It was 8 in the morning, as the alarm clock started ringing, an annoying buzzing in my ear, I realized what was going on. It was my favorite day of the week, Saturday. As I began putting on my white, new karate uniform that glittered and stood out above all of the other clothes in the whole closet, I thought to myself, today is the day that I become a black belt ninja. I imagined what it would feel like, would everything change, or would it be like when it’s my birthday and I don’t feel any difference in my age until some weeks passed. I was tired,, yet I could feel my heart pounding at the same time. I had been waiting for this day ever since I was 5 years old. I could hear my mom’s voice from across the whole house urging me to hurry up. When I finally got downstairs,  I felt like I was in a cartoon and the smell of delicious food came directly at my nose, encouraging me to devour it. A huge plate of tacos hovered into my seat as I glared at it with hunger. I grabbed the salt and made it dance across the juicy meat in the taco. I finished my delicious breakfast and carried my plate back to the kitchen where I saw a thousand dirty dishes in the sink. I put on my warm shoes and stepped outside, realizing how cold it was.

As I walked in the old, withered building, I glanced at my teacher who was examining some papers, eyes from side to side, scanning the documents like a printer.

“Hi” I mumbled in a timid voice.
“Welcome, Othón, are you ready to become a black belt?” he responded.

Honestly, I didn’t know what to respond. Was I ready? I thought to myself, as I was taking off my shoes. I walked into the mat, breathing heavily as I prepared myself both physically and mentally. My friends from the dojo came over to talk to me, but just as I was opening my mouth, our teacher summoned us to the center of the mat.

“Welcome students. Today is the day that you become true black belts and advance to the next level of karate and expand your learning to more advanced techniques.”

As I quivered in the corner, waiting for my turn to go and take the exam. The exam was basically a series of movements which I would have to perform perfectly in order to pass. I hoped that my teacher was in a good mood today because he was kind of harsh sometimes. I didn’t really know what to expect, either I passed… or I failed. I thought of all the possible ways that this could go and I realized that my chances of passing were about 50-50. As I was going over the movements with my partner, repeating and repeating everything one by one in order for my performance to be perfect, I felt like every time I was getting worse.

As my teacher called out “Next up, Othón Ruiz”.

My body got tense, I started panicking, am I ready? I asked myself, as I wiped the sweat off my terrified face. I glanced at the ancient clock as it ticked, and ticked, and ticked, every second passing made me feel more afraid of what was yet to come.

“Othón Ruiz, you’re up” Exclaimed my sensei.

This was it, the moment that I had been looking forward to since I was just a little 5 year-old child. I remembered how I used to be so little and naive. How my white belt gleamed, when I first got it. When I got my yellow belt, I thought I was the best karate fighter that ever lived. And so on, I kept getting my belts, each belt representing more maturity and growing up. It was as if the belts symbolized a new version of myself, each time older, stronger, more mature, different. As I took those final steps into the center of the dojo, I realized that this was just the beginning of a new version of me. I wasn’t here to just finish what I had started, I was here to begin a new life, a different, more developed life. The big question that ran through my mind was was I ready to begin?

I can’t go on doing this, I didn’t practice enough, I’m going to fail, all these years have been for nothing, I began panicking. A drop of sweat slid across my cheek. I thought I was going to pee my pants. I was going to make a fool out of myself out there. I started thinking of all the possible ways that this could go wrong and the list went on forever. I was getting dizzy thinking of all of these ways that I could fail the exam. This was one of the biggest moments of my entire life and I knew I was going to fail.

“Come on Othón, we’re waiting”

I snapped back into reality. My face turned as red as a baboon’s butt. Some of my classmates let out a smirk. But I didn’t care anymore, this was the biggest moment of my life. I was trembling like a guitar string. As I began, I was a little clumsy, but then I got more and more confidence as my performance developed into the best performance that I had ever given, I felt confidence, I was so happy. But now came the second part of the exam, fighting against another person. I had no idea who I was going to fight but then my teacher announced.
“Othón, today you will be fighting Fernando”

My face turned white, I looked as if I had seen a ghost. Fernando was the toughest meanest person in my class. As I saw him approaching me, I realized how tall he really was, he towered over me as I quivered. Fernando was a full year older than me, he was already in the 6th grade, I was only in 5th.

“Begin.”
I guess I was distracted because I didn't see a huge fist coming straight at me. BAM! I fell with a thud, there was ringing in my ears. I thought my nose had broken into a million pieces. But I stood up and kept going. One punch, two three, all flew past me but I managed to avoid them all. I got a lucky hit down into his left ribcage.
“Time!” My professor exclaimed. That was the end of the first round. This was going terrible, I had to show that I could take it.
“Begin” My teacher said unexpectedly, as I was drinking water. I entered the fighting area again, it was going even worse, hit after hit, Fernando kept dominating the fight. I saw the smirk that he had on his face, the thought of hurting me was pleasuring to him, it was at that moment that I realized that I had to kick this guy’s ass once and for all. I kicked him as hard as I could, he grabbed my leg, this was it, the end of my life, I was going to die that day. At least that is what I thought as an 11 year-old kid. Now I realize how naive I really was, the worst that could have happened was a black eye and not passing the exam, but at that age, of course I thought that I was going to die, I thought this guy was unstoppable. But I was wrong, Fernando grabbed my leg, but that’s when I jumped, my hand full with power, crushing his stupid face. That’s when I realized that I could win this fight. His nose started bleeding and he fell to the ground. Everyone gasped with amaze, I couldn’t believe it! My teacher’s jaw dropped as I stood there in the middle of the dojo, feeling a sense of pride that I had never felt before. As I saw tears coming down Fernando’s face, I was about to start laughing, but that’s when I realized that I had to help him. I extended my hand and he took it. Our sensei brought him a tissue and escorted him to the bathroom. I was so proud of myself, I had accomplished something huge today and I would never forget this. A smile ear to ear covered my face.

The last thing I remember about that day was exiting that dojo with a black belt around my waist. I still look back at those final steps I took out into the cold wind. I got in my car and headed home. After that, my memory of this story is kind of blurry but that’s not important. The important thing is that is was on that day that I became a black belt, but to me, a black belt wasn’t just a piece of cotton, it was my whole life. Ever since that first day, when I had entered that same dojo, I still remember looking up to all the big guys with those honorific black belts around their waist, I remember always wanting to be like them. And now I was, I had around my waist, the most important thing in my life, and it was the most important because I knew that I had worked hard to get it. My dad, who I despised for making me be in karate, I hated going sometimes because I didn’t know what purpose was there to be in karate, now that I was more mature, I finally understood why he had pushed me all this way. I thanked my dad because if it weren’t for him, I would have gotten nowhere. I guess you don’t really know the value of things until you have them, after all this time, I really understood why my father pushed me so hard, I had never seen the truth until now.