It’s Valentine’s Day! For me it’s a day to reflect on the people and things we love, not just a burning love for one individual (although I do have the best husband on the planet).
That got me thinking about what I love about fencing. Many things come to mind but the one that sticks out is how it quite literally changed my life. I was a lonely, overweight, timid, 30 year old public high school French teacher who had regular panic attacks. I had never had many friends but plenty of cats. I was stressed out to the max.
Then I picked up a Sabre for the first time.
Fast forward 13 years.
Today…
I am married to my handsome fencing coach.
I am the co-owner of a fencing club.
I teach French at Texas Wesleyan University and fencing at a homeschool co-op.
I have great friends all over the country and the world.
I am in best shape of my life.
My cats have been integrated so much into club culture that we travel with stuffed versions of them. And the teenage boys are always the first to want a picture with them.
I have Demi Lovato’s “Confident”, Kangaroo’s “Warrior”, and DJ Khaled’s “All I do is Win” on my pre-tournament playlist. This level of confidence would have been unfathomable to me during most of my life.
As a little girl I was obsessed with Wonder Woman and looked up to her. She now lives inside me.
I’m not telling you this to brag. Not even humble brag. I’m telling you this to show you how powerful our connection to this sport and this community can be. I am grateful to fencing for what it has done for me and what it continues to do. That’s one reason I love coaching so much: it helps me give back to a sport that has changed me forever. I want others to be able to experience its power and to channel it into inner strength.
How about you? What do YOU love about fencing? I know you have a reason you made it all the way to the bottom of this post and that you’ve been thinking of why you love fencing the whole time you’ve been reading this. Please share your story below!!