For the past several months (starting in March, getting more serious in May), I’ve been studying Aikido. I didn’t really have any particular goals or reasons for starting, besides the fact that 3 of the 6 members of my company were already Aikido practicioners, and it seemed like something interesting to do. The strange part is, even though I didn’t have a reason for starting, and even though I can’t figure out what my reason is for staying, there’s no way that I could imagine giving it up.
If you’d told me 6 months ago that I’d find myself in a dojo several times per week, waking up at 5am (and wanting to!), spending an hour getting injured, getting yelled at for making too many mistakes, putting myself completely at the mercy of my instuctors and fellow students, I would have said you were crazy. That is not something that I have the willpower to do. Besides, I’m not a physical sort of guy. If I do any exercise at all, it’s just the bare minimum required to make sure I don’t die, right?
Wrong, apparently. During this morning’s class, all 6 of us seemed like we were goiong to die. Physically, it was an extremely demanding class that took about every last drop of everyone’s will power to continue. But, we all got through it, and I must admit to being proud of myself for doing just as well, stamina-wise, than anyone else. Six months ago, I wouldn’t have lasted 5 minutes.
I guess there really is something to this Aikido stuff.
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