Jonathan Palmer

Name: Jonathan James Palmer
Training since: 1993
Loves: God, my Master, my family and friends, helping others, learning new things and concepts of life, watching others succeed, and staying active physically and mentally.

My Life & A Reflection

I started training at Jung SuWon at the age of 4 years old. Currently, I've been training for almost 19 years or more! It's been the greatest experience and opportunity that has happened in my life.

As I grew older and became an adult, training under my Master, Dr. Tae Yun Kim, brought deep and compelling perspectives towards the good and bad events that have happened in my life. If I were to sum my life learning in six words it would be: have a positive attitude, gratitude & humbleness.

A Lonely Childhood; Being Someone That You Are Not

I grew up as an only child without a father in my life. At a very young age, my father abandoned my mother and I, as well as his role in raising me for drugs. Even later in my life when time was arranged for him and I to spend time together, no one came. I was left confused and at a loss of understanding of what had happened.

The pain of my missing biological father began to echo within my life. I took the feelings personal and with each passing day, those feelings dug deeper and deeper. Throughout my childhood, in spite that I may have had friends to fill the lonesome times, I always felt envious, sad, and loney when I saw my friends with their father or siblings. This was one of the catalyst for me becoming introverted and lacking in the ability to communicate my true and innermost feelings. Because of these embedded feelings, as I grew older into the teenager stage of my life, I began to seperate from my potential to who I can be to who I was not and pretended to be.

If it wasn't for my training at Jung SuWon and Dr. Kim being my mentor and teacher in my life, I would be head deep in my own misery and probably living a life of anger and resentment. The kindness and compassion that I radiated as I became older was protected by Dr. Kim and managed to impact others for good. Because she and her top instructors were always there setting the example for me, I was able to follow suit and try to mimic their actions, beliefs and ideals. However, as a teenager, I had this constant tug-a-war between the beginning social pressures of the middle school into high school environment and the ideals and beliefs taught to me by Dr. Kim.

Instead of seeking my own self and potential when I became a teenager, I started to fit the standard profile of the times then. I sagged my pants, wore du-rags, wore chains, and did whatever it took to stay within the popularity charts. I was always seeking the approval of others and trying to stand out. However, even after school had ended and I left from the environment, I still felt lonely and the stress of being who I wasn't throbbed in the back of my head.

TO BE CONTINUED...