Test Preparation

We are so very close to the certification test for Iaijutsu.

This is the certificate presented by a sensei which says that a student has a certain level of knowledge and could (potentially) teach.   There are three levels, each of advancing difficulty.

The test is in April.  It includes a paper, terminology, basic memorized knowledge, tameshigiri (test cutting), open hand, and sword.

I was reflecting last night as I drove home from class that this is something that has been as long and intense as any college degree.  A B.A. is 120 hours of education; an M.A. is 30-40 hours beyond that.  By the time I test, I will have well over 200 hours into this (over four years).

I am still worried, of course:  my open hand is still not what it needs to be and my I have the tendency to freeze up when I forget things.  But of all the things I have worked on, this is one of the longest sustained efforts I have made.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I have a picture of finishing the test and holding the certificate.  It is visualization of course, something I am not always convinced works, but it helps to see that picture and feel myself holding it in my hand.

It is the almost completion of any objective that can be the most difficult period of all.