Sheridan student, 18, heads for S. Korean tae kwon do training - KOTA Territory News

Sheridan student, 18, heads for S. Korean tae kwon do training

It's virtually impossible to find a high schooler who wouldn't be excited about missing two weeks of school.
 
A KOTA Territory senior gets to do just that, and her reward is bigger than a few missed classes.

"It started off as just something my dad wanted us to do, just something in between sports," Katie Reed, an 18-year-old Sheridan County student, said of her foray into tae kwon do in third grade.

But after years of training, "It just turned into, 'Okay, we're just going to see this through all the way until black belt,'" she said. "And then once I hit that stage, it was just like, 'I don't want to quit.'"
 
Now a second-degree black belt, Reed is headed to the place where it all started.
 
"I'm looking forward to just actually being there and seeing where all this originated," said Reed.
 
She's one of three people from Sheridan County traveling 6,000 miles for a two-week tour of South Korea on Thursday.
 
"My teachers even said it's a life-changing experience, so just miss the school," she laughed.
 
"It was invitation-only, so we feel very privileged, very honored," said master Brad Lanka, Reed's teacher and sixth-degree black belt himself.
 
Lanka said he expects to take as much from the trip as his pupils.
 
"I'm very much interested in that," he said, "to better understand, to better learn, and hopefully to bring something better back for my students."
 
The trip is centered on the retirement of Lanka's teacher's teacher, so there probably won't be much chance to train abroad.

But for Reed, everything there will be an opportunity.
 
"As you watch someone," Reed said, "you're like, 'They have a really good snap kick. I'm going to start doing it like that.' And just little tweaks along the way from other people"

The trip costs each person about $3,000. Reed and her fellow travelers return to the U.S. on May 8.

She said the only thing she's worried about is the mountain of homework she'll have to do when she gets home.