Alessandro Dela Cruz 1st Degree Black Belt

I will be talking about the mental changes Kung-Fu has allowed me to achieve. I chose this topic as Kung-Fu has allowed me to change my demeanor for the best in a way that would not have been possible without taking Kung-Fu.

  A personal experience that impacted my way of thought was during the beginning of doing Kung-Fu. I had little confidence of what I was doing, as Kung-Fu was leaps and bounds beyond my comfort zone. Though instead of giving up, I continued with it. I learnt from Shifu and peers until I was satisfied with my progress and able to enjoy doing these movements that ailed me at first.

  The biggest takeaway I'm trying to say is that I learnt that it's bad to work with a short-sighted mindset, like I almost did when I saw difficulty at first. If I left Kung-Fu early with the mindset I had before, I would have never tried to see things through to the end anymore.

  Determination and grit are necessary to improve yourself. Stick to your guns and keep going; it's nearly impossible to predict the outcome of something without going through with it.

  I want to say thank you to my family for being there every step of my martial arts journey and encouraging me to stay with Kung-Fu. Thank you to my peers who share a similar mindset for improvement. Thank you to both Shifus for your patience when working with us, regardless of our antics and missteps, and seeing the potential we have.