Wednesday, February 28, 2007

"I Don't Care About You... I Care About Fencing"

Fencing is my favorite pastime. More than football, more than girls, more than just about anything.

The last person I had to explain this to was an 8 year old who wanted to take my club's beginner's class. Unfortunately for him, there was an Regional Youth Circuit (RYC) tournament going on... so he was the only one in the class. The kid never fenced before, and learned the joys of teaching your body to hold an en garde position. Anyone who has ever fenced before remembers that the first time hurts... a lot.

Of course, this kid didn't suck it up like most future successful fencers do, he decided to moan and cry. And he even got upset that his pain didn't bother me. Or that I freely admitted that I really could care less. Which was true... if he wanted to make an effort, I was more than willing to help him along. But I don't baby anyone, not even the little ones in my family. It's just not dignified.

On a similar note, I had a conversation with a cute girl from Houston the night before Men's Division III Epee qualifiers. She wanted me to assemble a crew and come and hang out with her and her friends. I demurred, because I had to be on the road to Statesboro in less than five hours. Then she said I could come alone, and I knew what that meant. And I still said no. That was the day fencing officially became my favorite thing to do.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

lol. Good to hear from you! (Which by the way, I've gone and picked up stage combat. If you haven't tried it, do! It's a whole nother level to the fencing game)

ColeTrain said...

Olympic fencing is a sport, my darling. Stage combat is playacting. "Whack a mole" is a game.

My coach actually teaches stage combat to drama classes in town. Personally, if I was going to get into that - I would prefer learning how to do the stuff in "300."