Hi, my name is Christina Early and I'm a third degree black belt. It's as simple as that and yet a whole lot more complicated than that as any martial artist knows.
Growing up, my favorite movies were 3 Ninjas, The Next Karate Kid, and Sidekick. Followed by Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. I loved the Mortal Kombat video game I played on my friend's Sega Genesis. My favorite movie character was Kitana. And my favorite Mortal Kombat video game character was Lou Kang, especially when I got him to transform into his dragon form. My other favorite fighting game character was Pai, but I can't even remember what game she was from.
In fifth grade, I begged my mom to let me join karate or ninjitsu or judo. Of course, she didn't. She had heard of far too many horror stories of kids and competitions and whatnot. Some boy friends of mine had joined a martial arts class at our local Y, so I was even more desperate to join. Still, no luck convincing my mom.
In the mean time, I checked out books on various martial arts from my local public library. If I couldn't join a class, I was going to teach myself. The only two things I managed to teach myself was how to plant my feet like a tree and become unmovable. And how to walk so silently, I have a tendency to sneak up on my coworkers.
Sometime between 9th grade and 10th grade, one of my cousins and her brother joined one of the tae kwon do schools in our small town. I don't know when they joined because I didn't learn about it until the beginning of 10th grade. You would not believe how jealous I was. This (girl) cousin of mine who had never shown any interest in martial arts was in tae kwon do?
So I started tae kwon do three months after my 15th birthday on September 29, 1997.
Some might ask, you've been in tae kwon do for 26+ years and you're only a 3rd degree? Well, I'm here to say, everybody's martial arts journey is different. There is no right or wrong journey. There is only your journey.
This is my martial arts journey. This is my martial arts book.
