My Warrior

I have this small person in my life who is absolutely incredible. His name is Link and I am so lucky to be his mom.

He just competed in a Taekwondo tournament. He didn't place. However, he lost to kids with much more experience and truth be told, I think he earned much better scores than he got. Then again, I'm his mom and I may be a little biased. However, his instructor's goal for him was at least ONE 9.7. He earned three of those.

Right before his competition he was headbutted by two very unruly competitors who were unaware of their surroundings and not doing what they were supposed to. This is how he started the tournament. He shook it off and came out LIKE A BOSS. He cheered on all of his competitors, he entered the ring properly with bows and a strong voice. His form was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. with strong yells. He bowed his head for scoring like he was supposed to. He was great.

He also competed in board breaking. He was originally going to be doing a side kick for his board break but the day before his tournament his instructor convinced him to do a running jump side kick. He's NEVER done one of those. He had a day to practice. So at the tournament he gets called up. He goes for it and takes the hardest fall I have ever seem him take. He smacked his head into the floor and rewatching the video I took of it, looks like he probably is going to have a wicked bruise on his hip. I honestly have no idea how the hell he got up from that. I'm surprised he doesn't have a head injury of some sort. But he jumped up right away, shook it off and kept trying. I don't know how many attempts. D and I were trying to tell him to just do side kick. He ignored us. He was so in the zone. And then he broke it. And it was awesome.

Here's some fun pictures after the tournament:

Link, his best friend Stewart and his "girlfriend" Sofia showing their best warrior faces

 Stewart, Link and Sofia being cute

Future sister in law had to get in on the photo op:

During this tournament I saw the kind of person my kid is and is becoming. A patient, compassionate, hard working, persistent, talented little person. I'm excited to continue watching him grow into the amazing young man he is going to be.
 

A Time I Had: