Nikky Tries Karate; Makes a Decision

tl;dr: I tried Karate. And I didn’t like it.

One of my goals since graduation is to try new things and try to expand my horizons in non-academic ways. It’s been difficult to achieve this goal sometimes, but I feel like I’ve made good progress. Part of this goal is to take more classes at the UW’s IMA, which is our campus gym. There were a couple of classes I was interested in this quarter, but through one scheduling conflict or another, I ended up only signing up for Karate.

Now, let’s picture this for a second. The somewhat lanky, uncoordinated, and mostly mild-mannered Nikky decided to try a martial art.

I’ll wait for the laughter to subside for a bit.

I had a good feeling going into the first session. I didn’t really know much about the art and what we would be doing, but it seemed like something new to try out. Worse case scenario: I hated it and never went back. I didn’t think this was going to happen.

But it did. The class just wasn’t clicking. The instructor just seemed off to me; never really explained what he was doing, and things just went poorly. Then it dawned upon me: I was taking a class that essentially was about fighting another human being.

That didn’t sit well with me.

So I don’t think I’m going back, which is something I didn’t expect I would be saying just a few hours ago. I’m going to give it a big think tomorrow, but I just got a really bad vibe from the class and don’t see myself having fun in it. Martial arts are fun to a great many people, but I don’t think I’m one of them.

I’m still glad I gave it an admittedly brief try.