Patience, Young Grasshopper!

One of the reasons I decided to come to China, was to study Kung fu, and what better place to do it than where it originated!

First, some background information, that eventually leads me on this life-changing path.

In September of 1998 I was training a young horse in the paddock.  He decided to walk through the hay area.  As he was walking through, his hind leg starting dragging a piece of binder twine which made noise.  He started to panic, and I thought I could work him through it.  He bolted to the other side of the paddock and slid to a stop like a cutting horse, I did a complete 360 over his head and landed on my back.  He freaked out that I was on the ground and tried to jump over me, unfortunately he stepped on my left ankle.

It all happened so fast, I remember lying there, unable to hear my voice, and all i could think about was that my horse was walking around with the reins and i was afraid he would get tangled.  He kept walking from me to the pig barn, where my boyfriend (at the time) was inside.

My ankle was broke in 6 places, including breaking the entire ball off my tibia.  It required 2 metal plates and lots of screws to put them back together again.  Apparently, I was told I was lucky I could still walk.

I was already over weight at that time, but my injury did not help.  I gained more weight and i was in constant pain everyday.  I also lost the desire to go out, as shopping meant I had to risk being bumped by people, and that was painful.  So I developed some major social issues, and had phobias of people coming to my house as well as severe depression.

I lived like that for 7 years.

One night, we decided to watch a movie, Ip Man, a Chinese movie starring Donnie Yen who portrayed a man's life who was Bruce Lee's mentor.

I don't know why, but I was completely inspired by this movie, and I wanted to learn Kung fu.

I had wanted to learn Kung fu when I was younger, but there was no Kung fu schools in my area.  I did learn a little Tae Kwon Do, Karate, and kickboxing, but I never stuck with them.

I remember going to my first Kung fu class at Shuhari Martial Arts in Barrie.  I was learning the opening bow, and I hurt so bad I cried.  But for whatever reason I stayed with it.  I started off going once a week, then twice, until I was going 5 days a week, as well as practicing at home.

Kung fu helped make me stronger, where therapy was not working.  I am doing things that now baffle people.  I am not completely 100% but I truly believe that Kung fu saved my life.  Not only was my ankle made stronger, but I also lost over 120 lbs!

I fell in love, and I had decided that it would be awesome to go to China one day and train.  The original plan was to go when I got my black belt.  I figured I would be in better shape and I would have lost the desired weight by then.

I managed to get my green belt, before I left Canada.  The call of the wild was too strong.

I studied some Tai chi in Foshan, Guangdong for a few months.  I am sure my teacher couldn't figure me out, he just couldn't understand why I was not remembering the form he was teaching.  All I could think was "well, my teacher in Canada said I didn't need to remember" and that mentality kinda stuck lol.

I left Foshan after 3 months and went to live and work in Xiamen, Fujian.

I managed to find a wushu teacher who taught modern kung fu.  As with the last teacher, this one did not speak English.

I will NEVER complain about my Canadian teacher EVER again.  This guy was HARD.  Even the warm ups were brutal.  Part of my warm up was hitting a wooden fence with a knife hand at least a 100 times.  I was in constant agony and best friends with multiple hot water bottles for MONTHS!

The horse stance and cat stances had to be low...and I mean LOW.  In horse stance I swear my lap was level enough to be a table to have dinner.  I always felt the teacher was harder on me than the other students.

He also pushed hard for me to learn.  In Canada, the forms I learned was more casual and I didn't continue until they were learned.

Not the same with this teacher.  I studied with him approximately 5 months, learning 4 different forms.  I worked so hard doing my best, but the stress was great and I didn't always remember.  I remember his face looking with disproval as I struggled to remember.  I was very discouraged.

Near the end, he was going back to his hometown and was leaving Xiamen.  He wanted me to learn these last 2 forms I was working on.  I finished the one, but I got so discouraged with the last one.  he was just pusing too hard and I felt I couldn't do it in the time frame that was given.

So I started skipping classes.  I had never been this discouraged about Kung fu in my life ever.  Kung fu used to be my escape, as horses once were, and I felt like I was losing it.

One day, during class, I was having a break, I was very upset and in tears.  I had decided he didn't understand me and I had enough.  I packed up my things and started to walk away.

The teacher and another student noticed and came running after me.  This student was able to speak a little english, so I told them how frustrated I was.  They made me come back, and I did some more training.  But it just wasn't the same anymore.

I had started looking for a new teacher with unsuccessful results.  Then I had the problem at my employment, and I was being moved to Dalian, Liaoning for the new school term in September 2015.  So because of this, I decided to postpone my quest for a teacher until I get to Dalian.

I am still in love with Kung fu, I have not given up.  I believe I came to China for a reason, I just think I had not found the right teacher.  I enjoyed practicing Kung fu by the ocean 5 times a week in China, who else can say that?