Orange Achieved

I passed!  I made kids cry though. :-/  It wasn't intentional.  In fact, I'm still baffled as to why the one kid was crying.  As part of this test, I was required to spar.  So first I was matched up with another girl in my class.  We were sparring and things were going good, and I don't know if it was just the intensity of the test, but my adrenaline levels seemed to be a bit heightened.  I came in with a hook punch to the head and I came in a bit harder than I meant to.  Don't worry, the girl wasn't hurt.  We wear protective gear just for such occasions.  It did surprise her though, and maybe knocked the wind out of her a bit.  I had to kneel and face the opposite wall.  I knew it was a bad deal when my Sensei told me to do that.  She was crying at this point.  We bowed and were done.  

Now, the thing about belt tests are that they are mixed.  So we have adults and kids of all ranks there.  There were about 4 kids from the kids class there, all testing from orange to purple, so they all had to spar as well.  Two of them were brothers.  So the first two come out and spar.  Then one of the brothers starts crying. (not one sparring)  So my Sensei goes over and asks him why he's crying.  He says he doesn't want to spar his brother. 

Okay, let me pause and paint a picture for you here.  The brothers were 6 and 9.  The 6 year old was short and scrawny.  The 9 year old was taller and stalky.  Okay, back to the test now.

So my Sensei tells him to breath, and that he's not going to spar his brother.  So one of the kids who just finished sparring (both of which were smaller than the 6 year old!) spars again with him.  So about this time I'm wondering to myself who my Sensei is going to match this other boy with.  There are no more kids, and surely he wouldn't put him up against an adult.  I was wrong.

He comes over and asks the other girl if she wants to spar again.  She says no.  Then he asks me if I want to.  I gave him a very perplexed look and ask who I would be sparring against.  He says "is that a yes?" and I said "no!" and he says "too bad!"  So I come out to spar this boy.  It wasn't too bad, he was tough and about chest height to me.  We had a good match.  My Sensei calls "up" and we get in front position and bow to each other and then he starts to cry!!!  My Sensei looks at me and says "what's the deal making all my students cry?!?"  (he was joking of course)  

All in all, it was a good test.