realize how bad it was, how bad I let it become. "What did I do to myself".
I started slowly, very slowly, my weight had caused many back problems, as I had no strong core muscles to sustain me. It was so bad, that I was pulling my back all the time. I started walking every day, I replaced all junk food with healthy options, "goodbye bean dip" and "hello, hummus". As I built strength, walking became jogging, and jogging became running. Running became basketball, volleyball, jump rope, and other activities and the weight melted off. I lost 30 pounds in about a year and half. I desired to move more and had amazing amounts of energy.
And my dream of practicing martial arts became a reality. I walked into a dojo and I didn't look back.
Though many practitioners start at a young age, starting as an adult has given me a unique perspective on the art. It has allowed for me to do a number of things; such as give advice to others who enter Taekwondo as adults, especially women, women who are interested in the art, doing it for health, and/or self-defense, and as an adult one can appreciate the art and other things that it encompass more than a child who practices Taekwondo, and don't get me wrong, I have seen some children as young as 6 who are lethal.
I am dedicated in training in Taekwondo, it's become my mission, I eat, drink, and sleep it. It brings me great satisfaction. It's made me a better person and to help others gives me even a greater feeling.
One of the biggest reasons why I wanted to create this blog was to help others understand the art who are interested in joining, but might be at first afraid to. I know I was. When I first walked into my dojo and saw my Korean Instructor in front of a group of men and women who were doing push-ups, splits, breaking wooden boards with their bare hands, I was intimidated and thought it would be impossible, but quickly these peers became a family to me, my Taekwondo family, they encouraged me, built my confidence, we share tips, and methods that I want to share with others.
I quickly learned that there is nothing that a human can't do without will power and that will power has to come from you. I will motivate you, share with you stories that will encourage you, but at the end of the day you need to make that decision, are you ready for it?
Friday, August 30, 2013
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Who am I? Who is Nikita?
Growing up in New England and surrounded by the changing seasons was blissful. I have so many warm memories of my childhood. I grew up in a very loving home.
My small and tight-knit family and I did everything together, growing up I didn't have many friends, my family were my best friends and still are.
A few of my favorite memories involve movie nights, cooking and baking, dancing, board games, and we loved traveling and exploring new places. One of my favorite continents being South America and their beautiful culture.
I also grew up as a middle child, and with that came the psychological complexities of the middle child, but I like to think that I came out of that mentally stronger and a true peace keeper.
My older sister being an over achiever, an overall amazing athlete and scholar it was hard to compare, and my young brother being also a natural athlete, the baby of the house, and only son, was even harder to compete for attention with.
While my siblings were athletic and intellectuals, I found myself being the natural comedian that I am, if not natural, I tried pretty damn hard to be funny. I stayed up late at night alone in front of the TV watching stand-up comedy, getting new material, and just laughing for the sake of laughing. While my sister shined on the tennis and basketball courts and in the classroom, my brother shined on the sport fields, and I shined my best at the dinner table, that was my open mic time.
It wasn't all fun and jokes, I connected to art, drawing, clay, and creating with my hands. I loved writing journals that were filled to the brim with poems, secrets and songs I wrote. Painting and drawing were my passion. I have sketchbooks, upon sketchbooks of drawings and paintings.
I also felt deeply connected to another art; Martial Arts. As a young girl when I wasn't staying up till 3 AM laughing in front of the TV listening to comedians, I was drawn to Martial Art movies with Bruce Lee, Jet Li, Jean Claude Van Damme, and Cynthia Rothrock, to name a few. I used my movie training out at recess, and got detention a few times when I tried to perfect my round house kick at a classmate's groin or head.
While I didn't technically study Martial Arts as a child in a "real" dojo, I decided to finally enter a real dojo as I entered adulthood.
When I began studying martial arts I knew that this was what I was missing in my life to give me another step closer to fulfillment. Currently, I am training in Korean Taekwondo, the art of the powerful kick. Taekwondo means just that: "Tae" means strike with foot and "Kwon" means to strike with hand.
While, I have a creative and technical profession during the day, managing a technology support team at a College, I moonlight as an artist creating with my hands, cameras, and now with my fists and kicks.
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Football is not the only event taking place at the Superbowl
When you think of the Super Bowl, you think
of obvious things – such as football, cheerleaders, wings and new commercials.
But what if I told you about something not so obvious, but bigger that is occurring on game day. What if I told you that the Superbowl is one of the largest human trafficking hubs in the U.S, that’s what Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said during the 2011 Superbowl.
The large crowds, tourists coming from out of state, and many different people coming into the city make large sport events like the Superbowl, and other sport championship games, like golf, a magnet for victims of human trafficking, such as forced sex slavery.
When we think of human trafficking, we might think of other countries in which children, men and women are kidnapped and forced into other regions and countries for the unthinkable.
In reality, it is happening in our very own backyard here in the U.S.
Large sport events attract these criminal rings, they also exist in places you might not even think of, nail salons, small towns, and cities alike across the U.S. A residential brothel might be in your own neighborhood.
Human Trafficking is not only about prostitution, but it is also includes – slavery, forced child labor, among other things.
“Human Trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons: by the threat or use of kidnapping, force, fraud, deception or coercion, or by the giving or receiving of unlawful payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, and for the purpose of sexual exploitation or forced labor.”
How does this happen? Many cases involve missing people, in which men, women and children are kidnapped for the sole purpose of human trafficking, in other cases people are deceived into false employment opportunities, which turn into forced prostitution or forced labor, and in other cases family or family friends sell children or men and women for money whether it is to pay debt or for other reasons.
The U.S. Department of State estimates that between 17,000 – 60,000 men, women and children are trafficked into the United States every year (600,000 to 800,000 worldwide.) Of these, 80 percent are girls and women, and 70 percent are forced into sex trade.
What can you do? Get informed and visit www.humantrafficking.org to find out what you can do to help.
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