Kicking and Screaming

A Memoir of Madness and Martial Arts

Melanie D Gibson

• Publisher: She Writes Press
• Year: 2021
• Topic: Social Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9781647420291
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

Melanie Gibson was an independent woman with a good job, multiple college degrees, and a condo in the trendy part of town. She also had a few mental illnesses, a minor substance abuse problem, and rotten relationship skills. She was a high-functioning crazy who needed a good kick in the pants, literally and metaphorically.

In early 2013, as a last desperate means to save her sanity, Melanie turned to a nearly forgotten childhood activity: the Korean martial art of taekwondo. As if the universe were listening, she discovered her West Texas childhood taekwondo instructors’ Grandmaster operated a taekwondo school a few miles from her home in Fort Worth, Texas—and she decided to start her training over as a white belt.

In taekwondo, Melanie felt like she had a fresh start in more ways than one. She found an inner peace she’d never known before, a sense of community, a newfound confidence, and a positive outlook on life. The kicking and screaming she was doing in class quieted the long-term kicking and screaming in her mind. Funny and frank, Kicking and Screaming: A Memoir of Madness and Martial Arts is the story of Melanie’s life-changing journey from troubled, lost soul to confident taekwondo black belt.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Prologue: Fear of Flying Kicks
• Part One: White Belt
• Part Two: Yellow Belt (Sort Of)
• Part Three: Green Belt and Green Belt / Blue Tip
• Part Four: Blue Belt and Blue Belt / Red Tip
• Part Five: Red Belt and Red Belt / Black Tip
• Part Six: Bo Dan to Black Belt
• Epilogue: The Beginning
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author