I often joke with my partner about his social abilities and extroverted demeanor while I’m often perfectly content in my solitude and the quiet. While this can be perceived as stand off-ish, it’s honestly just because my mind needs time to recharge and my emotional state to recuperate. Everyone has fears and anxieties. It’s natural and a part of life. But true mastery comes in conquering those fears and quieting this intrusive thoughts. So this past week, I conquered those fears and anxieties and stepped out of my comfort zone when I decided to attend an all women’s MMA camp up in Michigan. And by decided, I mean my partner told me it was a good opportunity and I was going. As excited as I was to be attending, I was also super nervous about being roomed with a bunch of strangers and secretly wondering if my skills were up to par with the rest of the ladies. So I bit the bullet and hopped on a plane and off I went.
There’s nothing quite like entering a room full of badasses with veterans of the UFC, Bellator, and Invicta FC. It can be enough to intimidate even the most resolute of people. And oh man, did I feel the nerves my first day. But as soon as we got into training, I was home and at peace with everything. I was immediately comfortable doing all of the things my body has trained for years to do. I knew a lot of the nervousness had to do with my lack of confidence when it came to being social as well as being a nervous flier and dreading the airports and the flights. Luckily, it all worked out in the end.
It’s crazy how years years of practice and preparation help to ensure you’re ready when the time presents itself. Fortunately, I constantly compete and push myself in the gym, so while this past week was definitely one of the most physically arduous weeks of my life, being a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu brown belt and professional MMA fighter helped me reach peak levels and conditioning. Because I devote my time equally to all disciplines of MMA, I felt comfortable with all aspects of the training, from striking to wrestling to grappling and anything and everything in between. On top of all of that, I was on a caloric restriction as I am cutting a few pounds as I get ready to head to Pans this week. I enjoy putting myself through disciplined challenges.
I won’t ever take for granted the chances I get presented with in life and will try to take advantage of every valuable second that I can. While I would have loved to have taken a night off to rest and recuperate, I travelled all that way to be able to learn from those at the highest level and train with a group of professional women, and as female fighters know all too well, that is not something we can do on the regular with the scarcity of high-level women training partners. I have never before been able to get in such good quality training consistent with the type of fighting I will find myself facing in the near future. Best believe I was going to soak it all in like the most absorbent of sponges.
So, there is another thing I can now check off my list of tasks to conquer, and I was pleasantly pleased (and quite surprised) with the output of my performance all week. Even better than that, I formed new friendships I am happy to say helped me grow as a person and step out of my shell (even though I’m usually going into a Schell). I like learning new things about myself and discovering that I definitely belong in the world I was once so desperate to be a part of. Look at me, facing down challenges and always willing to put myself out there. If I can do it, so can you. Now get on out there and take those chances on yourself, you deserve it.
