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I passed 1st Kyu. I feel like I've climbed up this huge steep hill, the mudansha hill. Towering over me is the yudansha moutain with its various sub-peaks.
It's odd because numerically speaking most of my gradings are done, I've passed six and there are only four more. It feels kinda good to think that until I realise that the space between gradings just got huge.
I don't really feel like I've achieved anything so much as I've brought something to a close. Ikkyu is over. Shodan has begun. I've not reached anything, I've just passed a spot on the road.
Feels like I'm staring shodan in the face actually; it's not some distant thing over the other side of 1st kyu, it's my next destination.
It could be only a year away which, considering I've been attempting 1st kyu for three years, isn't very long.
It doesn't feel like it means anything though, grades are transient, I pass though them they define nothing about me or my practice, they're more like sign posts on the road I'm walking along. Actually shodan isn't my next destination, it's the next section of road that I'll be traveling on. It's like turning off one road and onto another.
02-07-2010 06:36 PM 