nikyu
It is my privilege to announce that at jujitsu class tonight, I was promoted to the rank of nikyu, 2nd degree brown belt! I am one step closer to achieving my black belt and beginning the real work.
It is no accident or coincidence that the words shodan and shoden are very close to each other - shoden means beginning teachings, and while shodan refers to a first degree black belt, I believe it also means beginner, though one Japanese-English dictionary referred to it as first/lowest grade. Yes, black belt is a goal, but it is also just another stage on a journey, albeit an important one.
Ok, enough philosophy for now, right now I’m going to go eat my celebratory ice cream and watch Tapout.