Jeremy
Slater
As a teenager I worked at Lagoon, which
many of you know is an amusement park near Ogden, Utah.
My job title was games employee, in the summer of 1995
I was working at the game where the player has to hit
the lever with a mallet and make the weight at the other
end go to the top and ring the bell. One evening a lady
approached my game and said that she could win this
game no problem, so I her coaxed her into paying the
dollar and give it a try. The lady stepped up to the
plate and whacked the living day lights out of the lever,
I could have sworn the weight wasn't going to stop at
the bell, but instead just shoot right through the top.
The absolute amount of strength this lady had was, oddly
enough, not what caught my attention. What did catch
my attention is, when she hit the lever she let out
a yell that would have made the Terminator run for his
Mommy. Needless to say she won the game and started
to walk off with her prize. Before she left I asked
her, "What the hell was that?" She told me
that it was a ki hahp. I asked her where she got it.
Her response was Red Dragon Karate, the lady who gave
me my first lesson in the Martial Arts, was 3rd degree
Red Dragon black belt, Marleigh
(Smith) Coleman. So my journey began, I was attending
Red Dragon Karate within a week, and since the day I
stepped into the Dojo and met Professor Bennett,
my life has never been the same. Though the name of
Professor Bennett's
school has changed from Red Dragon to White Dragon,
his pure love for the Martial Arts has not.
I trained with Master Bennett
until the summer of 1997 then left the state of Utah
in the pursuit of higher education. I now hold a double
Associates of Arts degree in Marine Diving Technology,
and Liberal Arts, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business
Management. While time spent at college is always worth
the sacrifice, there is not a day that passes where
I do not miss the family-like bond I made with all of
my Teachers and Students of the Martial Arts.
Professor Bennett's
passion for knowledge and people has instilled in me
a love that is like no other in my heart. His trust,
time, and commitment to my education of the Martial
Arts changed my life in a way only fellow students can
understand. Sensei, the positive change that you created
for me is one of the infinite reasons why I will be
eternally loyal to you.
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