One signature strength that I have that I did not post on my blog is Kokoro, which is Japanese for heart. I?m not talking about the heart that beats in your chest, or the caring loving heart that is soft and warm, I?m talking about the heart that will pick you up after getting shot in the chest three times, the heart that will make a person survive even the toughest conditions possible. Kokoro is drive, tenacity, will, and perserverance. What the heart is really made up of.

            I have been involved in martial arts for the past 10 years of my life, and I have found no place else that pushes me past my limits than West-Wind Karate Schools.

In West-Wind there is a program called instructors training, where the best students, usually between the ages of 14 and 24, are chosen to become part of the instructing staff of West-Wind. In instructors training, I was pushed to the point where I could no longer feel, I no longer cared about physical pain, or emotional stress. I was so exhausted, that to this day I still don?t remember what was going on, because of the physical stress that we were put under, and that is when Kokoro comes in, right at that point where you think it is over, when all odds are against you, and you have used up every last ounce of strength within you just to get to another obstacle, you either have it or you don?t, that is where success and failure are, or to go even deeper, life or death, and that is probably the most important trait that humans possess, the ability to survive.