Grading Tuesday.

 I disintegrated into the sofa with my children on either side of me to support my weight. I dosed in and out of dream land several times, but somehow something there did not seem quite right. It was as if a black shadowy figure were watching me from just beyond my field of vision... I jumped up and had to think fast to catch the children on either side of me. Brianna started complaining and I had to sit down again to give her a kiss and Ethan a hug before I ducked into the bedroom to slip into my Gi.

My wife accompanied me to the dojo and watched the kids class grade while we warmed up outside. We greeted and were ordered to lay mats out for rolls. I am very confident with rolls and everyone seemed to share my sentiment as we finished off with distance rolls and high jump rolls. We lined up again and completed the rest of ninth kyu. As we started with eighth kyu I realised I didn’t have a grading partner. One of the Senseis helped me out, but by seventh kyu I grabbed one of the juniors.

I had to do each move twice as many times as everyone else and had much less chance to rest. I started sweating profusely, but I felt good and paced myself just a little. By the time we got to sixth kyu I knew my head was through, the benefit of doing double seventh kyu was that I didn’t have to go to ground and get up so it evened out. I felt pretty good with sixth kyu and only made a couple of mistakes.

We finished off and greeted. My clothes were soaked and I was almost over tired. I just had to get some water, but I knew we did good and hopefully made our Senseis proud. I have one more level to grade tomorrow and one more day to prepare.

Embrace the shadows.