One Week Left

Today it’s Saturday, and there is precisely one week left until the scheduled day for my Brown Belt evaluation.

There is still some question as to the precise day that it will happen, but the paperwork went in naming Saturday; four days before Christmas.

It may happen on Saturday, but there seems to be some question about that. The evaluator has some reason for moving it by a day or two.

That is fine with me, but only if it is moved up, and not further away.

Helen and I always go to spend Christmas with family in Victoria, and we are committed to going over the day after the scheduled Saturday test date. That is already a couple of days later than we’d usually go, and we committed to it back when my test was first being set up, two months ago. No going back on that now.

Earlier is not an issue, at least on my end. It is always hard to coordinate a bunch of people getting together to do anything. Just try and pick a restaurant with a bunch of buddies.

The time has to fit me, and the other guy being tested, and our instructor, and the evaluator, and a couple of extra bodies to act as our bad guys. That would be at least 6 people.

If it simply cannot be done on or before the designated Saturday, then my part at least would have to be put off until sometime in January.

I don’t really think that it will be, but it is a possibility.

Anyhow, all of the preparation will soon be over. When that happens, Rob and I will jump back into the technical exams in a big way, and there will be other projects and interesting topics to be found and explored.

A pass means that for the next four levels, I can expect to progress every 8 months or so. Perhaps more slowly if some kind of injury pops up.

That would give me 32 month of stability.

The next stressful rank would come after that, and it would be the big one; for a Black Belt. The soonest I can achieve the rank before that would be something like the late summer of 2022.

Back belt exams only happen in Los Angeles at the main Gracie University school in December, and the invitations for that go out the prior January or February. So a ranker finishing in the late summer of 2022, would be followed by an invitation to Los Angeles being issued early in 2023, for a gruelling exam just before Christmas.

That all still seems pretty far away, and quite theoretical. The point is that there will be plenty of time for technical exams, helping beginners, and attending classes. It will be nice to get back to all that again.