A life of learning
I’ve always been a little bit odd, socially awkward, physically awkward, not really great at anything other than fixing things and making things better. I grew up working on my uncles dairy farm and learned really quickly that it was my job to fix things. Even if I didn’t know how I was supposed to figure it out. I had a lot of time alone to myself with time to think. That’s not where it starts but it’s a great point. I wasn’t your typical kid thinking about games, friends, food, and whatever other things kids my age were thinking about.
I spent a lot of time in deep thought pondering the mysteries of existence and how things work and why things were the way they were in the world. Having to fix the things that broke I wanted to not just fix it but make it better so it wouldn’t happen again if possible. I did that with things and people alike. I kind of created a system of learning for myself by always analyzing what was going on around me and cataloging best practices and what works and does not. I do it with everything and do my very best not to make the same mistake twice.
Jump forward 10 to 15 years. In my mid-twenties something happened and my health started to decline, I rapidly started to put on weight due to inactivity from chronic pain. In my youth I had been super active in scouts, martial arts, farming, sports, and the performing arts. I had seen my genetic and social disadvantage when it came to health. My parents were overweight and my sisters where falling into that same pattern quickly. My dad was a mess medically and there where a ton of health history issues on both sides of the family. Only one of my grandparents were left by the time I was 12, and plenty of aunts and uncles already didn’t look great. I had seen this history early on and was determined to be active, fit, and health, but things happen.
When I was 16 I fell 42 feet from a very tall tree and herniated two vertebra in my back. That ended basically ended my high school football carrier and put the stop on just about all physical activity for about 2 months. I was eventually able to get back into some other sports and even back into martial arts which was my true passion but that was a event would later haunt me and cause a lot of problems. At the time I was in such great shape that my body forced everything to work for the time being with many trips to the chiropractor and ample pain meds.
When I was about 19 I went on a volunteer service and teaching mission to eastern Europe for my church. Subtract all the physical activity I was accustomed too, and combine that with the delicious bread and other food Bulgaria had to offer, I packed on some pounds. I also got out of shape pretty quickly. Well you guessed it. That back injury came back with a vengeance. Bad shoes, bad beds, bad roads, bad diet and more things contributed to a life of just surviving. I was addicted to over the counter pain killers just to get through the day.
I finally was able to meet with a real doctor just before turning 21. He was completely blown away with the amount of damage I had going on with my lower back. He couldn’t believe that I had been pushing through it all to keep going. My martial arts training and meditation had carried me a long way but I was done at that point. With the help of some heavy muscle relaxers and some more potent pain meds he gave me I was able to finish the last two months of my time out of the states. He didn’t recommend back surgery in Bulgaria and going to Germany wasn’t in the cards. When I got back home I started an intense regiment of physical therapy, diet, and nutrition, and was actually able to get pretty well mended up without surgery.
As I got back into action I started studying martial arts. I had studied quite a few different systems and picked up a few good moves and concepts.
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