Daily blog #33

Do it for the thrill

Today I applied to be on the Fight 2 Win BJJ card in Austin, Texas on July 10th. I hadn’t planned to fight until August but my brother, who is scheduled to fight in that event suggested it and I agreed. Shortly after applying, I was greeted by the excitement of possibly fighting in the upcoming week, the kind that makes you say to yourself “Hello, old friend”. Three years since my last competition made me forget what it felt like but that rush today reminded me that something real is in my near future. Not many things can make you change yourself inside out, but the challenge of being in the spotlight and having a physical and intellectual contest against another human will. That you can guarantee. Will it be worth it? I don’t know, but just like a snake sheds its skin, so will the version of you who wouldn’t survive the journey you have chosen for yourself. If we didn’t all romanticize being in some sort of “Fight Club” Chuck Palahniuk’s novel wouldn’t have resulted in the Brad Pitt/Ed Norton blockbuster it did. Luckily the Jiu Jitsu fight club, full of working professionals, doesn’t result in anywhere near the disfiguration that bare knuckle boxing in a basement would. So it allows for working men or women to show up for lunch a few days a week and scrap or even fight in a tournament over the weekend without you knowing. But if the satisfaction of doing what would scare most people didn’t outweigh the fear, they wouldn’t be there in the first place.