yellow x 2

Let's put it this way: last night, I fell asleep at 8 pm, and after I got up at 10:30 and washed my face and brushed my teeth, I fell immediately right back to sleep and slept until almost 9 am. I feel like I could do the same tonight.

Something has to give.

The one thing I don't want to be the thing to give is my fighting classes, which are still at four days a week (soon to go to three longer classes).

Oh! This week, I got promoted in Brazilian jiu jitsu. I am now allowed (as soon as I procure myself a gi - I just ordered the black one from this page) to attend the non-intro class. And I believe that when I get a belt (I haven't needed one yet, due to not having a gi, and they were out of them on Thursday when I got promoted), it will have color on it. 

I realize that it's not that impressive to have yellow belts in two martial arts (kung fu and BJJ), but it feels impressive to me. It's funny how I am somehow more proud of my accomplishments in martial arts than pretty much anything else in life. 

I think it's partly because I have always been that tall, clumsy girl. If there is a thing to run into, I will run into it. I warmed the bench for three years in high school soccer. When I tried zumba, I was that overly-tall person out of sync in the back row. Coordination has never been my thing.

Then I found martial arts, and suddenly I can do a sport. Part of it is sheer stubbornness. If you are willing to keep slugging a heavy bag and holding a piece of paper between your elbows to train your muscles to keep them in tight against your body and being corrected over and over, you will get better. 

I am willing to do all that, and I love it.

BJJ is a little bit different. I started BJJ because I loved the ground survival section of my fighting class in Universe City. BJJ is rolling around on the floor, trying to be the person on top. One of my grappling partners one day said, "I think this is the move we did the first class I took, and all I could think was, "I don't even know this person, and here I am in a baby-making position with them.""

Which is true. If you are the sort of person who is going to be bothered by the fact that you are kneeling on the ground with a stranger's hips up against yours and their feet locked behind you, you will hate BJJ. I am pretty unperturbed by that situation, so it suits me. 

The reason why I think I'm going to be decent at BJJ is that same sheer stubbornness. I'll tap if my bone is going to break from an arm bar or I'm going to go unconscious from a choke, but if there is a way to squirm my way out of a situation, I will do it. It might not be the way we learned in class, but I will persist until I have gotten out. I may never win competitions (competitions are not my goal, anyway), but I find fighting my way out incredibly fun.