Peter Barnum
Toastmasters CC#8: A decade in the Dojo

I was thirteen. My mom had just told me that I needed to go out for a 
sport. I’d always been interested in martial arts, so I figured I’d try to 
find a class I liked. I looked at different pamphlets and brochures. I 
found an Aikido class I was interested in, but it said you had to be 
fourteen to enter. I looked around more, and found a Tae Kwon Do class, 
taught in the gym of my old grade school. I figured I’d go and take a look.
-Describe the instructor
-Demonstrate some of the basic moves I learned.  Down block, straight 
punch, snap kick
-Next time I brought my friend
-Three basic things: basic movements, poomse, gyroogi
-first promotion test
-progressing 
-black belt
-years in college.  Learning new style, 2nd degree, assistant instructor.

Since college, I haven’t really done much Tae Kwon Do.  I’ve spend some 
time practicing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.  But martial arts take up a lot of 
time.  I was spending hours and hours every week, and I wasn’t able to do a 
lot of other things I enjoy.  But I’m very glad of the time I spent, I 
think I learned a lot about not just discipline and perseverance, but also 
how to stand up in front of a group and teach.  Sometimes you demonstrate a 
spectacular spinning kick and everyone claps.  Sometimes you fall on your 
butt in front of thirty students.  Toward the end, it was the helping 
people and teaching that I enjoyed the most, and I think the greatest part 
of my study of martial arts was that it was a stepping stone to what I 
think will give me the greatest joy in life.

Througout this speech, I’ll put on my Tae Kwon Do uniform, and explain each 
piece