Who am I? – Bilingual blog

2.  Boyhood

When I was an elementary student, I thought I was bullied because I was small, very slow to take notes due to being left-handed, I was compared to my twin and laughed at by classmates. One day, I heard that there was a Karate class at nearby secondary school.

Since I wanted to get revenge on all those who compared me with my twin and laughed at me, I told my parents that I want to learn Karate. My parents accepted my request because the dojo provided a family discount. So my brothers and I started participating in Karate class together.

I had practiced and trained very hard.

Even though my opponents were much bigger than me, once I felt they are stronger than me, I always challenged them.

Every single day, I practiced basic skills at home, too. I repeated what I had learnt over tends of thousands of times. My twin was the best sparring partner. We sparred over hundreds of times together.

When I became 6th grade in the elementary school, which was at age of 12, my master ranked all students at the dojo.

No.1 and 2 were my twin and I, among elementary and secondary school students (under 15).

That was the first moment I appreciated having a twin in my life.

By that time, I completely forgot about the revenge I wanted, and I didn’t care about the people bullied me anymore.

I knew myself better than anyone did.

Even if I was again compared with my twin, I took it as a chance to improve myself, because I could compare myself with my twin during practice, and evaluated myself for improvements.

It hasn’t changed—even now.

I continue to practice Karate (and kickboxing too) while I travel around the world. The picture below was taken by my friends when I was training on the beach in Tanzania.

Next page: Fate of poverty