Our self-defense work has also been going strong. We started and ended the summer with our 12-hour courses, open to training members and the general public alike. We’ve taught private programs for corporate gyms, immigrant parent groups, and home visitors working to make Chicago families better. Our next 12-hour course is four consecutive Wednesday evenings starting October 30 – join us!

Vitally, our membership continues to grow. While we love to see promotions at any rank, students moving from white belt into the color belt ranks is especially important for sustainable growth in a martial arts school. Our last adult promotion test featured 7 students testing for their first color-belt rank. Check out the photos below!

As we head into a new school year, we’re excited to have also started planning for 2025, when Thousand Waves will mark our 40th Anniversary. More information coming soon about the ways you can help us celebrate.

Thank you for your support,

Sensei Ryan
Executive Director

What is one thing you’d like to change about the world?

I wish it wasn’t so hard to get help. I feel like everyone is forced to justify even getting the smallest amount of leeway. You can never ask for help without having to give an entire backstory. Perhaps to a good friend you can go and ask without judgment or questions. But what about the people without a good friend? The people in a new place? The people with friends who also need help? I have dear friends who I can’t help who have to jump through hoops every day just to be able to eat or have a place to sleep or get medical treatment they rightfully need. Why does anyone have to go through this at all? More is spent keeping resources away from people in need then it would be to just help.

What is one thing you do well?

I like to think I crochet quite well. Regardless of whether or not I have a pattern to follow, I can easily visualize in my mind's eye how I can go about crocheting a project. Even if I do have a pattern I rarely stick to it. Yarn weight, hook size, color, they are all simply suggestions to me and in the end I get to decide what goes into my work. For the most part they turn out ok, but every time I can say they are the result of my own hands.

What is one thing you do not do so well?

Staying serious. Perhaps it’s from being a “People Pleaser,” but I turn most anything into a joke. Even things that genuinely bother me I attempt to hide behind a smile or laugh. Maybe I figure if I don’t react negatively to something then it won’t be used against me later. Rarely were my boundaries ever respected when I was younger. In fact, it was a given that if I expressed that I didn’t like something, it would be thrown in my face. Evidently I’m older now. I choose who I spend my time with and it certainly won’t be with people who make me uncomfortable.

Who from history do you admire, and why?

With the Olympics taking place now I was recently reminded of Nadia Comaneci. She is a Romanian gymnast and the first gymnast to ever earn a perfect score at the Olympics. In fact, the score board couldn’t even show that she had received all 10s and the judges had to put up 01s causing the entire audience to boo them before they could explain. I looked up to her a great deal as a child since a majority of little US kids didn’t know that Romania was even a country. I would mostly be looked at as weird for knowing a different language and for the food I brought for lunch. But I could always brag that, thanks to Nadia, Romania was the first country to get all 10s at the Olympics.

Other than Chicago, where have you most enjoyed spending time?

I don’t know if it’s my ripe old age of 28, or if it’s simply because I don’t have to go to school any more, but I find myself not caring so much about where I hang out but more so who it’s with. I no longer have to force myself to interact with people I don’t like or deal with constant bullying from peers who don’t understand me. That alone has made me realize that I don’t have to waste my energy on people who don’t appreciate the things I do. Nowadays, I know for a fact that I have at least two friends who I can sit trapped in a car for hours, on the highway, in gridlock traffic and despite all that be crying from laughter.

What quotation have you found inspiring or interesting?

“I see now that the circumstances of one’s birth are irrelevant. It is what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are.”
Mewtwo, Pokémon (The first movie)

What foods do you like best?

This question is pretty nostalgic to me. When I was a little kid I would always say “pizza” despite not really liking pizza all that much. Regardless, it would always be my answer because, first off, I wanted to fit in and I couldn’t spell or explain any of the foods I did like. My grandma was the one who cooked for me and she never learned a lick of English. Sarmale in foi de varza? Chiftele? Cozonac? I couldn’t find myself properly describing any of them to my peers. And I wouldn’t dare venture to tell them that I loved chicken livers best.

What are your musical favorites?

My musical tastes change constantly and different genres of music aren’t barriers for me. I will adore a song regardless of the artist, instruments or date it came out. 

Sometimes I imprint on a video game soundtrack just from how memorable the boss fight is. For example “Undefeatable” from Sonic Frontiers is something that will always hype me up. Just hearing it makes me remember how amazing it was to fight a massive titian. Or I would just love a song because it’s a certain character’s theme. Silver the Hedgehog is one of my favorite characters so naturally I listen to his theme “Dreams of An Absolution” by LB.

On the exact opposite side of the spectrum my dear friend Hara and I have been on the hunt for goth parties and raves. Each time we attend a new one I find new songs to re-play for hours on end. Some of my favorites include “Machine of Vision” by Void Palace, “Pain” by Boy Harsher and “Then I Found You” by Ludovico Technique.

What talent would you most like to have?

I would like to be confident. I see people with this ability to “sell themselves” right off the bat. Not just in a workplace setting but in social ones as well. Maybe it’s just a “grass is always greener on the other side of the fence” scenario but I feel that very rarely does actual skill or experience matter. For the most part it’s the people you know and the connections you make.

“Thousand Waves Member Spotlight: Ten Questions for…” is a regular feature of Kiai! We will hear from Rebecca Bishop in the next issue.