Bruised but Happy

Back in college, I expressed an interest in doing a contact sport by joining Karatedo. Unfortunately, it was an all-boys club. Not that they were mean, on the contrary, they were exceptionally sweet - and, unfortunately uber-protective. As such, when I actually had my first "fight" and I had my first "punch-in-the-face" experience (which I thought was normal since it was, well, my first), my sensei immediately stopped the bout and told me to focus on katas instead.

It wasn't until I met Alex, years later, would I get back into the arena of physical fighting in the form of Arnis.

Recently, we have been doing some casual sparring. But I still felt that Jay and Alex were taking it easy on me, despite the fact that I was a walking red egg due to the armor. Last Sunday was different however. I had to go against people who were way over my height and were too competitive to take it easy on anyone.

It was a wonderful experience.

I lost on both occasions of course, against these taller and bigger Arnis Mates. But I was extremely pleased to see that it wasn't an easy fight for both of them, and in fact, the scores were pretty close. So pleased in fact, that I didn't even notice, until this morning, that I had a rather nasty gash on my elbow, a couple of hundred bruises all around my arms. And to think, I'm extremely squemish with pain.

I guess it just goes to show that between my fear of hurting and my competitiveness, it would be the latter that would win out.

And that thought is extremely liberating.