Lauren Walsh

When I began Aikido, I was asked by one Sensei "Do you want to learn a martial art, or do you want to learn Aikido". At the time I said I wanted to learn a martial art without having any true understanding of what it means to practice Aikido.
Four months into my training I began to change, that is, I began to percieve that Aikido offered far more than simply martial techinique. I have always been "spiritually orientated", and so I started to try to undestand Aikido principles and philophies quite seriously.
Nine months into my training I experienced a 'revelation', if you like. That is, Aikido isn't something you learn but rather it is something you become. Suddenly I began to understand how relative Aikido was to every possible aspect of day to day living. Aikido is essentially a way of existence.

So basically, my goal of wishing to learn a martial art transformed to wishing to learn Aikido once I had learned to embrace it on more than a purely martial level.