Fall 2025 Black Belt Cycle

Candidate Journals

King Tiger Tae Kwon Do Black Belt candidates blog daily about their journey: their thoughts and feelings, their struggles and successes; their pain and their encouragement. Follow along on their journey; words of encouragement are always welcome!

Journal Entry #18 8/2/25

I ended up finishing the essay. Today was our pre test. The run got cancelled last night. I was so happy. I could wake up a little later. But I was still tired this morning. I’m tired now. After the pre test I went home and took an hour and a half nap. And I never take naps. Then I woke up and ran my three miles for the run. My body was hurting.

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Journal Entry #17 8/1/25

Yesterday was my final day of the nutrition challenge. It was awful. Today I’m going to write an essay about it. Good thing it's only a page only. I’m going to try my best to write it well but fast. Because today I have to go to taekwondo. And I’m pretty sure I’m teaching the black belt class. And tomorrow is the pre-test. So I’m so happy I got my running out the way. So I can rest my legs. 

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Journal Entry #16 7/31/25

  Today and tomorrow are going to be good. I ran extra yesterday so I didn’t have to run today and tomorrow. And today I went to my open house. I have my full schedule for this semester and next semester. I have math honors for this semester. And next semester I have ELA honors. But like I said before I do not want to go to school. And I have to take Latin again. And I'm there for an hour and a half. It’s going to be so boring.

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Journal Entry #15 7/29/25

  Today I went to taekwondo again. I taught the junior tiger class. I was not prepared for it. When I got there Master Knight told me I was teaching it. I was pretty nervous. But I think it went pretty well. I had them do a lot.  The class went by pretty fast. I heard the next class start so I hurried and ended the class. So today was a pretty good day.

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Journal Entry # 14 7/28/25

Thursday is my open house for school. I can really see the people that are staying. Because I learned by now that people say they're going to leave but they don’t. And I can see who my teachers are going to be, and what my schedule is. That's the most important part of my schedule. And Saturday is our pre-test. I’m not looking forward to the run. But I know every poomsae and self-defense. So I’m going to be good for Saturday.

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Journal Entry #13 7/27/25

Next week is the start of school. I’m going to the 9th grade. I don’t really feel any type of way about it. Everyone always asks me how I feel. I just don’t like school. It feels like a huge waste of my day. And I don’t usually like the teachers either. I’m just counting the years away. Good thing this year we get out an hour early. And we only have four classes a day. But the thing is each class is an hour and a half long. I’m going to be in one room for that long. It’s going to get really boring. So yeah, let's just say I am not looking forward to this school year.

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Journal Entry #12 7/26/25

Today is a Saturday. And usually on Saturdays I sleep in. But I woke up earlier today because Lake Norman had a Poomsae Seminar. And me, Avery, and Parker went to it. It was nice. It gave me a new perspective on Poomsaes. And some of the stuff I learned today I’m going to use on poomsaes for now on. The class felt so short. Like time went by fast. I think it was an hour and thirty minutes long. And after that all of us went out for lunch. We had Shake Shack.

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Journal Entry #11 7/24/25

Today I’m going to the orthodontist. I thought they said the last time we were going there was in 8 months. But we're going today. I don’t think we’re going to be there long. But yeah today has been a chill day. After this I’m going to get on the game. I have to leave in 30 minutes.

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Journal Entry #10 7/22/25

Today I was with my Uncle and we washed the Hampton Inn Hotel. It took us all day to finish. But it didn’t feel that long. But we had to get a boom lift to wash the higher parts of the hotel. And I got in it but we didn't go high. We washed the back first then the front. When we washed the front me and my little cousin’s job was to warn guests about the chemicals. But not a lot of people passed through the front. Sometimes it got hot but it rained very slightly twice. So it wasn’t that bad.

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Journal Entry #9 7/21/25

My least favorite part of the cycle is running. Like everyday I have to run. Like It will be better on the pre-test. But I run myself everyday. And after a while of doing that everyday with no break. Your legs start to hurt worse every time you run. But with the pre-test I have a lot of adrenaline. I try to run with Avery or Parker but they don’t go to Tae-kwon-do on my days. So it wouldn’t make sense for them to drive to Harrisburg park just to run. But we do have to run at least once this cycle.

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Journal Entry #8 7/20/25

Me and Avery started playing this game new to Xbox called Ready or Not. It’s a mission game with real life situations. And you have to carry out your missions. Or you fail. It's a very hard game to play. Me and Avery played that game for like 3 hours and only completed 2 missions. First mission we got a b rank. And that last one we did we got a c. Originally it was only on P.C but now it’s on Xbox. So it's going to be one of the main games we play.

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Journal Entry # 7/18/25

Today was the best sparring class I ever went to. It was fun. Avery taught with a tiny bit of my help. We did two vs two sparring like team sparring. It was fun. And I sparred Conner and Parker. I haven't sparred with Parker in almost a year. The only thing I remembered was that he punches a lot. So I had to make sure I was out of a punching reach. But today was a pretty good day.

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Journal Entry #6 7/17/25

Today was a normal day except that I went to taekwondo. I don’t go to taekwondo on Tuesday and Thursday. Harrisburg has this hopkido class and PMA class. I went to it today. My first time by the way. It was different because both classes aren't my style. But it wasn't bad. I learned a lot of new things from both classes. I’m going to start going more often. But I can’t wait to spar tomorrow.

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Journal # 5

Today was a chill day. I got an essay done so I only have to do two more essays. I have a headache right now so I don’t know what to talk about. But I just ran a mile. And after this I'm going to go eat. Then take a shower and get on the game with Avery. Then watch AMP. I recommend whoever you are watching this to watch AMP. They're this popular Youtube/Twitch group and they're so funny. They are doing content in a summer house right now. They’ree really funny, you should check them out.

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7/15/2025

Today was a chill day. Not much happened today. I just ate and now watching tv with my mom. We're watching American ninja warrior. American ninja warrior is a show where people come and compete in obstacle courses. And the winner wins a million dollars. Today I ran a mile in under 10 minutes again. But when I was running it started to rain. So I was running in the rain. But I didn't mind because it kinda cooled me off.

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Journal # 3

Today was my last day of the digital detox. I woke up earlier so it could be done earlier. It was awful. It was worse today than it was yesterday. But now all that's done. I’m trying to hurry this up so I can play the game with Avery and Trent. So I'm in a time crunch. I ran a mile in less than 10 minutes. And my creative form is coming along pretty good. I have the first few moves and I’m sticking with them. But I don’t want any random form, I want it to have a theme. So I'm still thinking. But with everyone's input it will be amazing (with my flash ofc).

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Digital Detox

Today I started the digital detox. That's when you go without technology for two twelve hour periods. It is awful. This is  worse than the empathy training. It's so boring and quiet. As soon as I woke up I knew it was going to be a bad day. As soon as I woke up I ran a mile and a half outside. I ran it in under fifteen minutes. So if I keep this up I’m going to be able to run my three miles at the pre-test in under thirty minutes. Not looking for that track. But the rest of the day after that will be fun. This will be the first per-test that I can do with Parker and Avery.

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First Day of BB Cycle

Today is the start of our black belt cycle. I ran a mile for the first time in a long time today. I ran the mile at nine minutes on the dot. That surprised me for sure. Yesterday Master Foster and Trent came back from their mission from Handorous. They were gone for a week but it felt like forever. They look different to me when I saw Trent look a year older. And Master Foster looked five years younger. While they were gone I taught the Tuesday sparring class. It went really well. Even though they were gone it was a pretty good week.

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