In a karate class lies a young woman who is preparing to do one of the most difficult tasks she will ever be faced with, her black belt test, while I am getting the chance to do something that will not have any benefit to myself. Maggie, the girl testing, came up to me one day to ask me to be an attacker for her during the test along with three other students in the class; Bruce, Kaylee, and Michael.

We decided to meet up at a nearby park for our practices at first. On Saturdays we would meet at noon to practice the bunkai, forms done to other people attacking, to the form she made herself. At first to me it sounded like a simple task, however we had to keep a quick speed to the bunkai and have the strength to convince the sensei that Maggie was fighting for her life, which came naturally for me, the problem was I had to do it without actually hitting her

The park was a good start to the practice but something was missing from the bunkai, attackers falling down. Nobody in the group wanted to fall down on the grass. I wanted to fall on the grass to have accurate time to get to my next attack, but others didn’t share my thought on the subject. So Maggie convinced the Sensei to let us use the Dojo for practicing from that point onwards.

With the change of location we ended up discovering new problems. The pads we had on the floor to cushion our fall would slide apart when moving around. They could stick together but the parts that stick were wore down too much. In one of our many practices Michael tripped on a sliding pad and the attackers forgot some of there moves causing the practice to go by slower than it was back when we were doing it at the park. Finally the difficulty of the practice began to sink in to me.

Moving forward from the incident we continued to practice and continued to improve, however not everyone was positive about the test, Maggie began to hold her arm like it was hurt, but at the time I didn’t notice it, until later on I was talking to Bruce's mom and they mentioned her arm

"what happened to Maggie's arm?" I said confused and oblivious.

"You kicked her." Bruce said to me.

I felt bad all throughout the night and into the following week. I would lay awake lost in my own thoughts thinking about how I was so oblivious to hurting her arm. The guilt made it hard for me to concentrate. I would not see her again until the following Tuesday and that day we practiced on Thursday because Maggie could not practice on Saturday that week. I couldn’t get rid of the thought of ruining her fast approaching test. I wished I could just leave and not be

part of it anymore, however the test was only a week away and it would be more difficult for her to get someone else in the class to replace me.

So being in a situation where I had to continued on, I started doing my own practicing not related to the bunkai. I made sure that my kicks would come close but not hit anything. When it comes to kicks I am strong but I noticed that I get carried away. I was not just doing this for Maggie to help out her black belt test. I was doing it for Bruce because he seemed disappointed when he told me I kicked her and he was one of the only friends I had in the class. I was also doing it for Kaylee and Michael because I knew how much they desired for Maggie to pass the test, and I was doing it for the rest of the class who have been victims of my strong kicks in the past.

The day of the test came and I was worried. Maggie was feeling better in her hand, but I still felt like if she failed I would have been the one to blame. The test made me more worried with how it was set up. Once I finished the bunkai with Maggie we had to go home with the only members of the group remaining with her were Bruce being the Sensei's assistance and Michael being Maggie's ride home.

So I returned home not knowing if Maggie would pass the test. I could not go to sleep again that night. The ceremony was the following day, but I could not wait for the ceremony to be finished. To me I believed Maggie deserves her black belt, but I do not know how well she can do other aspects of the test with her hand hurting. I would have nobody to blame but myself if she did not pass the test. I lied awake lost in thought. I was barely paying attention to anything besides my guilt about accidentally imposing a handicap on Maggie's black belt test. I did finally manage to put the guilt aside for a short time to fall asleep at 4:00 A.M.

The next day I arrived at the Dojo at noon to watch the ceremony. Being high rank I had to sit in front in a formal sitting position. The position involved kneeling on both legs while having feet crossed and hands in fists on knees. Sitting in that position annoyed me especially since legs had to be together for males in the class, but I feel like it was discipline I deserved so I needed to make sure that I can hold it for as long as the sensei wanted me to. Not holding it would make me look bad in front of all the visiting black belts and possibly a soon to be black belt.

It felt like it took a hour just for the sensei to take the class out of the formal sitting position when in reality it was only about five minutes. Maggie still had to hold the position though while the class could sit normally. The anticipation was making me more and more worried by the second. I kept thinking of how much I would disappoint everyone who found out that I would cause Maggie to fail her test.

Then I could finally erase the worries from my mind. Sensei went in a closet and pulled out a black belt . The lighting was dark but I could see he was holding a belt. I couldn’t tell the color of the belt, but since I could barely see it I could tell it was black. The lights went on and finally the sensei was tying the black belt around Maggie's waist. I felt like I finally got out of a burning building. There was so many ways that I could have failed that would cause Maggie herself to fail, but luckily I got out alive. I went to congratulate Maggie in person once the

ceremony was over along with another apology. With the test over and Maggie's belt now black in color I could finally go home and get the long lost sleep I deserved.