Up until high school I lived out in Millville, pop 1,000. Living in the country we didn't really have next door neighbors, but over time I met two kids who lived on my street. They were both Filipino and I quickly got a lesson in culture. The kid that I knew for most of growing up lived on the property that bordered ours his name was VJ short for Vecente Jesus. I met him the summer between my 2nd and 3rd grade year. His father was full blooded Filipino who had joined the army to get citizenship, and his mother was full blooded Mexican. She used to tell us that when the train first came to her grandmothers village in Mexico, they put hay on the tracks so it would stop and eat it. At some point in the more expounded version of these blogs I will mention many cultural surprises i encountered growing up, but for now I will stick the main one that had to do with this blog.
Vj's dad having grown up in the flippies and immigrated to San Fransisco was acquainted with what some would call a gang culture. I can remember him teaching me how to use a butterfly knife when I was 8, and shooting a Tech 9 (google the image). Both of which were illegal at the time. As we became more into all this we would spar with each other as well. I was a skinny white kid who wasn't a very good fighter so it didn't take me long to realize that I was getting my butt kicked on a regular basis. We decided we would do weapons sparing with a bow staff and Filipino fighting sticks (google) with pads on them. I was pretty good with the sticks and learned to hold my own in our "sparing tournaments"
As luck would have it we moved in to town my freshman year of high school, and i lost touch with VJ shortly after. My mother told me that I could take Karate after school until basketball started. We went down to a dojo and they let me pick what type of martial art I wanted to train in. Well immediately I was drawn to fighting with Filipino fighting sticks so I got permission to take Arnis Jitsu which is one of the few forms that they let you train with weapons immediately. I loved it.... and I was pretty good at it. It wouldn't be long until I could run into my old friends on the street and kick the crap out of them with my new found sticks...... Not too sure what I was thinking.....
So i got a uniform (a white gi) and began learning what I needed to to test for my white belt. This didn't take long so all I had left to do was attend three open sparing sessions and I could test for it. Open sparing was at night and all people from all styles who were interested would come put pads on and pair up. Being new I didn't really know anybody and so as people showed up and paired up I was kinda left out. After a few minutes a girl walks up to me and asks me if I would like to spar..... Well I couldn't say no.... there was nobody else for either of us to match up with. So I agree and she takes off her jacked..... only to reveal a brown belt. I was secretly hoping she would want to spar with weapons but i her art (taiquando) weapons were seldom used. So we go off and square each other, bow, and raise our hands to fight. It was at this point I began to realize that I had no clue how to fight with my hands. She hit me square in the nose. I stepped back thinking "well that's embarrassing" didn't hurt to bad but she still landed it right on my nose. Long story short.... she hit me square in the face so many times i lost track. My eyes began to tear up from being hit on the end of the nose so many times.....SHE WAS SO FAST!!!! After a few hits its not like I didn't know what was coming..... I just couldn't seem to stop it. She hit me again, and again and again and again. Until I think she felt bad for me. After a while she asked "Do you want to take a break?" I replied with all the confidence I could muster "Well..... If you want to we can." And with that I went and got a drink of water and tried not to look at her the rest of the night.
