My speech is on kung-fu's effect on my social skills, and how it's changed how I interact with people inside and outside of the classroom. I felt that it was most relevant to my experience growing up being very reserved.
In my childhood, I found it difficult to express my opinions and emotions to everyone, even my loved ones, and I have a very quiet voice and nature.
When my parents put me into kung-fu 11 years ago, my quiet nature became an issue.
A huge part of displaying power in kung-fu is in verbal sound, and I adamantly refused to make any. I'd do every movement correctly, just in complete silence. Often, the kids in my classes were older than me and didn't talk to me because of the age gap, either.
When you're 8 years old, talking to a 6-year old kid doesn't sound very appealing.
My experience started to really pick up when I took my first BlackBbelt test in 2018, though. I was 12, and I remember the constant training we had to do similar to the weekly practices we did for this test. The amount of time I spent with my classmates, along with my recent shift to the Wednesday class they were all in, gave me enough confidence to reach out and befriend some of them.
I mark this as a turning point in my young life. As my skill and confidence went up in kung-fu and I gained more friends, my confidence outside the classroom grew too. I approached more people in my school, and made more friends on my own without relying on old friends to introduce them to me. Where I couldn't look people in the eyes before, I could make eye contact with them and hold full conversations with people I hardly knew.
Without the motivation to reach out to classmates | wasn't familiar with, I wouldn't have known a lot of people I care about now, and I'd still be the reserved, silent kid in class.
So personally, I believe what was most important about my improvement in social skills from kung-fu was my initiative to take the first step.
I don't think a change in confidence or social skills equates a change of personality. I didn't suddenly become loud and assertive just because my social skills improved with kung-fu's help. My social progress came in different ways, through small changes in confidence, the way I carry myself, and my willingness to come up here and give this speech. In the future, I think what l've learned here at kungfu will probably help me to develop myself socially as I continue to grow and become a working adult post-college.
I'm very grateful to my parents. For years now, they've been transporting me back and forth from kung-fu, comforting me if I came home in tears after classes (which was quite
often), and trying to help build my confidence up. I don't think I could've made as much progress as I have without their encouragement.
I'm also very thankful to Shifu, who has always pushed me towards progress, even if I'm not feeling it, and staying patient with me even when I take a little slower to progress in skills than others.
