14/52

[emelbe]

I dithered a bit over this one. The picture didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped. I have a couple better ones but they were taken by someone else so it doesn’t feel right to include them in this project. But the more I thought about it the more it grew on me. This vaguely out of focus, off-center, out of balance, wacky, rag-tag shot feels pretty representative of my yesterday.

Those wacky socks are on the feet of six (of the ten—there’s another regret, that I didn’t get all of us) people I spent seven and a half hours with yesterday getting tested on our self-defense proficiency for our next belt level. We did it to sort of visually link ourselves as a team. We all worked hard and we all worked smart. When we ran, we ran together. When we fought, we fought hard. We kept eyes on each other and when people needed help, sometimes not even realizing it, we helped each other. We all made it through.

And then we waited because next door eleven others were also testing into another level, higher than ours. More material so it took longer. We waited to show them support and when those doors opened and they started shambling out we all stood and clapped.

Today I am covered in bruises and I am sore. As the day progresses we’re checking in with each other. The gent in the Gryffindor socks texted me this morning that he felt like he’d fallen out of a tree which sounds about right. I don’t know yet if I passed (I’ll find out later this week) but I had a hell of a lot of fun and it’s fascinating to realize that I’m finding community in places I didn’t expect to do so.