Years passed and Arellano climbed up the belt ranks thanks to the encouragement and training of his amazing teachers: Soltis, Tapia, and Wiseman. But the karate journey was not easy. Arellano had to endure harsh criticism and punishments for his laziness, from doing pushups to getting his belt taken away. But everything was worth it, for it only made Arellano grow and learn from it. When it was finally time to train for black belt, Wiseman Sensei took him under his wing and trained him to exhaustion on the hot grainy sand of the Southern California beaches.
In the summer of 2003, Arellano endured one of the biggest and scariest test of his life—his black belt review. He had trained all summer in preparation for it. He was in the best shape in which he had ever been. After 5 ½ hours of testing, Arellano finally reached his goal of earning the rank of Shodan. Arellano had started out a lazy, unconfident, chubby little boy and came out a self assured, strong young man. He has this to thank to his teachers, especially Soltis Sensei, who stood by him throughout the years and made him realize it was time to grow up on that day he gave the ultimatum. Karate has made Arellano realize that he can face whatever challenge life has to offer. Now he wants to give back by encouraging other karate-ka to strive for that black belt just like his teachers pushed him. Arellano’s primary message to karate-ka is that the rewards of karate far outweigh the physical and mental pain.
Mr. Arellano is currently finishing up school and will soon be receiving his bachelor’s in Business Management from Cal State Dominguez Hills. He is also a part time supervisor at UPS. His goal is to promote to the highest level possible, which is full time center manager.
