3 YEARS IN

3 years ago to the day, I had my first BJJ class. In certain respects I just don’t know how I lived without Jiu-Jitsu for 25 years. In others, I can’t believe I stuck with it for this long. At the beginning, it was just a thing to do three times a week. Now it’s one of the central preoccupations of my life.

I’ve met some truly excellent people from all over the world. Through BJJ I now have friends in Thailand, Australia, Japan, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and England – none of whom I would have had any occasion to meet, were it not for seminars, competitions and what not – which I find to be really quite amazing.

I suppose I can consider myself even more fortunate that my experience with negative people has been minimal, limited mostly to a certain someone about whom I won’t any more waste time and brain cells typing.

Today my thoughts are mostly about the guys I’ve trained with at KDT, many of whom became good friends and, thanks to life getting in the way, almost none of whom are still active. I wish things were different, and they could have kept on training – and not just because the BJJ scene in Malaysia would be so much better off for it. On a more selfish note, this would mean I’d have more guys to roll with and help push me to a higher level.

Which is not to say I’m complaining about my lot in life. I get to train 5 days a week, 6 if I’m not sick, injured or lazy. I don’t have to put up with an office job and in a short time BJJ will also become a way for me to make a living. And my wife is not only cool with it – she’s also encouraging. I’m living the dream, or a reasonable facsimile thereof. It’s really exciting, really bizarre and really humbling.

Sure, there are lots of things I wish could have been different, but these are regrets that aren’t worth having. I’ve got a lot of hope for the future, some ideas that could turn out to be pretty cool – and really nice digs to use as a big BJJ Petri dish. I can’t wait.