—Katara: a Lesson on Strong Work Ethic—
Sometimes I just think about characters like Azula and Aang, who were naturally-gifted in their elements and became child prodigies, and how Toph became a prodigy with the help of blind badger-moles, embracing earthbending as an extension of herself. Zuko wasn’t exactly gifted, but he had the Dragon of the West as his private teacher for at least 3 years, and he pushed Zuko to learn discipline and patience. These characters had the privilege of time to practice their element, and they had excellent masters to help hone those skills to the best of their abilities.
Katara? She didn’t have anyone.
She was the only waterbender in the South Pole, and she was practically a secret. I wouldn’t be surprised if Gran Gran discouraged her to waterbend due to the long history of war-violence against the Southern water benders, and perhaps the only reason she occasionally went fishing with Sokka was to sneak some practice. (Why else would she tolerate his antics more often than necessary?)
Katara taught herself basic water moves without a clue of what she was doing, because she felt connected to that element. It was all around her with the ice and water and snow, so she had to give it a shot, right? This must have been so awkward for her — her village may have seen her as a freak, but she didn’t care because waterbending was a part of her and she wasn’t going to ignore her ambition just because she was alone with the tools without a teacher.
Imagine trying to teach yourself how to bake a cake, because you have a huge craving... and the ingredients and stove are right there in front of you... but no recipe. So you end up doing countless cycles of trial-and-error, measuring ingredients, mixing, heating, tasting, spitting out grossness, then measuring different ingredients, mixing them in different orders, then heating everything in different temperatures... learning more from every single attempt... until finally, things start to go somewhere... and you begin to smell the cake more and more as you go.
That was Katara with her waterbending —and she did this for years.
Without even understanding what she was doing, she gave herself structure and learned the value of discipline. She didn’t care if what she did looked foolish, and she was determined to connect more with her element through self-discipline and self-discovery because nobody else was going to help her. She did it when it was probably the most dangerous time in the world to do it, too. Her mother was killed for being mistaken as a waterbender... but if anything, this gave Katara another reason to keep practicing. She must’ve known that if she didn’t stop waterbending, a significant part of her culture would die out. She wanted keep her culture alive. Katara was fighting for its survival; it fueled her determination to learn waterbending.
In the entire year she travelled with Aang, she didn’t wait for teachers or scrolls to show up before giving herself a reason to practice. She knew there was a war, she knew she needed to protect Aang, and it was her personal desire to master water-bending. So she practiced whenever she found time to do it.
Oh yeah— and she was also the resident “mom” of her group, playing the nurse, the therapist, the one who would cook the meals, train Aang, sew, clean. Every time the group arrived at a new place, the group had to adapt to new surroundings ... and yet, she still found the time to practice and train herself in new methods of waterbending all on her own. She was able to gather knowledge from other bending techniques that her friends had, and became perhaps the most versatile waterbender in a century of war.
She became so good that, within less than a year of training on her own... she wasn’t just able to float blobs of water. She was able to freeze and thaw water on command, suspend rain droplets, maneuver a water whip, create water-tentacles, create water pockets to travel underwater, create thick ship-disappearing mist, create cliff-high water chutes, create ship-capsize-able water waves, create face-reflecting ice plates, create wood/metal-cutting ice shards, heal internal wounds, and control human bodies against their will.
Imagine how differently Katara’s skills would have developed had she been given the same luxury of time, resources and masters like everyone else. Those few weeks that she trained with Master Pakku-- excelling more than any student he’s ever had-- demonstrates how passionate and dedicated she was to becoming a master waterbender and learning from the best. However, would she have garnered the same discipline, versatility, and appreciation to this craft... had she not had to pick things up on her own, in her own time, throughout that whole journey with the Avatar? I believe it was because of her drive, her self-study and self-discipline with this practice that made Katara so unique of a student, and her sense of adaptation and open-mindedness made her all the more powerful.
Then, take a moment to think about how much wrong the world had thrown at her (the war-devastation, the sexism, the friend-betrayals), all the reasons Katara had to just “screw the world” because what she wanted didn’t come easily for her, and people were never fair to her. At any point in this journey, she could’ve chosen a dark path.
Think about that, and how, in spite of her tenacity and her extraordinary self-taught abilities... Katara never lost her compassion. She was an extremely powerful, self-made prodigy, yet she still chose to be good. Think about how she used her gifts to help bring an end to the war and build an era of peace.
She didn’t make excuses to not learn or practice just because she was alone in the South Pole without anyone supporting her of her gift.
She didn’t give up because she lacked the resources to formally train herself.
She didn’t complain about the little time she had to practice, due to all of her other responsibilities.
Not once did Katara consider settling for another hobby when she realized she wasn’t as naturally-talented as her other bending peers. She kept at it.
Katara held onto her ambition.
She gave herself the time, she gave herself the discipline, and (with her tribe’s dying culture, the war still happening, and the Avatar still a novice waterbender) she gave herself the reasons to work that much harder.
She made the most with whatever she had. She learned to be resourceful, sharpened her skills and embraced new techniques... and that ultimately made her unstoppable.
And...instead of turning selfish and chasing power, like Azula... Katara chose to use her skills to serve communities and inspire kindness instead of fear.
So, all of this is really to say: if you want something, stop waiting for the world to give you permission to pursue it. Just get to work. Give yourself the time, the tools, the structure and the discipline to practice getting better at it. Teachers can only push your potential, but they are not responsible for your drive or ambition. Stop making excuses. If it doesn’t come easy for you, remember why you want it so much and keep working at it. If someone says you’re wasting your time, ignore them. If someone says you should be wanting something else, prove them wrong. Fight for what you want, and always be a positive inspiration.
Let’s all strive to be brave, hard-working, determined, headstrong, and compassionate like our resident badass, Katara of the Southern Water Tribe.
