So I got my blue belt today...

I am way more excited than I expected. We had the belt ceremony this afternoon and I sat back and realized how few people get to accomplish things they genuinely never thought they could do.

The night before, at KickboxerInstructor and WrestlerInstructor's tests (brown and black respectively), I was talking with one of the blues that had just gone to purple about preserving your belts. I like to keep the ones that are presented to me and buy new ones for training. Eventually I'd like to frame them all in one display case. We talked about the idea and he insisted I needed to exclude the white since it isn't earned or presented. I explained that that belt was incredibly difficult for me and that walking in that door the second time ready to run was one of the most difficult things I'd ever done. Possibly even more difficult than earning blue.

Anyway, I'm sure I'll go through all the feelings of inadequacy and confusion that are typical for new blues (though I think having been a green has buffered that some). I think though, a big help will be this definition of a blue belt that I found on BJJ Weekly. It's my favorite so far...


"A blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu really means that you are a serious student of the art. Nothing more, nothing less. When I see a blue belt I know that is someone who has put in a significant amount of time and effort towards improving their game. It doesn't really say anything about their ability to fight, or how many moves they know. It simply means that they are a serious student."

Since I survived, I want to try something different going forward. I was sitting next to Wrestler instructor at lunch after the ceremony (he'd just gotten his black belt...amazing thing to see) and told him I wanted to start weight training. Up until now, I've just wanted to survive. Now I want to optimize.