I began karate in May of 1991 at the age of ten.  My older brother, who was in Sensei George Hartman’s class, introduced me to karate.  Every Tuesday and Thursday at around 8:30 My mom and I would head over to pick him up.  One night I was watching the class do some drills and I looked at my mom and said “I could do that!”  So I quit my ballet class and joined Sensei Hartman's class at the West Bremerton Dojo.  I was the youngest person in the class and the only girl.  Sensei Margaret McGregor had a junior class that ran an hour before the adult class, so a lot of the time I would show up for her class and then stay for the adult class.  My parents made me wait a month before I bought a Gi to see if I would stick with karate.  A month went by and I had decided I wanted to stay. 

 In 1993 Sensei Hartman moved his class to the Olalla community center.  That was where I made Orange Belt.  We stayed in Olalla for a few months and Sensei Hartman quit teaching.  I transferred to the Sunnyslope community center where Sensei Jeff Dammerell had opened a Butokukan school.  We trained in the community center for a few months when Sensei Dammerell moved his students to his garage.

 In early 1994 I returned to the West Bremerton Dojo and again Sensei Hartman was my instructor.  Later that year I made purple belt.  Sensei Hartman put together a tournament team that participated in Washington, Oregon and Canada.  We would go to a tournament about every six weeks.  I began to grow in my self-confidence with every trophy I won.  Around Christmas of 1994 Sensei Hartman left his students and turned the Dojo over to Sensei’s Rene Hoffman and Francisco Labalan.  I made green belt under Sensei Hoffman.  Sensei Hoffman left teaching as the birth of her fourth baby was due.  She turned over all the responsibilities of the Dojo to Sensei Francisco Labalan.  I have been working out under Sensei Labalan ever since..

          Starting under Sensei Francisco was like starting all over again.  The basics we had been taught weren’t up to his standards.  He began with re-teaching all of the basics.  I thought that my sidekick was pretty good until he told me it looked like a roundhouse.  It probably took a year before I could throw a kick that was to his standards.  Sensei Labalan would let me kick him or punch him as hard as I could and he would laugh at me.  After about a year things began to come together.  One night I hit him on the chest and he didn’t laugh, he winced and then smiled.  He hasn’t given me an open shot since that night.  Sensei Labalan also brought with him new aspects of martial arts that my other instructors didn’t offer, like combat and arnis.  He has paid for me to attend seminars and tournaments.  His rewards are the progress of his students.  His expectations of his students are very high and he only wants us to do our best.  I feel very lucky to have him as an instructor.