When I began my studies in Electrical Engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology, I was a rather shy person. I had desired to start a martial arts club on campus, but I thought it would be worthwhile for me to stop in and try out the Jujutsu class and get to know some of the other martial artists on campus. I was in the class, just getting acclimated to the people there when 10 minutes late, a tall, lanky African American gentleman with cornrows, a goatee and a white belt walked in. From the way he walked in I knew that he was not a true beginner however, and he meant business.
He immediately walked up to me and read what my shirt said and his eyes blew up saying, “Ohhh you do Tang Soo Do!? I’ve heard of Tang Soo Do, I want to see what it’s like at some point. I do Tae Kwon Do!” It is safe to say this was one of my first friends that I met in college. I don’t think I could have survived my Freshman Computer Science Class without this guy’s help. He would help me code, and I would show him Tang Soo Do. He would also come and assist with teaching my new students. This was extremely helpful especially in the early days of my club when my bozo white belts only wanted to beat each other up.
Anthony and I ended up traveling together to the Regional Tournament in Michigan. The two most memorable things that happened on the trip were not related to the martial arts that were happening at the tournament, but some other antics of the trip. Anthony is a man of faith and being a man of faith myself I joined Anthony in his “pre-travel-car-prayers”. We drove past a sketchy graveyard without a fence and Anthony exclaimed, “Godarnit David, turn the radio off, we have to redo the car prayers!” The other notable event of the trip is when Anthony’s phone read the news out loud in the morning and it said, “53 dead fetuses were exhumed from the ceiling of a Detroit Funeral Home”. That woke us up for sure!
Now I promise you that Anthony is not dead even though this seems like a Eulogy. I know that he hasn’t written as many articles, but he is alive, I promise. We get to know our martial arts friends very well. Chances are you will create crazy memories with them. These memories will stick with you for life. If you have a memory with a martial arts friend, share it in the comments.
