It was Ten Years Ago Today!

It was in April of 1997 that I could not take it anymore. My career in Television was going nowhere. I was living in a run down rented room in Long Island. I was earning $220 a week. I was a chain smoker. I was bored. My enetrtainment career talents were being served by working a temp job at a ball bearing company. (I kid you not)

So I wanted to try something new. I flipped open the Nassau County Yellow pages and discovered there was a JKD school on Long Island offering classes in all sorts of martial arts. I swung on by, watched (of all things) the women's class and decided to give the school a try. After one lesson, I was HOOKED.

The irony of this.....the school was AWFUL and typical of the terrible way martial arts and kickboxing was taught to the masses. I didn't have a frame of reference towards what was good or bad at the time and it didn't matter. I needed something new in my life and this venture into the weird world of martial arts was something I swallowed hook line and sinker. More than just learning how to punch and kick, I was able to save my sanity from the realm of stress and boredom was creating in my life. I was 24 yars old and only new two things: school and work. Hobbies were strongly discouraged even from the days I was a little kid. EVERYTHING had to be serious. I was force fed lame math courses and their ilk. While this would seem 'helpful' to most, when school ended and my career was not going anywhere, there was simply nowhere to go. Life became empty and I slipped into deep depressions. Martial arts was able to save me from that descent. Although not all martial arts training would be fun. Some people can make it fairly difficult.

Continued