Choi’s Martial Arts Academy

We have a whole new cultural high-​water mark on bad-​assery.
It’s not just for the fact that I studied, practiced, sweated and bled there for years. I was certainly never the main event there!
It’s not just that the place instilled an indispensable sense of self-​confidence, team-​work, and discipline — though it most certainly did.
It’s not just the excellence of a few particular instructors– their influence and impact on their students – especially the young– is difficult to give full measure, let alone, due credit.
It’s not just the camaraderie, the tournaments, thegroup picnics where I met and fell in love w/​Korean food, it wasn’t the trophies, the wins, or the gut-​wrenching losses.
It’s not just that I met her and loved her and lost her and grieved deeply and sincerely believed, as any teenager does, that life can’t possibly go on w/​o her.
It’s not just that events beyond my direct, intentional control conspired to take me away from my home and my friends @ Chois, when I was introduced to H.S. and then college football.
Chois pitches a tent up in your psyche that is impossible to banish or outlast.
I feel fully the empty fruitlessness of «Thank you» to Chois. But you saved a young boy’s life, and we will meet in fellowship again…