Hieeee YAH!!

My little Kung Fu Panda graduated from his Tae Kwan Do class tonight. The graduation ceremony included the breaking of a board.

(The first attempt)

Second and final try!!!

Aly and I discussed this experience on the way home: You can't see it on the video, but Adam was pretty danged proud of himself after he finally broke that board. It wasn't vain pride, it was "WOW!! I did it!!"

We decided that if every person in the world could have a confidence booster like this once a week, the world would be a better place. This is our analogy: If we could all take a task that seems almost impossible (these were 1" boards and Adam is six years old) we might try to succeed but will probably fail a few times. Then, like Adam, if we sit down and think about it -- instead of giving up (Adam was thisclose to tears when he sat down after his first attempt) -- and face it again, we will probably be like Adam and succeed! Sometimes we have to change our approach to the task (Adam had planned for several weeks to break the board with his foot). Oftentimes we need a cheering section.

But most of all, we need determination and a drive to accomplish our goal.

(Look at his face in this picture!)

And sometimes, we're just as stunned as Adam was when we finally reach our goal.

**Note: This class was offered by the city and was held in the lunch room of the middle school. They often overbook the room, so another group was moving in on top of us as we finished breaking boards. That's what all the background noise is.

**Another note: Aly was the videographer and I was the photographer. She did a pretty good job!