I really like you, but.................................

I think we need to stop seeing each other. Let me explain. In my adult life I have had a few hobbies that I really have gotten into.

In middle school, high school and during college I played tennis. Right after high school and again in recent years I've been into mountain biking, going places just to ride, racing a bunch. I even have worked at bike shops. And now as a subset of mnt biking I've been racing bmx bikes.

Surfing brought lessons, trip to Costa Rica, wet suit and so on. Rock climbing! Oh my, I even had a climbing wall in my garage for two years. And all the gear that goes with climbing. Pounds and pounds of it. I've never been at a loss for hobbies and I always seem to stick with them for years or until I am better than the average person and at a high intermediate skill level.

And of course there has always been motorcycles. And there always will be. That's a life thing. Not a hobby.

Which brings us to brazilian jiu jitsu. I started informal training in jiu jitsu back in 1998. Then I started doing some formal japanese jiu jitsu training. Finally found a Gracie affiliate in Oregon 3.5 hours from my house. Then in 2000 I moved to Yuma AZ and found some guys to garage train with along as some occasional trips to San Diego to the Fabio Santo academy. I moved to central CA in 2002 and just stopped training.

Girls, what can I say.....?

Then when I came back from Iraq in 2007 I was searching for something to renew me. Something to connect with. And my mind came back to brazilian jiu jitsu. I trained with the wonderful friends I made there from March of 2008 until August of 2010.

And then my Crohns nightmare you know about. I switched teams/academies during this time period to the Atos school in San Diego run my 8 time world champion Andre Galvao.

Well I am in my second week back of training and the school had belt promotions today. We all stood there as Andre gave a speech about training and the school and then began talking about me. Me! He spoke of a student who was one of the first people here when he arrived, someone who had many medical problems and surgeries who kept trying to come back and was never able to. Someone with an amazing amount of determination. How he loves to teach someone with that attitude. It made me blush. It made me feel warm inside and also a little self conscious. Undeserving of his praise.

But then I got to thinking. This guy is a world champion many times over. He has trained with thousands of people and devoted his life to jiu jitsu. If he says something about me I have to believe it. And as I realized I should believe in myself and the determination he sees in me I asked myself, "what am I doing with it?"

What am I doing with my talent? My drive and determination. My love of competition. My health and physical fitness? Should I be doing more to improve my jiu jitsu. A jiu jitsu lifestyle? Through some soul searching and hard honesty I want to come to the answer of "yes."

I need to let some other hobbies and distractions go. I like them, but I need to break up with some of them. I need to take what someone who is a master at something I am involved in, who sees potential in me and move forward with it. Leaving other things behind.

Bmx is gonna disappear. I will still ride a mnt bike for fun, but maybe not as often. I will eventually have a motorcycle again, but it will be something slow and fun. For the joy of riding in itself, not a pursuit of speed and aggression. I'll surf less. I'll still have things I like to do away from jiu jitsu, but they will get single digit percentage levels of my focus in comparison to jiu jitsu.

My extra exercise, my diet, my timing of activities during the day. All those things and more are now going to serve at moving me forward in jiu jitsu. I really like you all my other hobbies and interests, but I think I want to 'just be friends' and make jiu jitsu my main squeeze.

Pun intended.