Se-Jong is one of the few martial arts systems around that I know of that is truly an art. The system is not geared toward violence.

Se-Jong is also a place where the old have a chance to learn from the young and the teachers can learn from the students and vice versa. This system allows for each person who is dedicated and well trained in Se-Jong to offer something different. Whether it be a way a block is done, the way a kick is executed or the intensity a pattern is done, we all have something to offer. Every person excels at something so the system allows them to share it with everyone else, and that is the beauty of Se-Jong Tae Kwon Do. It isn't a system where you withhold knowledge and talent for fear of them getting better or where the higher belts beat on the lower belts because the higher belts want to practice something new. In Se-Jong, everyone's potential is strived for.

That is why there are no experts, only students.
Everyone is constantly learning from everyone else. To me, Se-Jong is like one giant extended family. There are grown-ups learning from kids and kids learning from grown-ups. Se-Jong consists of many diverse people but all are linked together. It is not your strength and ability to hurt that is respected when we bow, it is knowledge and experience that is shown respect. What you get out of Se-Jong is exactly what you work for, but what can be gained by working is endless.

Someone will always have something to teach and we all have something more to learn. That is why the family of Se-Jong is important. Without it the bond between teacher and student would only be a formality, but here it is what keeps the system together.

The reason I love Se-Jong is because you don't have to worry about higher belts crushing you or having to worry about their criticisms. You learn your teachers are just like you and that it is a learning experience for teacher and student. The talent and strength of the higher degrees is respected, not feared. All learn and all teach and all cooperate.

It is not the system that lives on but the family of Se-Jong Tae Kwon Do that exists. This is why Se-Jong is studied for life.

Its principles and fundamentals are practiced everyday in everyday life.

You grow physically, mentally, and spiritually through Se-Jong and I can't say anything else has had that effect on me or ever will again. To me, Se-Jong teaches the principles of life and therefore should be a part of it. I think if I ever left Se-Jong it would be a part of me I was leaving behind. It is more than just patterns and self-defenses, but principles and ideals, and for sharing these things is why Father Connolly is master.