Master?, I thought, Where are we, Korea? And I shook the hand of the man who would introduce me to hell.
The day I joined Desert Sun Tae Kwon Do, the course of my life changed in a way...in many ways. It was during my time there that I experienced real pain for the first time. Never before had I felt the burn of a workout even days later. It was my first true taste of endorphins. And I was hooked.
Practicing the art of Tae Kwon Do not only pulled me in with its adrenaline rush, but also the new sense of discipline it forced on me. When I stepped onto the mat in the studio I was no longer just a simpleminded girl, I turned into a "robot" (as I would tell myself) eating up every word that jumped from Master Evan's mouth.
"What you do in here will make everything else in your life better," he would say, and we would listen. I idolized him for the wisdom and skill I could only wish to acquire someday. Because of this he was such an influence on my way of thinking. Whatever Master Evans said was truth. Period.
There were times when one of the younger students wasn't working hard enough to the satisfaction of Master Evans. "What did you eat today? Lucky Charms for breakfast?" he would pry.
"Do you know what that does to your brain? Sugar, sugar, sugar," he continued purposely embarassing the child-purposely trying to change his behavior through ridicule. And even this I ate up.
Lucky Charms: off my list, I made note, No way am I ever going to get caught having eaten such a breakfast.
"What kind of push ups are those, Captain Crunch?" he would jab at another innocent child and my list of "evil" foods began to grow.
"Have you been drinking soda?" he would accuse at times.
"Diet, sir... " the exhausted student responded and we were flooded with reasons why one must, at all costs, avoid the evil "diet" foods.
"Sugar replacements..."
"...holes in your brain..."
"...worse than the real poison..."
He went on and on, and I was dizzy with excitement. He was telling me the secrets to eating healthy and having control over my body, right? He especially emphasized the power of exercising intensely to maintain a fit body.
"Do you know what happens to women when they turn 35?" and he would make a gesture with his hands and arms pretending to jiggle imaginary fat hanging under his bicep and we would make sure to do all of our push ups exactly right-or else that imaginary fat would find a way to become a real nightmare.
All of the many things I heard from Master Evans, I took to heart. Little did I know, the "advice" I was being fed was merely Ed working his charms and the excitement I felt was just me falling for it all. The lies had begun and the seeds had been planted.
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ReplyDeleteI, too, hated it.