Yay!

I’ve never been much of an athletic person. Active, yes. Sporty, no. That is, until I started boxing and wanted to get good enough to beat up a guy. And when that wasn’t working, I moved on to Bikram Yoga so I could look like Jennifer Aniston or Madonna (yuck). So when Bikram Yoga started getting expensive, I joined a gym. That started getting boring, so I went back to boxing, then eventually powerlifting (!!) and finally, jiu jitsu. Sometimes,I feel like I’ve finally found my soul mate. I’ve stuck to Jiu jitsu for a year now and I have no intention of leaving (him)- can’t even bear the thought of not having jiu jitsu in my life! Just when I thought I couldn’t love Jiu jitsu as much as I did already, something happened. It was like a dream come true. I finally got promoted! Wahoo!

When I found out that Alvin (our black belt) was coming yesterday, I was nervous. He’s never exactly praised me for my sparring skills, and I know that he uses that as a gauge for promoting people. I knew he was going to promote students, I just didn’t know if I would be one of them.

After teaching us techniques, he asked us to spar. I started off with Jay, a two stripe blue belt. Needless to say, I got my ass kicked. While we were still sparring, Alvin asked me to spar with Chris, a fresh white belt like me who’s been around for awhile and a pretty damn strong guy at that. As usual, Alvin told him to submit me in 20 seconds (that’s what he tells most guys). In my mind, I was already thinking, I’m going to get submitted again… f*ck. After 20 seconds of being roughed around, he didn’t even get close to submitting me. In fact, after two to three minutes, I TAPPED HIM OUT! Everyone was cheering for me (they’re such great guys, they really are) and I couldn’t stop smiling. YAY!

When everyone finished sparring, Alvin called out the promotions, one by one. All the guys who got promoted had these cheesy smiles on their faces and everyone was clapping for them. Then, he congratulated everyone and started to leave. My face immediately fell, and I almost burst into tears. To save face, I began to walk away. Alvin called us back immediately, “remembering” something- my two stripes! Everyone was clapping and telling me not to cry. I couldn’t believe it! I thought that I would get one stripe, but two! Even better! I stopped myself from crying again and hugging Alvin. Words cannot describe how I felt at that moment. I’ve never been acknowledged for anything except being on the Dean’s list and a few awards here and there in school- but never something like jiu jitsu! I shook Alvin’s hand instead, and thanked God that I didn’t cry.

Wow, I feel like I’m finally going somewhere. I must not suck so bad after all! J

Here’s to November!