Karate Tournament

Yesterday, the much dreaded karate tournament took place.  When I got back from London, Nedim asked me to write the check for Selim's enrollment in the tournament.  I did.  Turns out, Selim didn't want to participate.  And for the past few weeks, that is all I have heard about, "Mom, why did you sign me up when I didn't want to do it?"  Sigh.

I understood that he was nervous.  Every now and then he would say, "There are going to be judges...there will be people I don't know...I'm going to have to do my form in front of everybody...I've never gone to a tournament before..."  It became a larger than life, humongous thing that he couldn't stand.  On Friday night, he said, "I wish I would wake up sick tomorrow." 

At that point, I told him he didn't have to go.  Here I am, bad mommy, forcing my child to go to a tournament.  He was in tears, I felt awful, it was just dreadful.  When he woke up on Saturday, he was resigned to have a terrible time.

Turns out, he had a blast.  The tournament was interesting from a spectator's point of view.  When we got there, there were two groups breaking boards.  We missed the black belt sparring and weapons.  But the board breaking was cool.  Since everything was running late, we got to see his teacher and the owners of Great Bay Karate participate as competitors.  I enjoyed that.

After the black belts finished, the opening ceremonies started.  We sang the national anthem and a few students received their black belt certificates.  Then, students from a dojo in Connecticut performed a demonstration that included music, a trampoline, swords and long sticks.  Selim really paid attention during the sword forms. 

Then the competition of non-black belts began.  They were divided into four groups, by age and belt rank.  Each group demonstrated a form, sparred and broke boards.  Selim did great.  He went up to the judges, said his name clearly, where he trains, who is his instructor and the name of the form he would be performing.  And he did it beautifully.  He broke the board on the first try and when he sparred, he was able to grab one of the flags off his opponents belt.  At the end,  he got a huge medal.  And all was right in his world.

We went home and had a post-tournament, pre-birthday lunch and cupcake celebration with Mom and Robert.  Perfect ending to the day.  Last night, when Nedim, Selim and I were on the couch, Selim said, "When I go to my next tournament..." and he didn't get past that because Nedim and I burst out laughing.  From dread to eagerly anticipating the next tournament in the space of a few hours.

This morning the guys have gone out for a bit and I've been working in the library room, organizing the book shelves.  I am trying to remember the feeling of despair that I had when I walked back into the house after weeks away due to the tons of crap that I have.  I took enough books to fill five grocery sacks that Nedim will take to the dump, where they have space for books that is a community free bee.  Next up is the bedroom and my clothes.  Don't think that will be today, but may be some afternoon.  I only spend 1 1/2 hours this morning and I got a lot accomplished.