One of the most challenging obstacles in my life was my black belt test in San Jose, California. Even though I was not a black belt at the time, I still had to push my limits to earn my black belt and a best tester award for my test. I had to achieve my goal of becoming my physical and mental strength, and in my mixed martial arts.
This past October, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, I tested for the black belt that I have been training for. After four years of training I walked into an unfamiliar gym in San Jose. I walked into a gym full of instructors including my own and my instructor's instructor was also there. Master Ernie Reyes was there to judge testers as well. He was the very person who had created the association, along with his good friend and fellow business partner, Master Tony Thompson. My test started soon after I arrived at the gym and I was warming up with a couple of my fellow testers from the Hillsboro school. As the test started I was nervous. There were a couple reasons why; the unfamiliar environment and because Master Ernie was sitting right in front of me. We went through the curriculum quickly and we were done with the first portion of the test in a couple of hours. Despite forgetting one part of curriculum for a moment, I felt good about my first portion and went back to my hotel tired, but I still had more to prepare for tomorrow.

The next day was not physically hard, but it did put my mind to the test with several pages of memorization that I had to do. I arrived at a different gym later in the day where I was to be tested. When I walked in it was surprisingly hot and humid. The air in the gym was heavy and it took a little bit

to adjust. I was a little concerned about how I would do on the written part of my test but I had reviewed the material several times before the second portion of the test began. I, along with my fellow testers,lined up according to age and rank in the association. We sat down for a while and I patiently waited for my life skills exam to begin. We were then given the command to start writing everything in our test folders related to the life skills exam. I started writing down everything as fast as I could because I didn't know how much time I had. The instructors never told us how much time that we had. All I knew was that some of my fellow classmates that had tested before had different times on their life skills exams. For example, (Choga-nim) CGN Ana had fifteen minutes, and CGN Will had a half hour. Luckily I had forty five minutes to complete the test. The test went relatively smoothly, and to finish off the 2nd portion of the black belt test, we had a dance party. I went back to my hotel to rest, relax, and prepare for the last day. The next day was going to be brutal, but I had to keep on going and keep my indomitable spirit running at a hundred miles an hour. The second day of testing was easy, but I had no idea what was in store for the third day.

The next day was the most difficult of all. I pushed myself so hard that I was weak shortly after I started testing. I pushed myself to get a best tester award and was nominated for one, and even though I was exhausted, I still finished the rest of my test, which was several more hours. The third day tested me the most and I also got injured, testing my mental limits even more. As I was being tested on my eskrima, I was pivoting so much on the wooden gym floor. I didn’t notice at first, but after I sparred I realized a gigantic bleeding blister on my right foot. Together with the hurting blister and the excruciating pain from a cramp in my side, I actually cried for a little bit. The next part of my black belt test was board breaking so I just had to ignore the pain and move on. I taped up my blister and continued on with my test. Several hours later and an extra hour and a half of conditioning, I was finally finished with my test. I had done it! I had finally achieved my goal of passing the black belt test! Even though I wouldn’t get my official black belt for several more months, I had become a black belt in my training.

To this day I have continued training for the next level, my 2nd degree black belt. I currently have my probationary black belt and will soon receive my official engraved black belt. I achieved my goal of getting a best tester. I wouldn’t have been able to achieve these goals if I had quit working as hard or quit martial arts. Altogether, that is why even though you may be feeling down or helpless, you have to have an indomitable spirit and push yourself on and achieve the goals challenging you in life.