teams i will miss

ah..

i miss the MIT team.

i remember the days when i was a senior (but not graduating yet) and the actual seniors who were leaving were on the banquet slideshow. and when we watched the videos it was nostalgic. and the same happened my year, only better. and looking back was magic. it was like, how did we ever manage to have such a good year? how could i have lived through so many great events, been with so many great people? photos, yearbooks, banquet videos, they're not enough for us to commemorate the past. it only suffices if you had lived through it, and the memories were part of you.

i watched this year's banquet video again. and strangely, i felt the same way, almost as if i had been living MIT sport taekwondo. in a sense I have, because i've seen all the people - dan, alicia, nathan, even RDC and john wong, and to a lesser extent the other 07s, several times this year. so i feel just as sad that the team that i've known is leaving. who will remain when i return?

here is this year's MIT Sport TKD Banquet Video on youtube.

but THEN again,
..
i look at UCSD,
..
and I know i will miss them too.

it's been a great year and it's only getting better. i feel more and more recently that things are falling together. there is a core group of people that i feel will allow the club to live on. i can always depend on paul, mike, tiffany, kyung to be at practice, and now even master baik. (today we had a great kicking session, just me, master baik and kyung. 1 hr paddles, 1 hr sparring. almost like CW.)

and that the banquet seemed a success, that we hosted a tournament and dominated it, that people feel it is important enough to dress up, make speeches, to pass the torch to a team of student leaders for next year, all of these make me feel that ucsd is only starting to shine and find its footing. i'm glad that i was here near the beginning. i hope that i have made an impact.

and i think that, even though i've spent more time leaving teams than joining them, i think my 1 year trip to the west coast has given me a new outlook, on taekwondo and life. it's like fusion sushi - i bring the best of east and west together on one plate. i know for sure that moving outside of the bubble of the new england region's taekwondo has made me better - i understand that taekwondo exists on a larger scale, i have met people and made connections, i have achieved many things and will strive to achieve more.

i'm going to come back a more worldly competitor. i'm going to come back, rejuvenated from helping build a new team. and i'm going to combine that energy with the nostalgia i've felt for the old team for so long. and who knows what will come of that?