The only thing that bummed me out a little was not seeing my friend Patrick finally get his Black Belt! Patrick and I were in the same white-belt class five years ago. He was the first person to send me to the emergency room from a Martial Arts injury. That was when I was a yellow belt. My knuckles were swollen to the size of a baseball! Of course, in Martial Arts, if you get hurt, it's your own fault (shouldn't put your hand where it doesn't belong). I got my Black Belt almost two years ago. Patrick took longer because he took a year off when he was a green belt and then he skipped tests every other semester. Patrick is an aggressive sparrer. I remembered him beating a Black Belt in Summer Camp when he was Blue Belt.

That last picture is Sam. Sam, like Patrick, is an incredibly nice person, but extremely aggressive as a Martial Artist. This seeming contradiction characterizes most of the Martial Artists I know and the reason why Martial Artists are such a special breed. Sam was telling me about the church service he attended over New Year's Eve. The service takes an intermission around midnight. He said they did not do a countdown, but it was nevertheless fun for him.