So, I did my black belt grading today...I think from the title you can guess the outcome.

And I'm mad as Hell about it, 'cause I had to do this stupid fucking pointless assessment two weeks ago to see whether or not I was ready for the grading (Don't ask). Also, I failed, (and I'm gonna say failed because that is what I did in fact do, and not this stupid "oh, you haven't failed, you just haven't gotten to the necessary level", what the fuck is that but failing?) because of tiny little things like my stance not being quite properly aligned, and stupid things like that. And they couldn't find a few seconds in the 4 fucking hour-long grading, or asked me to try again after they'd given me a few pointers? They practically completely disregarded the fact that 1: it was 27 degrees celsius (no idea what that is in farenheit, those with calculators can work it out) and so you're hardly going to get everything absolutely perfect, 2: I'd done brilliantly in all the areas otherwise, they were just being prissy little dicks about minor things that wouldn't even matter in the real world.

Also, they're expecting me to do it in another 6 months: Basically, I'll never get my black belt because in less than 3 I'm going to university and I won't have the time to be arsing around with that, even if there's a dojo for my style.

Furthermore, of the 20 to 30 brown belts who were grading, only I and 1 other person didn't grade. I've no idea why that one other person didn't grade, but to not grade when 18 to 28 others have

Just so's you know, this isn't simply me going off on one: I'm just so angry that they didn't grade me because of minor details which at the end of the day really do not matter. Plus the fact that I basically had to do the grading without in fact grading two weeks ago: THAT is the greatest indignity, that I had to work my arse off doing nigh on exactly what I did today, and yet it was akin to practicing how to do your GCSEs (Or SATs for American and Canadian audiences).

I'm finding difficulty finding a bright side to this, so please, if someone can, tell me. Or a lighter note, or some simple shred of happiness and cheer, because right now I'm two weeks away from throwing it in with karate, 'cause there's no point continuing to train towards a specific belt when I won't have a chance next time around.