Introductory Blog

August 23, 2013 blog 

Let me introduce myself. My name is Chelsea Hughes and I just recently turned 30, I've been doing martial arts off and on since I was 6 years old. I started in Tae Kwon Do. When I was a teen I studied combat hapkido. When I was in college I studied Chayon-Ryu and am now studying a blend of kempo/ju-jitsu. Although I have studied all those styles I have never attained rank higher than intermediate level, I hope to change this and attain a black belt in my current style some day. This blog Is part of a mastery program I am taking part in in which we blog once a week. I have been doing the program for one week now and despite my regular attendance at the dojo my body is not accustomed to so much exercise. I am feeling sore and fatigued but glad that I've had the will power so far to stick with it. I know there will be days when I do not want to, but I know that with the support of my husband and my team I can break through any challenges that come my way. Some ask why I chose to take on this program when I will not be receiving black belt rank at the end, unlike my other team members. when I heard that it would be opened up to other ranks I was excited at first, I gave it much thought and knew I had to take on this challenge. I feel I have hit a plateau in my exercise  routine and general fitness and I knew this would be the jump i need to push myself to my next level of fitness. Also, I wanted to do this to prove to myself that I can, to know that I have it in me to take on such a huge challenge so that when my time comes for my black belt exam and year test that I have already overcome it once, the next time should be even better. During the first meeting of the mastery program I found myself looking around the room at the brown belts and saw all the young faces, I felt I would not be able to connect with people half my age and younger but as I have gotten to know some of them in this short week I feel that will not be an issue and look forward to working with each person and getting to know my team better. They will push me to be greater than I am right now, going against their advanced technique I will learn and get stronger and better. In this program one is to have 3 goals to work towards in the year. The goals I have chosen are as follows: compete in a 5k, get 100 15 minute practice sessions in on guitar, and write a 40,000 word minimum novel. The 5k goal is monstrous for me as those who know me know I am not a runner at all! I feel working towards the goal of a 5k will help me build my stamina as well as raise my overall fitness level. The guitar practice goal is because my husband plays guitar and I would love to be able to share in that and play songs with him, he even got me a new guitar for our anniversary but I need to push myself to be able to play more than basic chords to play duets with him so a dedicated practice routine will help with that. And the goal of the novel...I have been writing short stories and have all these great ideas for a novel but have never had the discipline to designate time to sit down and type them all out to form one long story, I hope to accomplish this to get my ideas on paper for all the world to enjoy them as much as I do. I hope you enjoy my blog as I write each week, thank you for taking time to read this.