Taekwondo Essay: How Taekwondo Has Influenced My Life.

How Taekwondo Has Influenced My Life

by: Piyush Nawade

I vividly remember this particular day in the fall of 2013.  I was only in 2nd grade. My mom had taken me to this small dingy place in a mall to start another new activity for me.  I was very suspicious that it is going to turn out to be another boring activity like Kumon. I was wondering how to protest and cop out of it.  However here I am after three years. My suspicion was proven completely wrong. It turned out that not only it has been very exciting three years of my life here at Taekwondo, but it has also made me physically and mentally very strong and also taught me how to respect everyone - the stronger, the weaker, the elder, and the younger.  When my uncle visited me this Christmas, he actually noticed signs of discipline and courage in me.

Taekwondo has given me enormous physical strength.  I feel I am the strongest person in my family, though I am the youngest.  I can easily do hundreds of sit-ups, I can run three kilometers at a stretch, I can climb a six feet tall wall, I can kick fiercely in many different ways and l break thick boards with one kick.  I remember last fall we had a fallen tree in our backyard and my dad was cutting the fallen branches in smaller pieces so that he could dispose of them. I noticed that he was having a particularly very difficult time cutting one big thick branch.  I saw it and decided to use my strength and Taekwondo skills. I practiced my ax kick couple of times and the branch was broken into two pieces just in few minutes. 

  

Physical strength is important, but mental strength is even more important. Mental strength is when you are completely focused on one thing and not thinking of anything else.  Mental strength allows you to do things that you might think are impossible to do. When I was doing my pre-black testing I experienced this myself. I had a very stressful morning after a long run and hundreds of push-ups.  When I came home for lunch break, I was thinking of backing out and giving up the pre-black belt. I thought I was going to die if they made me do any more push-ups. However the four years of Taekwondo training gave me the mental strength, I told myself never to give up.  It turned out that day afternoon I ended up doing three rounds of “labas” and still survived. I think it was the sheer mental strength that helped me to push myself to the limits that day. 

Discipline and courage are very important to my life now.  Discipline has very much changed my life. Before Taekwondo, I was different.  I was sloppy, careless and I wasn’t hard working. After a few years of Taekwondo, I started believing in the three golden rules.   Now, because of Taekwondo, I became a student that works hard in school and in the dojang. Courage is something that changed my behavior during any form of test.  It gives me the strength to keep going and the will to succeed.

All of us can learn from younger students.  We have to show respect to our young learners.  I have personally learned this when my friend showed me how to flip in Taekwondo.  I have to give him credit for that because I don’t know how to that myself. This shows that we are not the best in everything.  We still have more to learn in life. In Taekwondo, you can learn from anybody.

As you see, Taekwondo has really influenced my life.  There are still more ways Taekwondo influenced my life.  This impact on me will change my life forever. My life has changed and so the world has as well.  I am no longer “Piyush the Weak”. I am now, “Piyush the Great”. These differences change the way someone looks at the world. Now, everyone will see me for who I am.  Doing Taekwondo has made all of these changes. All of them are for the greater good.

Fablehaven: Conflicts

There were many characters involved in the conflicts. Kendra and Seth, two siblings who always find themselves facing demons who plot to kill them, find themselves in trouble again in Keys to the Demon Prison. Bracken and Warren, warriors and adventures, work together in the book with friends.  the Sphinx who plots to open the Demon prison under his control can cause a lot of trouble. Vanessa, a narcoblix, is helping Seth to keep the prison closed.  Agad is a wizard that is one of the founders and creators of the Demon Prison. It has lasted over a millennium. Mirav, an evil wizard, uses his magic to kill. The Singing Sisters are a trio of sisters that give the asker information only if they pay a steep price. If not, they kill the asker. 

The Fairy Queen is the Queen of all fairies and unicorns. She really is a unicorn. She is very powerful. She only uses her power to help the light side win. Newel and Doren are satyrs. They are best friends. Seth is their best friend too. They go with Seth to go on adventures. Graulas is an evil demon who plots to unleash all of the demons forever. Nagi Luna is another demon. She acts under false intentions. She pretends she helps the Sphinx but, she has the same intentions as Graulas. The Astrids are a group of magical guards to the Fairy Queen. Hugo is dirt golem. He only obeys orders. Other from his orders, he has strong feelings for Seth. Coulter was Grandpa Sorenson’s best friend. He was killed by Graulas when he destroyed the main house. Raxtus was a friendly dragon. He helped Kendra and her group along the journey.

There was one main battle at the end of the book. The Demons were coming out of their prison. All of the people and creatures that wanted the Demons back into the prison were prepared for war. Seth and Kendra were killing demons left and right with the most powerful sword, Vasilis, the sword of lightness and darkness. The conflicts leading up to this major battle were very important. The sword Vasilis was retrieved by Seth. He asked the Singing Sisters for the location of the sword. He had to pay a major price to just know the location of it. He was traveling with Vanessa, Newel and Doren, and Hugo. Another conflict was with Kendra. She was traveling with Raxtus, the Dragon, Bracken the Unicorn, and Warren. Their job was to protect the Eternals. If the Eternals were killed, the Demon prison will open. Kendra and her group failed to protect them. 

Another problem was Graulas. He was a demon. Seth was tricked into healing him and Graulas was set free. He stole important things that were needed to open the prison. Graulas overturned the Fablehaven treaty. Fablehaven was gone. Graulas later killed Coulter. Seth thought that all of this was his fault. The Sphinx was one big problem. He first wanted to open the Demon prison on his terms. To control them. When Graulas stole most of the keys to the Demon Prison, the Sphinx became an ally to the light. He still wanted the Demon prison opened, but he didn’t want the Demons to destroy the world. Another demon outside of the prison was Nagi Luna. She had another Key. She was pure evil. Before she stole one key, she was the Sphinx’s mentor. Later, the Sphinx learned that she wanted to overthrow him. Agad was one of the good wizards. He was one of the wizards that created the Demon Prison. Mirav was an evil wizard. He used his magic to destroy.

There were two sides to what everyone’s motive was. One side was to delay the Demon prison’s opening as much as possible. The other was to rule the world with powerful demons. These two sides fought and tried very hard to reach their goals. In the end, the Demon prison was breached and a new prison was created for them. 

The theme was, no matter how much evil there is to overcome, Light and Dark always make a good team. In the book, Kendra was the light she always has a plan, always follows the rules, lets the side she believes is good, win. On the other hand, Seth is the Dark. He is a shadow charmer. Even though he is reckless and makes most of the mistakes, he always has good intentions. Seth always tries to fix what he has done wrong. Partnering up with Kendra, they made a good team.