Passion - Why I do it

I want to tell you about my best friend for 12 years.  I'm an only child and he's the brother I never had.  It was an awesome friendship, "Hey man, I gotta go to pay my insurance, wanna come?" "Yeah, I'll be ready in 15 minutes."  We did everything together.  On his birthday, my mom include him in our big family dinner.  When I could drive we would go out to eat for his birthday.  We didn't have any bills so we could go anywhere we wanted.  When we turned 21, we would go out to eat and then have drinks afterwards. 

When I graduated, I dug in deep to martial arts. I eat, slept, and breathed martial arts. Everything martial arts.   Even though we were both busy with our lives, we still tried to get together when we could.  It wasn't as much as when we were in school but it was always fun.  My mom would still include him in our family birthday dinners and we would still go out for his birthday.  I wouldn't talk to him for months and then out of the blue I'd get a phone call and it would be like there had been no time lost.

Last year was awesome.  After I finished working out at the school, we went to dinner then went to a bar in Elkton.  It was a really fun time, we signed up to sing karaoke but the machine broke.  The DJ put on a Jay-Z song and we both jumped on stage and started singing it without the karaoke machine telling the words.  After that, we went to Denny's, ate and hung out til about 3am.  

This summer, I lost my best friend Jake to a drug overdose.  His family found him in his basement.  When Sam called me at the school, I was shocked and thought it was a joke.  She was freaking out and neither one of us knew what to do, who to call.  His viewing was one of the toughest times in my life.  Sometimes I leave the school and it still feels like a "should call Jake tonight" night.  Today is his birthday and I am going to stay busy, get work done, and at the end of the night go have one shot of Jack Daniels like we've done for the last 4 years.

This makes me think about why I teach martial arts.  It was there when I needed it and I would work out when I needed to get through a tough time.  Not only is it there but it taught me the no-quit attitude - I have to succeed.  I have to make all of this work.  I have to do it for Jake and everyone else that believes or believed in me and for everyone that's counting on me.  I'm also going to do it for the ones that told me not to become the owner of a martial arts school and I should focus on something else, because we know that success shall be the best revenge.

So this one is for you Jake - this kick, this punch, this block, this class, this cycle, this year,