Alaya McDonald featured in Christian College Geelong’s ‘The Vine’ newsletter

I remember the exact moment when Alaya was asked. Ross and I had just finished training at Kyoshi James Sumarac’s house when - in between whinging because she didn’t want to eat dear Shou Mei’s spinach bake and accepting a bowl of chocolate gelato instead - Kyoshi asked Alaya if she would like to train in the children’s class in our upcoming trip to Tokyo. In our lineage, these sorts of invitations are usually reserved for seniors - or at least, advanced, mature and well-behaved children. Since Alaya doesn’t fit into any of these categories, I was half-resigned to the probability that Alaya would be babysat by my parents while Ross and I participated in all the training sessions at Gōjū Ryū Etsukou-Kai International.

But the martial arts gods were in our favour. Ross and I were so thrilled, we wanted to tell the world… starting with Alaya’s school, Christian College Geelong Surf Coast Campus. They were very excited to share the news in ‘The Vine’:

Alaya Receives a Special Invitation to Tokyo

‘What? The school newsletter?!’ Our cheeky Little Miss in her element.

While Alaya received an invitation to train in Tokyo, here’s our invitation to you: