It all started in Greece of 2010 when I was eight years old. The new movie The Karate Kid came out, and I watched it and got really inspired and obsessed with it. I started doing Kung Fu everyday by myself while watching the movie over and over again, even though I had no idea what I was doing. I was just kicking, punching, jumping, and copying the movements in the movie wherever I was.
I did it in the park, at school, on the balcony, in my bedroom, in the kitchen, etc. In 2012 we were back in the United States. During that summer we were hanging out in the mall and my mom met a Chinese lady. My mom wanted me and my sister to learn Chinese Mandarin. The lady told us there was a Chinese community center in Shaker High School that taught
Chinese. We went there to register and we found out that they also taught Kung Fu! That was perfect for me, so we started doing Chinese and Kung Fu classes every Sunday
during the fall of 2012. That is where I met Shifu. I really loved it and I wanted to be committed to it so I visited his studio, CMAA. As soon as I saw CMAA I wanted to go
there everyday and do Kung Fu, it was AMAZING. However, there was a little problem; our summer house was an hour away so we just continued going to the community
center on Sundays.
By September of 2013 we rented an apartment five minutes away from CMAA. That is when my sister and I started doing Kung Fu classes everyday after school. It was everything I always wanted to do, it was so fun and interesting and I was learning really quickly. Even if I had a lot of homework to do, I still needed to go everyday or my day wouldn’t be complete, and I still watched Kung Fu videos at home. I remember the time I got my white sash, I was so excited! I did my homework with it on and I even slept with it on for a while. As I advanced in Kung Fu, I got new weapons, learned many new forms, moves, and I even skipped a sash. All of this was great but the best thing was that I made a lot of good friends and Shifu was really motivating and fun. During this time, my family had problems with our rental and school so we moved back into our summer house on June 2015. From September 2015 we started doing private classes with Shifu, and we still do.
My mom wanted to move back to New York City, but I personally loved being in CMAA and could not see myself being anywhere else. My parents told me they would
continue to support me and my sister if we wanted to stay, and we did. Our goal is to continue martial arts forever. I have so many great memories at CMAA, I have gained a
lot of self confidence and learned how to defend myself.
I can’t imagine how my life would be if I never went to CMAA or even started doing Kung Fu. Martial arts will always
be my favorite sport, and no matter what career I choose, Kung Fu will always be a big part of my life.
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