My senior instructor's tribute to Nick Bucklin

[pegkerr]

This was published at the family's website by our senior instructor Mr. Sidner:

Hello Everyone,

This is a great tragedy and an incredible loss for all of us who knew them. For those who did not get a chance to know Nick, he was an incredibly talented black belt student at our school. Another student described him as someone who kept his “incredible talent balanced with the classiness of a man much older than his years”. I don’t think I can say it any better than that.

Nick first came to me in 2004 at the age of 8 with his older sister Samantha. After a few months of training Nick made up his mind he wanted to be a black belt. The road to black belt was not easy for him. Between all of his other activities it became difficult for Nick to stay motivated with his karate training. He would pop in and out between other sports, always promising to put in the time necessary to achieve his black belt, but then disappearing again for a few months. The problem was he loved to spar. If sparring was the only requirement for black belt he would’ve gotten there much earlier. For months he would only show up to the sparring classes and I would remind him that he needed to get his other classes in if he was serious about making black belt. Then in late 2008 I thought he had quit for good. It had been several months since I had seen him when I came across his membership card and decided to give him a call. After we spoke his interest and motivation seemed to rejuvenate and he started attending all of his classes again on a regular basis. Then it came time for him to start the screening process for his black belt. For those of you who don’t know this is an intensive four month long pre-testing process everyone must go through in order to achieve their black belt. You need to pass three consecutive screenings in order to qualify to take the test. If you fail one, you have to wait until the cycle starts over and begin all over again. Well, Nick took the first one and failed. He was discouraged for a few days, but then was right back in the classroom working hard at what he had to fix in order to pass. It was, however, several months before he was allowed to screen again. As his instructors, we were determined that if he started the process again he would truly be ready to pass, and Nick, demonstrating the qualities we value in our black belts, overcame the adversity of being held back initially and put in the training until he was ready for that next level. And so in December, 2009, after three more months of the dreaded screening process, Nick Bucklin was promoted to 1st degree black belt.

Upon making black belt Nick immediately became interested in taking on a leadership role at the school. He volunteered to take part in a summer internship with some of his fellow black belts to learn how to teach classes. “Learning” isn’t quite the appropriate word in Nick’s case because he seemed to already “Know” how to teach. I was shocked at how much of a natural leader he was. He immediately understood the delicate balance between being stern with kids but at the same time being encouraging and motivating. In short, Nick had “the gift”.

The greatest tragedy for me in all of this is that we will never be able to see how far Nick could’ve gone with his talents and gifts, and he and his family will be terribly missed. However, I don’t want to be selfish in wishing he were back with all of us. It’s always easier to leave then to be left behind. And I know that they are with God now in a place I would not want to pull them back from. There is no suffering… There is no pain… There is only peace.