Good afternoon masters, parents and friends. This is my taekwondo journey.

 

When I was a colour belt, I thought of grading as a diagonal line. A constant, straight journey from the bottom to the top. However, as I’ve grown older and, believe it or not, matured, I’ve realised that it is much more of a staircase. A staircase stretching on infinitely, with small steps and huge ones. As I took these steps, I felt them growing in size, and felt myself struggling to push myself on, but as I grew alongside them, I found my own reasons to push myself, and found that taekwondo came from the mind, and not the body, and as I took on new challenges such as facing tough opponents and taking class, I’ve also grown so much as a person.

 

A huge hurdle for myself was around mid 2024 in warriors class, where I not only found myself struggling physically, but also mentally. I was in the wrong mindset, and I gradually found myself enjoying taekwondo less and less. Before 2024 I had been able to improve, and even though I wasn’t good at sparring, and even though I sucked at poomsae, I could see improvement. However, going into 2024 I stopped improving. To be honest, I think I got complacent, and thought improvement would come as long as I showed up. This led me to loss after loss, and I began to have negative thoughts about how I was stuck in a position where everyone else was improving, everyone else was having fun and I was falling behind. Slowly I began to recognize that it was my own issue, that I was at the bottom of a step, and that I needed to push myself and work even harder to get to the top, and I will be forever grateful to masters for always telling me off, always talking to my mum, but never giving up on me, as it lead me to change my mind set before nationals 2024. Even though I lost my first fight, for the first time in a long time, I felt how fun taekwondo was, and I began enjoying it the way I had when I first started, and without this step I don’t think I would be where I was now.

Entering 2025, I wanted something different. I didn’t just want to go to the comp and see my improvement. I wanted to win something by the end of the year. Never would I have thought that the win I wanted to see at nationals happened in February. At selections, I honestly wasn’t thinking about winning, I was thinking more about trying the new things I had learnt and doing something cool. Nothing could have prepared me for the amazing feeling I felt throwing the spin at the last second and winning a match I felt I was sure to lose. I remember looking through the face shield as everyone was cheering, realising myself that I was going to worlds.

 

Worlds was a tough hurdle as well. Before worlds, I felt so nervous and tense, and stepping onto the mat, I was thinking about how much better my opponent was, and with that my performance fell drastically. I couldn’t kick well, I couldn’t hear my coach, and the three minutes I experienced on the world's stage went by way too fast. I didn’t want to lose like that again. At the Asma competition, I won my first fight and once again faced the opponent I had beaten at selections, Ayaan. And despite saying I wouldn’t lose because I was nervous, when I fought, I felt tense, I felt nervous, and I had a voice in my head saying I had to win, saying I couldn’t lose. I knew now that I couldn’t just not want to lose like this, I had to not lose like this. At the Rema comp, before my fight I visualised in my head. I saw my opponents in my head over and over again. This time when I stepped onto the mat, my first thought wasn’t that I was stepping onto the mat, my first thought was that this was the person I’d seen in my head over and over again, that this wasn’t the first time I was stepping onto the mat. Throughout my fights, I felt the freedom to show my skills, to kick and fight the way I knew I could and finally felt myself taking the next step up the stairs that once held me back.

 

At nationals 2025, I won my first fight and for the third time, faced Ayaan in the semi-finals. It was a bittersweet match, going to 3 rounds and losing at the last second. But I felt the improvement of all the work I’d put in throughout the year, and it felt so, so fun being on the mat and sparring against an opponent I had won and lost to, and it felt good knowing I had performed my best and played my game.

 

My taekwondo journey has been life changing. What began as a physical journey has become just as mental, if not even more, and it could not have been done without the support of some amazing people. Firstly, thank you masters for always pushing me even when I was at my lowest, for never giving up on me, for always providing me with opportunities to improve and grow not just in taekwondo but also in myself. Thank you, Auntie Serena and Auntie Joanne, for always driving me to taekwondo when my mum couldn’t, for always making sure I went to training and supporting me behind the scenes and in front of everybody. Thank you to Josh, Des and everyone else at this amazing weiwu community for always being there for me, as a friend and as a fellow athlete and providing me with the support that I would be nowhere without. Finally, thank you thank you thank you Mum, for all of the support you’ve given me, for all the opportunities you’ve allowed me to have, for sacrificing so much of your own time, of your own opportunities to give me something. As I’ve grown up and matured, I’ve realised just how much you’ve done for me, and I’m so, so thankful for it.

 

To everyone, I promise to continue growing and getting better, to continue to push myself through this staircase of taekwondo, to keep moving through life with these experiences I’ve gained that I wouldn’t have been able to have without this. As I continue to write chapter upon chapter in my taekwondo journey, I hope you all stick around and see me grow and become even better than I already am.