The Way to Be

By Lars den Hartog, orange belt, age 12

RESPECT: Noun - A feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements.

Respect is to admire someone and treat them kindly.  To respect someone you pay attention to what they say and give them the kindness that they deserve.

To me, respect is kindness and politeness and giving someone what they deserve in a kind way.  Everyone always needs to give everyone respect no matter who it is.  No matter if it is your least favorite teacher telling you to do the worst assignment ever, you need to respect them and do what they are telling you to do.

You need to respect everyone everywhere from your pets to the most important person in the world.  A great deal of respect needs to happen in your everyday life at home.  You need to respect your parents no matter what it is that they are telling you to do.  If they tell you to go sit on your bed for the remaining 5 hours of the day, you need to respect what they are telling you to do and trust them and go sit on your bed for 5 hours.  In Moo Sul Kwan Taekwondo respect is a huge goal for people to learn.  From just taking your shoes off when walking in and putting your belt on, you are respecting the rules and expectations of being a student at the school.  When people say, “Yes ma’am!”, and go into chareyut they are respecting the commands of the instructor and showing them that we want to be there.

I show a great deal of respect at school.  I don’t cause trouble, I respect teachers and students, and I do the work that is assigned to me to the best of my ability.  When teachers ask me to do something I do it without putting up and argument and that is showing respect.  I also show a lot of respect at the Colorado Taekwondo Institute.  There are occasional moments when I am maybe talking when I am not supposed to but overall I show a lot of respect.  I try my best in class and I learn the things and do the things that I need to do.  I come prepared to class every day (except for the days that I forget my mouth piece and forget my top) and meet the expectations that the instructors have of me.

I need to show more respect to my brothers and my parents.  Overall I am mostly respectful but I need to work on specific issues like following directions that I don’t want to do immediately.  Sometimes my parents will punish me for doing something like bugging my brothers, and I don’t do what they are asking me to do immediately.  They may tell me to go up to my room because I am bothering Knox, and I argue and come up with excuses.  I need to also listen to my brothers and show them some authority because I do the same thing with them, I argue.  I need to listen immediately and show them the respect that they deserve.