Saturday revisited
by Josh Staiger
Ok, I wanted to go back and talk about Saturday a little bit before I forget.
I got up just in time to make it down to the Wing Chun School for class. To be quite honest, I was really only half-sure that I was actually going to go. I had gone the night before for endurance training and was expecting my arms to be really tired-out in the morning. Luckily they weren't too bad, so I went.
I was really glad that I did, too. We learned our first actual self-defense techniques and, man, are they brutal. It practically gave me goose bumps watching Sifu demonstrating them on another student, even without actually making real contact.
But anyway, that wasn't the reason that I said the school is fucking awesome in my last entry (well, that was only part of it anyway). The interesting part of the day was the BBQ that was held at the school later that afternoon, and getting to actually meet a lot of the people who attend the school.
It was a nice break from the homogeneity of the crowd I'm used to hanging out with in any kind of social context (y'know, college students who are all very similar and age and situation to me). In contrast, I think that I was the only actual student, student there. I think that it's quite possible that I was the youngest person there (well, except for the kids of other students in the class), though there were still very few over 35. There were people who had finished college and were working with very young kids to attend to...and also people who had no plans of ever going to college... I had a lot of interesting conversations. It was very interesting hearing about everybody's different perspectives and struggles in life...and they're all great people in their own way...
One of the most striking things from my point of view was the number of people who had graduated college with good degrees and had had high-tech jobs in the area in the past, but have since had to move onto other things (working with their hands and such) after being laid off. There was the network engineer who lost his job at MCI following the scandal, who joined the Army reserves (as a combat photographer) for some extra cash, but who was now called up on active duty at Fort Bragg. Perhaps the most interesting conversation I had all night was with a guy who works for IBM Global Services. He has a 12 month old son and is pretty sure that he is going to get laid off in the near future and is therefore planning on moving to Florida so his wife can be close to her family.
Hearing these people's thoughts on their life and their plans and their advice... It was all very eye-opening in a way. Sitting where I am in life, it's easy to forget the reality of what's out there a lot of times. These things can strike you at what seems like the most unforeseen times.
But what else is funny, is that when I step back for a second, a lot of what I'm seeing lines up with a lot of my own independent conclusions and thoughts on life. I don't know if I should think that's scary or what...
Hmm law school...
Anyway, after the BBQ, I made my way over to Christine's house (which is like two blocks from the school). That was philosophical in a different way ;)