At age seven, Tae Yun Kim gazed upon her uncles practicing an ancient martial art. She was awestruck. Never before had she seen something so beautiful and exciting, their movements both natural and mystical. She decided right then and there she had to learn. There was only one problem: She was a girl in 1950s South Korea, and this was a five-thousand-year-old culture and tradition. When Kim asked to train with them, she was told, "You're supposed to learn how to cook and sew. And if you're lucky, someone will find you a husband. . . . " This is the story of a girl who was taunted, beaten, faced unimaginable physical and emotional obstacles, yet would not give up her dream. In Parabola's excerpt from her book "Seven Steps to Inner Power," Kim describes the moment that changed her life.
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