Shahil Lal

I was born February 20th 1996 in Nanaimo Regional General Hospital. I have one younger brother, Zahnil Lal and my parents are the famous hairstylists Umesh and Daksha Lal. The first few years of my life were pretty boring so we will skip those, but when I was 5 or 6 my parents decided to get me into a sport. I tried pretty much every sport in Nanaimo, soccer, lacrosse, swimming, rugby, and then karate.

When I first saw karate, I was around the age of seven, it was at a demo taking place at the old dojo site on McCullough Road. Sempai Khan, Adrian, Eric and one other person, whose name escapes me, were showing off various kata to a very enthusiastic audience. Then they all came on the floor and did this amazing demo with takedowns, flips, flying kicks and weapons.

Needless to say I was hooked just as every other little boy there, I had my mom sign me up and I was in class the following week. Since then Karate has become a huge role in my life and has influenced every aspect of it. I am who I am today mostly because of karate, training karate will or already has brought me to my peak in my life, when I achieve my black belt it will be my single greatest accomplishment in my life so far.

At school, I attribute my good grades to qualities that I learned from karate, such as my work ethics and attention to detail Karate has taught me the value of my word which also is what committing yourself to something means, and why people are mistrusted when they break their commitments. At home, whether or not my parents admit, karate has taught me patience, and it has given me the ability to organize my life and all the things that come with it.

Karate has also inspired me to become more then myself. It has inspired me to do something with my life and make it worthwhile, because training and teaching karate it has made me feel like I am worth something. I am grateful for having karate to guide me and inspire me.

To me, karate means that I can go and train at the dojo and have fun with my karate friends anytime. It means I know how to defend myself as a last resort, and it means that no matter what is happening in my life I can go to the dojo and forget it all and simply just have fun.