Orange Belt

Island Boy graduated to his first real belt in Martial Arts class today. (Don't ask me how many belts they are - I have no idea!)

He's been taking classes since October when a new studio and a new instructor moved into our neighborhood. Perhaps eager to grow their fledgling business, the studio gamely agreed to accept students that were not-quite-three. There are days - and I'm only guessing here - when those instructors must ask themselves whether or not that was absolutely positively really really necessary.

It's true that Island Boy, like most now-barely-three-year-olds, can have a short attention span. Fortunately he is the youngest in the class and it is also true that he somehow manages to soak up some very impressive moves and snap to attention just when you fear that all hope is lost.

As the parents gathered for this class's first ever Belt Graduation Test and Ceremony, the children must have felt the excitement in the air. Although the parents routinely watch from the sidelines during class, on this day there was an extra current of energy running through the building and the children knew it. They reacted as expected - some wore their game faces and others pulled out nervous behaviors we had not seen before this day, but they all performed and, in the end, they all graduated.

Although at this age these children are still learning what it means to be "proud", every one of them was as proud as I've ever seen anyone as the rank of "Junior Orange Belt" was bestowed upon each of them.