Septembers

September has been the most important month for me in Jiu-Jitsu. You wouldn't think so, as, for example, my promotions all happened in June, December, March, and February. It is true, nevertheless.

I started Jiu-Jitsu about halfway through September of 2011, as a somewhat casual student. That in itself is big enough, but before the month was over I already knew that I was hooked.

I was promoted to Blue Belt the following June, but was doing a lot of travel over the summer. That made my real start in advanced training to be September of 2012. That is a huge change, and many people quit about that time.

I started my time as a Blue just taking whatever came along, but soon realized that I wanted to progress faster than that. I started doing tons of extra training, and private lessons, so that I would earn my first stripe early.

September of 2013 was when this process wrapped up, and I started to actually prepare for the exam itself.

September 2014 is the only September that didn't have any big milestones attached to it that I can think of.

The one upcoming, in 2015 will see the attendance requirement for my fourth Blue Belt stripe completed. I won't receive that promotion until mid October, but there will be no more attendance requirements for quite a while. There are no specified totals for the following promotion; the one to Purple Belt. This could mean as little as 7 months, and as many as 19 months with no attendance requirements.

Can I see farther into the future than that? Nope.

Not really a pattern, in my opinion, but rather a coincidence.