Fear Is the Mind-Killer

I was wrong. Unpacking my office in the new house, I found this, my first black belt certificate, granted in January of 1993.

I did the math, and realized I was wrong when I’d told people it took me 17 years to earn my first black belt. It took me TWENTY-THREE YEARS.

The average person earns theirs in about five, I’d reckon. I was dealing with a horror show of emotional scar tissue from bullying, growing up without a father, being a four-eyed pot-bellied little nerd, and living in a society I believed wanted to kill me.