Ryan's Journal

I recently started kung fu lessons at the Boston Kung Fu Tai Chi Institute. Mostly it's because I want to learn weapons technique and get back into shape.

I did WTF style taekwondo (affectionately named 'karate' in the midwest, where taekwondo is too foreign a word for lutefisk eaters) for around seven years, then took a five year break from martial arts for college, revisiting TKD for a brief month while at MIT.

And now I'm in pain. Oh my, the pain. Just about every muscle group in my legs is screaming at me not to do anything besides sit calmly and unmoving in this chair.

Lest this become a gripe about my lack of physical conditioning, I think kung fu has become a metaphor for my life. In many ways, I should already know what I'm doing, because martial arts really don't differ so much from one another in physical technique; just the 'flavor,' as the sifu says. It's somewhat sad to be starting from scratch again, to be in pain over things I used to never break a sweat over, but I know I won't be at this level forever, and once I do get back into shape, I'll be doing the things I've always wanted to do. My past experiences in TKD aren't all for naught, and as I slowly relearn to keep my fists tight and my stances wide and low, I'll be prepared for what this kung fu thing ends up throwing at me.

How this is a metaphor for my life is left as an exercise to the reader.

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