Quinn’s Corner • July 2026

The stories we share bring me joy and laughter and, often, time to deeply reflect upon my life and training. As a community with shared experiences that are unique to our school and our art, we become the receptacles for each other’s stories. I hold my own stories and the stories of those who came before me; we all do. Every day that I train, I have the opportunity to collect new stories from each of you.

As I watched Mas Aaron sew on his new fringe one stitch at a time, I realized that practice is a great metaphor for the stories shared at his test. As long as I have been training, we have told everyone who gets their new fringe, “Sew this on before your next class. You must sew it by hand and you must do it yourself.” Sewing on our own fringe is part of the care and respect we treat our sashes with because our sashes represent our training; every class, every form, every fight, every story.

I recall watching my children sew the fringe onto their sashes over the years. Their sewing improved each time and the stitches become smaller and more aligned. At some point, their hand sewing ability surpassed mine which made me proud. Now, Mas Cody creates whole costumes from scratch and Mas Jordan carries on the tradition of lovingly creating the red sashes for each new Black Belt.

As you sew on your next set of fringe, I encourage you to reflect upon your life, your training, and the stories we share. You have built your practice one step at a time, one skill at a time, one stitch at a time. May every story fill you with joy and laughter and, perhaps, inform and delight future students.