Dan Norton '10 Recruiting Profile

A significant achievement that I made in my life was making an all-star lacrosse team. This was significant because it shows all the training I put my time and effort into paid off. It also shows I had the dedication to actually train and improve my game to get it up to the collegiate level. The reason I wanted to train was because I would see other kids as I was playing that were a lot better than me and I wanted to get up to their level. As I started training I progressively got better and better. I still have many things to improve upon, but I am much better than I was. I am glad my dad pushed me to get better because if he didn't push me and get me to do this training I wouldn't be as good as I am now and I wouldn't have made the all-star team I have been on for the past two summers. As of now I am still taking classes to train and help me improve my game and become the player I can be. Receiving my black belt in Isshinryu karate was a significant milestone in my life because not only did it signify my transition to a higher learning of the martial art, but it provided me with the truth that hard work does pay off. The eight arduous years of training is the hard work I'm speaking about, of course. In those years I learned about the martial way and how to defend myself in harmful situations, but I also learned a vast amount of morals, discipline, and sacrifice. In a way it is like my current educational status. I have gone through years of education starting at kindergarten, my foundation, and building upon what I learned then up until my senior year. These years of training equate to my 8 years of training for my black belt, and graduation is the ceremony at which my reception of the black belt is identical. Just like college being a higher education after high school, there are many more lessons and degrees in Isshinryu karate that I still need to achieve. Therefore, the only way to accomplish both of these feats is to continue to follow the truths I found in karate, hard work always pays off, and what ever you put into something is what you get from it.