Looking back at these pictures I realized that some of my earliest memories are in this dojo pictured above. I would take 2–3 karate classes a week, go to gradings to work for higher belts, do in-house competitions (eventually winning some of them), and stay the night for annual sleepovers. Growing up I never once had the ambition of becoming a karate master or being the next Jackie Chan, but for me, karate was a place that I could be myself, a place where nothing but my strength mattered.
So here I am, writing about my experience with karate and trying to reflect on how it shaped my life, and how it’s made me unique as a designer. In truth, I can never pin down an exact turning point where my life drastically improved, but karate did bring me a confidence that I never would have grown on my own. As someone who has had a lot of self-esteem issues growing up karate was my escape, where none of my outside problems existed and I could just be 100% authentically me. …
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