I started Judo when I was five years old. Like me, most kids were forced to participate in various activities as a form of developing their maximum potential. We became eco-boomers. As time went by, many of these kids started to disappear, leaving a select few. As time went on, my parents gave me the option to leave, but I realized that I had fell in love with the sport and could not exclude it from my life. .
The reason I do what I do cannot be explained. It is this love that I have that makes me always want to do Judo. If I stay with it, it will be loyal to me and make me better. If I leave it, it will be mad at me, and make me worse. If I take a break and come back, it will punish me before it lets me become good again. It is unbiased. It does not discriminate against anyone. Unlike other sports, which require you to be a certain height, size or weight, Judo is kind to whoever wants to try it. All sizes, ethnicities, and heights have been successful at Judo. It is not a team sport. One does not receive half credit, or all the fame, like all-stars in basketball or football. I love judo partly because of the fact that it is an individual sport and what is put in is what is gotten out of it.
In 2006, I went to a tournament. Two minutes into the fight, my opponent put me into a headlock. This meant that if I did not give up, I was going to lose oxygen to my brain and go unconscious. As I lay there, unable to breathe, I started to cry. Then and there, I realized that there was no way I was going to give up! I would rather go unconscious than quit, bottom line. I started to cry, then I started to black out. I blacked out. Two minutes later, my coach woke me up. I asked myself, why did I cry? Why do I do Judo? Why do I do what I do? It finally hit me; I cried because that, which I loved most, broke my heart. However, the next day I went back to the gym and worked harder. Nobody understood. I guess that is the way it is. I guess it really is unexplainable. The art of Judo appeals to me in a unique way, which cannot be put into words.
Why Do I Do What I Do? I do what I do because Judo is a very unique form of art which does not discriminate against any height, weight of size, and solely depends on how much effort one puts in, because it truly is an individual sport.
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