May 2019: The Journey of Six Thousand Miles
Leaving WashingtonMay started off with continued hard preparation with the team for AX Fight night. Every class for weeks the team had been pushing me hard to be ready and I was eagerly looking forward to stepping onto the stage. Then, the unexpected happened, and I got a phone call from the Army informing me that I needed to be in North Carolina on May 15th, two weeks earlier than I was anticipating. I got the phone call while in my car on May 6th, a Thursday, at one in the afternoon. I drove back to the office and let management know that the next day was my last day of work, messaged the team group chat to let everyone know that that night would be my last training session, then messaged the fight promoted to profusely apologize for having to withdraw from the event.
Thursday night I had one last training session with the team. It had only been a year since I moved to Washington, but we trained hard and went on so many adventures together. I'll particularly miss my friend Jules. It's hard to find people that will jump last minute on a freshly discovered tournament a state away. I will miss the long car rides and competition craziness that we enjoyed together.
My game developed tremendously over the past year at Wakizashi, particularly my no gi and understanding of leg submissions. That development meant that I collected a box of medals over the past months. While the JiuJitsu was phenomenal, it is the memories of after class conversations, howling laughing at a hostel until late in the night, and so many other good times spent outside of training that will be my primary memories from my time with them.
Friday at work the office said goodbye in their typical fashion. They threw a bunch of food on the grill and we played Secret Hitler while sipping cold monster energy drinks. This job has been one of the best places I've ever worked at, and I loved being a part of the team there. I actually looked forward to going to work in the mornings and having political debates, discussing our AI overlords eventual rise to power 😂 and many other topics while we fixed computers. I think who you work with is much more important than what you do, and I will really miss these guys.
I knew that my time in Washington was going to be short, but I had developed a great life there. I had a great place to live, thoroughly enjoyed the working day, and had great training every night with good people. I'll admit that as my car went over Deception Pass and I left Oak Harbor tears welled up in my eyes. My year in Washington was incredibly memorable, and I'm deeply grateful for the time I got to enjoy there.
The Long DriveI left work on Friday and two hours later was on the road for what would end up being a 6,000 mile plus drive to visit 10 new schools and visit 4 other ones to see old friends/training partners.
The big push was to make it to Chicago, where family and an actual bed awaited me. It took me about three days to make it. I'd drive until I got tired, then climb into the backseat of my car to pass out. I didn't set an alarm, but just woke up whenever my body was ready to. I'd then climb back into the driver's seat and drive on. The northwest is stunningly beautiful. Mountains, curvy roads, forests, and lakes. After a couple days of sitting in the same spot, staring out the window and the road in front of me, I was sick of it and gleefully collapsed into bed when arriving at my families.
From Chicago to the East CoastThe bulk of the driving over, I jumped into the second phase of the trip that I was looking forward to, travel training. I visited one new school in the Chicago area the night I got in. After three days of sitting/sleeping in a car, letting my body loosen up during rolling felt fantastic.
I'd visit one more school in the Chicago area to see my good friend Brad. Brad and I started at Fusion as white belts something like 8 or so years ago. Since then he's become quite a no gi connoisseur and we spent hours delving into the world of heel hooks, then hours after that talking about life and JiuJitsu. Always really good to see how much his technique and teaching ability has grown during what has become a sort of annual visit.
From Chicago, it went Louisville, KY ➔ Smithfield, NC for National Guard training ➔ Apex, NC ➔ Wilmington, NC ➔ Brooklyn, and Manhattan, NY ➔ Richmond, VA ➔ Fayetteville, NC ➔ Myrtle Beach, SC ➔ Columbia, SC ➔ Columbia, GA ➔ Enterprise, AL ➔ and finally, Fort Benning, GA for my final stop. Either staying with friends or catching a night of sleep in my car at a rest stop. In all, I hit 10 new schools for a lifetime total of 71.I was welcomed into so many new schools and got to visit with many old friends and training partners. So many good stories and memories from this trip that will last a lifetime. I'd love to share more of them, but this post is already on the long side. Instead, I'll just share a collection of pictures from the once in a lifetime trip.
If everything works out like it should, I'll be in uniform full time until the end of 2020, so I won't see many of you for quite some time. I hope that you all continue to train hard, and save a roll or two for me for when I get back.
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