Discouraged Shodan... my own fault (long read)

[gunner]

Maybe your missing the most important lesson. Your Sensei is trying to teach you through teaching. In my school we all teach beginning at 2nd Kyu. It's part of the learning. You recognize where you are deficient when teaching. It's humbling and rewarding in it's own way. One thing never permitted is saying "I can't." Yes you can. You might even be good at it . You might suck, It's your training.

[LostAtKarate]

@ gunner... you are correct. I just realized it too late

@Matsu... you are correct as well on the switching roles bit

I asked him to meet and he said he couldn't (which is fine, he had fair reasons). This exchange on the request to meet happened through text on iPhone/iPad and unintentionally grew into the actual discussion.

Gotta tell ya, it could not have gone worse. Went down a path that had nothing to do with why I wanted to talk to him. While I left the conversation mildly frustrated, I think he left it quite irritated.

He did keep pressing on one issue that I thought had nothing to do with anything, and so I kept trying to redirect the conversation more to the "meat" of the matter (being that I'm willing to help, help me figure out or just tell me "how")... and so it's that (seemingly minor) issue that I think I'm going to try to make baby steps towards putting my money where my mouth is on... see if that does anything to help. If it doesn't, my time there will probably be limited... and that's really not what I want.

Thanks for the ears guys.

[LostAtKarate]

Mini-update

I had not gone to class for January yet due to a massive uptick in work (I had warned him about that though). So I decided to make the time to go this morning.

We did not continue the discussion... but it was a goood class. And sometimes in the kind of situation we're in, that's as good as you can ask for, just a good class. Nothing felt awkward, nobody's feelings were hurt during that hour and a half, it was just a good class.

Don't know if things are any better, but I feel better for the time being anyway. Hopefully it'll all work itself out in time.