For some reason the kicking bags were out in the hallway when I arrived for Thursday night taekwondo this week. Maybe they were cleaning the gym floor, who knows. But one little girl, couldn’t have been older than 4 or 5, was taking full advantage of this situation and showing her dad how to punch and kick those bags on their way out the door that night. One of the staff at the center caught that action and approached the dad to tell him about the taekwondo program. The beginner class was going on as they spoke, and they peeked through the window slot in the door to see what was going on.
“Do girls do it?” the dad asked?
“Uhmm, let me see, wait just a second,” the young staff member replied. ”Yes, I think there is one girl in the class.”
Now, mind you, I am standing in the hallway, fully uniformed, sporting my regular long pony tail, listening, curious about what the rest of the conversation might be like. My first reaction was going to be to laugh. But then I frowned. Are people still worried about stuff like that? I so wanted to butt in and say, “YES, girls do it!” And continue on my usual passionate rant about how taekwondo changed my life. But I refrained.
Earlier that week I was standing in line at Chipotle, with my daughter and we filed in behind a dad, with his teenage son and daughter, both in their baseball uniforms. I stared at the girl, as unassumingly as possible, for a while. Yeah, girls do it! I was wondering what Danielle thought about that, but forgot to ask. And I don’t think it mattered to her, it was normal.
Yes, of course girls can do that! Yes, girls kick ass!
