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Sunday, July 28, 2013

New Dream

Hey guys! Hope you are all well!

This past year has been the most challenging year of my life to date. Almost every norm has been broken and remade. But a few things have stayed consistent: God, my family and close friends and Jiu-Jitsu.


We had a friend, Ammara, visit our gym this past week. As a blue belt and talented photographer (all the pictures in this post are hers), she has the lucky job of traveling around and seeing the jiu-jitsu community at large both on the mat grappling and through her lens. 


One thing that she said while she was visiting our Women's Class really rang true to me. Observing how she had been treated in her travels to different places around the country, she said there was a consistent welcoming feeling of family at the vast majority of the places she visited. Despite the different affiliations, there was a common bond that all jiu-jitsu practitioners seem to have, regardless of school and style. 


 This gives me a big warm fuzzy, and I will tell you why. Going through a divorce in the last year, I lost a lot of friends, not to mention the actual family members that I lost by breaking ties with my ex-husband. It was an extremely painful time in my life. 

But I wasn't alone. 

I have been quiet on this blog, but I never stopped training. A lot of times I walked into the gym like a ghost. I felt hollow. Wrung out. Mentally, emotionally and physically exhausted. But every time I came into the gym, I had a family of brothers and sisters who were there to make me laugh, to give me an ear to vent into or to hug me when I needed it. Some of them even had to slap some sense into me when I was threatening to get too crazy. 




 More than being a support, though, my gym family was a motivator. The girls and guys at my school would not allow me to give up. Not on the mat and not in my personal life. They pushed me to stay focused and to keep going. To keep fighting. When I made mistakes, they made fun of me, but only a little. ;)  Then they encouraged me to get up, brush myself off and keep it moving.


 Now, I am on solid ground again. I have a renewed vision and passion for my life. I know where I want to go and I am going to fight like hell to get there. And I am convinced that the support I got from the men and women at Fabio Novaes BJJ have a lot to do with that.

When you train Jiu-Jitsu, you share a lot more than just sweat and blood. You share life. I think that is why we feel that over-all sense of community that Ammara was talking about. I am thankful I am a part of that community. Thank you to everyone who has been there for me. You mean more to me than you know!!!