Athletes
In my life thus far, I have tried a variety of different sports, whether it was me swinging a baseball bat or diving off of a board, I always sought the biggest challenges and the ways of overcoming them. After I had tried my hand in swimming and baseball and was surprised to find pretty good amounts of success in both, I decided to try my hands in more martial sciences(the fighting arts). However, the reason why I sought to pursue Martial Arts instead of more traditional forms of sports is in response to the bullying I was receiving from my peers, this happened all through middle school for me. I was exposed to and eventually earned my second-degree brown belt in Shaolin-Do Kung Fu that was headed by Grandmaster Sin Kwang The, whom grew up in the Shaolin monastery. But, my journey did not stop there as I wanted to try my hand in some Freestyle Wrestling in high school where I became my high school’s first ever wrestler. I ended up winning matches by pinning two of my opponents in my first ever weekend of high school wrestling, pinned one guy Friday night and then pinned another opponent at a local tournament the next Saturday morning. But, besides bullying in middle school, what prompted me to even wanna be an athlete in the first place? Several names come to mind…
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One of my biggest inspirations growing up and in my opinion the greatest Basketball player off all time, Michael Jordan, inspired me to not give up and to always give effort in whatever endeavor I choose to pursue. Let me give some context, when Michael Jordan was a high school Basketball player he was cut from his varsity team early on for “not being good enough” according to his own words. When Jordan told his mom about it, she told him to have courage and to “get back into the gym and work harder”. From this moment, Air Jordan was born and he went to UNC made the team, was a huge part in helping them to win the NCAA championship, then was drafted to the Chicago Bulls where he put up more points in just his rookie season than the MVP levels of all top players today. And, in only 14 seasons went on two three straight championship runs With the Chicago Bulls and a White Sox Baseball run where he scored 51 runs in the middle of it all! The NBA recently renamed the MVP trophy after him and has since labeled him as “the greatest player of all time”. Another Michael that really inspires me is Michael Phelps, whom according to various sources is the most decorated Olympian in all human history. The crazy part about Phelps too, he is a big stoner! Which is awesome because it shows that even if he smokes Marijuana he is still able to perform at the highest level and has throughout his time as a competitive swimmer. He was whom I thought of all the time whenever I was swimming because I love his example. These two names help to even inspire me now in my martial training at USC, where I train with the BJJ team, Taekwondo team, and some others. I am excited to see where my training and my mindset can take me!
