Written By: Richelle Kim
Director | Aston American University
I’m taking a Karate class and I’m one of the oldest people in the class. It’s a group class of 30 people and most of the students are kids ages 5-12 years old. I’ve got 40 years on some of these little guys! There’s a lot of stomping, chopping, yelling, and sometimes crying. It’s kind of embarrassing at times. I mess up a lot because I’m uncoordinated, stiff and old. I think about the moves instead of naturally creating the motions. I am thinking ahead of what I want to do next and forgetting what I’m supposed to be doing at the moment. Are you doing this in your courses? Are you trying to pass by guessing ahead? Turning in assignments that are not your best work because you just want to see if it will pass?
The Karate motto has three parts each student must follow:
Seriousness. Try Hard. Never Give Up.
Seriousness is easy.
Come to class and be prepared, be ready to learn, and be serious about studying. Don’t mess around and don’t cheat yourself or others. At Aston American University, it’s the same thing. Don’t expect it to be easy, to do partial assignments and try to turn them in as quickly as possible. Be serious about your work and be serious about your assignments. Don’t plagiarize (cut and paste other people’s work from the Internet). Whenever you write in your own words, in your own voice, with your own experiences from your life, your assignments will be more serious and mean more to you; and your degree will mean more to you.
Try hard, not a little, not sort of: Try hard!
Do not be lazy. Do each move with care, precision and effort. The kids in my Karate class make mistakes and they think nothing of it. It’s a natural learning process for kids to try hard and make mistakes. As adults, one of two things happen: Either we try hard the first time and make a mistake, but can’t recover from it, so we quit. Or we don’t try hard because we are afraid of giving it our all and failing. Failing is a part of the learning process, but as adults, we often forget that it’s okay to fail. In Karate, there are competitions, and no one wins them all; sometimes they fail. You can learn more from your failures than your wins. If you fail an assignment, it’s not the end of the world. Ask yourself, did I follow the directions? Did I misunderstand the question? Did I try hard?
Never give up.
In Karate, this one is hard to do when you are exhausted, your bones are creaking (especially at my age), and when you feel like fainting. You want to throw in the towel and call it a day. But never giving up makes each person stronger, better, pushing yourself to limits you have never thought you could reach. Never giving up means that if you fail, you get back up and try again, and again, and again. No matter how many times it takes to learn.
In our courses at Aston American University, we have caring instructors who will pick you up and help you succeed if you fail. Follow their directions and listen to their advice. Ask them how you can improve, or what can make a failing grade, a passing grade. But you must have: Seriousness. Try hard. And never give up.
