Karina
What is your name and what do you do?
My name is Karina and I am a second-year bachelor student at University College Maastricht.
Since when are you a member of Kinran?
Since my first year, September 2018.
As a long-term member of Kinran what motivated you to join /and stay?
I have always wanted to do martial arts, but I did not start as a kid. I also felt like it would not be a good idea to start doing martial arts as an adult, especially since my dad always told me that you have to start early. Then during Inkom me and Sanne stumbled upon the Kinran stall at the sports event, and I had the impression that Kinran was a really nice non-judgmental group of people, so I decided to try. The first training was the hardest, but the group was amazing and it felt good to do something I wanted to do since forever.
How do you feel Kinran has developed over time and do you agree with this development?
I have only been a member for two years, so I cannot speak for a development of Kinran over the years. I can compliment the current board for conducting a lot of events and increasing the media presence of Kinran.
What is Karate and Kinran to you?
For me it mostly means discipline, especially since Sensei always stresses how important it is to train at home. When quarantine started, quite honestly I didn’t exercise for a week or two, but then as people in our Kinran chat shared that they were practicing karate at home, I felt the motivation to start exercising myself as well.