"No-SACRIFICE ... no VICTORY."

... 

--Optimus Prime, 'Transformers'

... 'Por ejemplo': 

During MY 'Shodan' ('SHOH-dahn') (Japanese for 'BLACK belt') TEST, I--VIOLENTLY--dislocated my RIGHT-shoulder.  OOOWWW!  
Nonetheless, I COMPLETED my "PHYSICAL-'ceremony'", 'cuz my "SELF-drive" & tenacity are just-that "STRONG".  
(... 'Tis just what I DO!)
... I was REWARDED--UNBEKNOWNST BEFOREHAND to ME--by earning/receiving TWO BLACK belts!
So, at JUST the "TENDER-age" of ~17.9167 YEARS, I was an ESTEEMED-"BLACK belt" in TWO DIFFERENT--but SIMILAR--"systems" of Karate!

... Regarding my seriously-INJURED/"DISLOCATED" RIGHT-shoulder:
How "IRONIC"* that NOW 'tis my LEFT-shoulder that's been medically-"DESTROYED" ... & (SURGICALLY-) "SEMI-repaired"!
(... As a DIRECT-result of my RESULTING-/ENSUING- / NECESSARY-COMPENSATION, my RIGHT-shoulder is NOW the STRONGEST it's EVER-been!)


-- Never DISPLAY "EMBARRASSMENT"!
"If/When you make a MISTAKE, 'OWN-UP' to it!"
(--'Guy-Code')

... If/WHEN I "screw UP", I doN'T HESITATE to ADMIT it ... ESPECIALLY POST-accident. 
(... "Possessing a 'T.B.I.' has been a VERY "HUMBLING-experience".)    

-- PHYSICALLY & MENTALLY, I'm IMPROVING CONSTANTLY (... THANK YOU, Nerve-REgeneration & Neurotic-BRILLIANCE!)! 
... But, ROMANTICALLY/SOCIALLY (... AND, in-turn, PSYCHOLOGICALLY), I'm REALLY-STRUGGLING.
(  : (  )

... My housemate mentioned our POSSIBLY-meeting a friend or two for BRUNCH OUT-at a restaurant this Sunday.
(... 'WUNDERBA!')

... "You know what 'the ISSUE' is with this WORLD?!
... EVERYONE wants a 'MAGICAL-solution' to (his) 'PROBLEM', but EVERYONE REFUSES-to BELIEVE-in 'MAGIC'."
(--'Alice in Wonderland')
(... Personally, I KNOW the "TRICKS" of "PRESTIDIGITATION".  ... But, there ARE many different FORMS'KINDS/TYPES of "MAGIC" ... like "SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY".)           

... "Being in love is a good thing, but it is not the best thing. There are many things below it, but there are also things above it. You cannot make it the basis of a whole life. It is a noble feeling, but it is still a feeling. Now no feeling can be relied on to last in its full intensity, or even to last at all. Knowledge can last, principles can last, habits can last but feelings come and go. And in fact, whatever people say, the state called ‘being in love’ usually does not last. If the old fairy-tale ending ‘They lived happily ever after’ is taken to mean ‘They felt for the next fifty years exactly as they felt the day before they were married,’ then it says what probably never was nor ever would be true, and would be highly undesirable if it were. Who could bear to live in that excitement for even five years? What would become of your work, your appetite, your sleep, your friendships? But, of course, ceasing to be ‘in love’ need not mean ceasing to love. Love in this second sense — love as distinct from ‘being in love’ — is not merely a feeling. It is a deep unity, maintained by the will and deliberately strengthened by habit; reinforced by (in Christian marriages) the grace which both partners ask, and receive, from God. They can have this love for each other even at those moments when they do not like each other; as you love yourself even when you do not like yourself. They can retain this love even when each would easily, if they allowed themselves, be ‘in love’ with someone else. ‘Being in love’ first moved them to promise fidelity: this quieter love enables them to keep the promise. it is on this love that the engine of marriage is run: being in love was the explosion that started it." - CS Lewis

-- "The deepest secret is that life is a process of 'DISCOVERY' and a process of 'CREATION'. You are not just discovering yourself, but creating yourself anew with every thought and breath. Seek therefore, to find out who you are, but also, to determine and manifest who you want to be."
(--Author UNKNOWN)

-- "What a TERRIBLE-WASTE of a LIFE it is ... to ALWAYS 'take the EASY-path', ... to 'NEVER-know what" (a THRILL) "it is to RISK-EVERYTHING for what you LOVE."
(--Beau Taplin)

... How SPLENDID!
I learned tonight that I was INVITED-to ... & am-ATTENDING the 2016 Annual "Professional Association of Martial Arts Instructors" (PAMAI) HERE in Hollywood on February 19th & 20th.

KEY
* = Since I--PERSONALLY--doN'T BELIEVE in "COINCIDENCE", would THIS-incident be "IRONY"?! 


...