How I Started Martial Arts

7 years ago I walked into Ultra, where the Muay Thai National Team training center is. I remember
distinctly the smell of old rubber and sweat, and up to this day, that would be the smell of home for
me. My friend Claire, also an athlete, introduced me to my first coach, Coach Billy Alumno, the
head coach of the Muay Thai National Team. Although I was a beginner, I wanted to train with the
best, and be surrounded by the best people. It is only now that I realize that it has become natural
to me, to seek for the best and immerse myself in situations with the best people, a characteristic
that I think I only developed after graduating college. I felt like I bloomed late in terms of being a
musician and a writer so with that in mind I had a gritty mindset afterwards. I felt like I always
needed to work extra hard to get where I want to because everyone else was already ahead of me.

I came into the gym as a newbie, no martial arts experience in the past, just ready to absorb
everything about Muay Thai. In my head, I had myself a goal. I need to push myself to my limit, and I
wanted to compete after a year.

So then my Muay Thai journey would begin. I went to the gym everyday, training with the best
athletes, and coaches. I would struggle maintaining the right form, performing the combinations
seamlessly, and developing good fight technique. I was always tough on myself. But being a violinist, I
knew that there was nothing I cannot achieve through constant and mindful practice. I went
everyday, most of the time excited, but a few times impatient with my progress. I knew I was
naturally strong. I felt it and people around me told me that I was. I used to hike and climb mountains
and caves with ease. But there was never really an opportunity for me to test that physical strength
yet. I remembered when I was around 5 years old, my mom had visitors in the sala, and I was on the
staircase, just looking down at them, listening. I put my head in between the metal balusters and
guess what, well yeah of course, my head got stuck in between and I couldn’t get out. So then
everyone, including my mom panicked, but my dad, calm as ever, gripped each metal baluster and
bent them to get my head out. That stuck to me as strength- superhuman, very calm and collected.
That maybe the reason why I admire cool and level headed fighters like Fedor, GSP, GGG, Rose
Namajunas, Team Lakay fighters and many others.

Back to Muay Thai. My training leveled up, naturally, after training and sparring everyday. I needed to
run and do sprints every morning to keep my cardio up for the kind of training that I was doing. This is
also the time when I worked at Brent International School as a teacher. So I had to make time for
training before and after work. I would wake up at 5 am, do my run/ sprints and shadow boxing. After
work I will head straight to Ultra to train. After most training sessions I would spar with National Muay
Thai athletes, both males and females. I would get shin and pelvic bruises, black eyes, and my body
would get really sore. Whenever I’d get accidentally hurt during sparring I would keep a straight face
and go on. But I don’t remember bailing out at training. I was just always there. I showed up even at
my worst and thought, well, if I can fight through this then maybe I can push through the unlimited
potential that I didn’t know I had.

I am an only child. My mom and dad always told me I can do anything and be anything I want. I grew
up with the confidence and stubbornness of doing anything I want to do. Except for some pretty
important life skills like swimming and riding a bike, it never occurred to me that just because I am a
girl, that there are things not meant for me to do. At the same time I was really so loved, doted on,
and sheltered that up until college, I had a driver to be bring me to school and didn’t learn how to
commute until I was working. So I was this pristine, golden child, whom everyone thought was really
to be protected and taken care of, but deep inside, I felt like a beast ready to pounce on and
dismantle anyone. I liked that dichotomy, that sort of Jekyll and Hyde personality that I can switch to
and from whenever I wanted to.

I started late in sports though because my mom enrolled me in violin at a very young age. She made
me do art, writing and well, mostly artistic and academic things, which at that time, I really enjoyed.
However, there was this small part of me, a little devil, that wanted to go outside, be dirty and play
with the neighborhood kids. At that time we I had a male cousin who would always go out to play. So
when my mom and dad weren’t home I would sneak out with him to play, accumulating tiny wounds
and gashes in the process. I remember my mom one time, when I had to be rushed to the hospital for
my knee to be stitched after an accident, muttered in half humor, half dismay, “Now you can never be
a model” - most likely unaware of the fact that I will not grow to be taller than 5 feet.

So I had these two selves- the actual me who was excelling in school, doing so much extra-curricular
things like art, music, reading, writing, and debate, and the idealized me who was rough and tumble,
exciting, and “athletic” person. After a few years playing in an orchestra and doing mostly academic
work, I decided to do explore the idealized version of me and do one of the hardest, most painful
martial art there is- Muay Thai. Not as a hobby nor for fitness. I would be all in.

It’s true what they say that when you want to be great, you surround yourself with greatness. It
helped me immensely that I was training alongside national athletes, under the best Muay Thai coach
because their level was the goal that I set for myself. If they did something, I would strive to do it too.
If they did 150 kicks per leg, I would do the same, sometimes even more just because I knew I needed
to work more as a student. I listened to my coach, and just followed everything he said, not worrying
about where the journey would take me, until that moment when he finally told me after a year, “ I
think you are ready, do you want to fight?” I said yes but in disbelief. He then reassured me and told
me, “Well naturally, fighting is in your blood.”