Painfully Awesome

It has been 2 months since i moved here in Singapore for work. Every place i've been to before were all different, but Singapore's great attractions to all culture and its people are amazingly important to everyone trying to visit the Lion.  It was a rough start, but i somehow managed to get along with all the hardships upon moving here and taking the opportunity to work and live here. So far i think i am doing quite okay, that i do have a good job, i have some friends here and i am still meeting interesting people along the way. For me Singapore is a place where the Asian community meet, this is a place of rich culture and tradition of various nationalities. You can eat different cuisine whether it is Japanese, Chinese, Malay, Indonesian, Indian, Thai and even Filipino foods are everywhere. Of course the old western foods will always be around. I have never seen and tasted these kind of foods elsewhere in my life so far Singapore does that.

Unfortunately i do live in a far place not even near to my office location, so i had to travel for almost an hour. But it is more convenient than riding a jeep or a bus back in my hometown. Nevertheless you know things are organized and proper when it comes to transportation here in Singapore. Shopping malls are also in every MRT station or near to it somehow, so i know a lot of people here do shopping or it is their past time, or other will travel to nearby countries which is also awesome when you have the time and money.  I have stood to different grounds in my life and as i entered Singapore i told myself i might have a change of lifestyle so to speak, that the life i had back in Gibraltar was different compare to Singapore.

Some friends of mine here in Singapore already taught me things about the do's and don't's of living here. But i think some are still in question on how would you understand things not just for Singapore but for yourself as a way of life. One night a friend of mine was holding a leaflet about martial arts, and i took a glance at that paper and suddenly took it from him, i told myself this looks interesting for myself to do it here in Singapore and it was a long time idea when i was a kid to try one of those, but never had the chance. So me and my friend did went to the academy which is the best Asian MMA Gym - Evolve Mixed Martial Arts. The place is well groomed and the people are amazing, as i see them train hard with the world champion instructors teaching you techniques and the right attitude to grow fast.  I told myself i would focus on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu since i know that things are much more interesting when you are really in contact with an opponent and you would struggle to escape and somehow win that respect. But Evolve also offers like Muay Thai, Wrestling, FightShape etc.

Unfortunately my friend did not have the time from work to get into more trainings for Evolve so i was the only one left to enroll and did spent some really good amount of money. I know this will change my life and I will learn new things apart from the challenges of life. I focused more on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and i must say it is really challenging and fun, much respect should be given to people training for these discipline. Speaking of which that is one of my goals to redeem back Self-discipline and proper motivation. As i trained 4 times or 5 times including FightShape and at least try to attend Muay Thai per week. I did sacrifice working out in the gym for me to really focus on Martial Arts, more importantly BJJ. It was a challenging, embarrassing, disappointing,fulfilling yet very fun first month for me that i learned really great things and met new set of friends. Sparring or rolling as we call it gives you the right amount of challenge that you know you would lose or win if you did not do that right decisions you must remember and somehow apply for you to get that goal.  Last week i was promoted receiving my first stripe as a white belt in BJJ under Renzo Gracie from my professor Leandro "Brodinho" Issa.

I had that simple smile while moving towards my professor and he was putting on the stripe that my BJJ friends gave me the laughter and a bit of belt slapping after the training that's how we acknowledge hardships we passed in our diverse circle of friends back in the academy. I can say that It was purely hard work for the first month (off to work travelling from there to academy, training hard - gaining bruises;cranks, going home late, doing the laundry for my Gi, eating late if there is food or cook for one then sleep really late and do it the next day if my body permits). I think BJJ taught me in my first month of learning zero background in martial arts that life is like this: you get something that you will have that simple smile because you know if you really work hard and sacrifice the right things you will still feel like a winner and losing for me now is just synonymous to "Learning" . In the end you are the only one that can help yourself when things doesn't get easy.