This was written on a lot of coffee.

Alright, folks. I definitely took my sweet time uploading my third entry here. A thousand apologies-- there were numerous training sessions attended, books read and Tumblr accounts scoured. Aside from that, I’ve been hard-pressed to figure out what to discuss considering life is more or less the same here day in and day out (which for me, is an absolute blessing).

     First off, I’ll be fighting on November 6’th in Bangkok. Initially I was booked to fight in China at 65 kilos under K1 rules on the same date, but in unsurprising Thai fashion, logistics can change at the drop of a hat. As of now I’m a little over two weeks out and feeling great. I’m embracing the excitement, the nerves, and the overpowering smell of the Thai oil with open arms and plan on making the best of this experience regardless if I win or lose. All I know is on November 7’th my only mission will be to deplete Bangkok’s most prominent resource in devastating fashion: eat all the Banana-Nutella infused pancakes. Oh, and send mom an email to let her know I’m not a cripple post brawl.

     With all the free time in between training sessions here I’ve had ample opportunity to reflect on the atmosphere of living at the gym for an extended period of time. And the conclusion (thus far) I’ve come to is this:

     My family loves each other very much. That much is indisputable. Yet based on the way my parents, sister and I address one another it doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense to simply pigeon-hole my family’s… expressiveness, as simply “love”. A better term I would argue would be ‘Affectionate Chaos’. Now the term is still in the seedling stages of its’ conception, but I believe the best definition of ‘Affectionate Chaos’ would be the act of simultaneously inducing anxiety, laughter, education, frustration, empathy and appreciativeness within five minutes of interacting with a family member on any given day. ‘Affectionate Chaos’ is a blessing; regardless of who is providing it. The Sitmonchai gym is a hot-bed of ‘Affectionate Chaos’— and I mean that in the best way possible. If I’m sparring with a trainer at 4:45 PM, there’s a good chance I’ll be roped into practicing the Wai Kru with two kids and a dog by 4:52.  The point is that nothing in life remains stagnant here despite adhering to a strict regimen of fighting and food six days a week. The good-spirited nature of a life dedicated to helping people from different nationalities learn a craft as fluid, challenging and self fulfilling as Muay Thai is contagious. It really is an exceptional thing to see even the most disillusioned of people remove the caution tape from a particular portion of their minds and allow change to occur. Keep in mind I’ve never been an advocate of the Whole Foods/ Bikram yoga good vibin’ spirits of the homeopathic nonsense the hippies love (Yes, Boulder. I’m looking right at you.), but I’ll be damned if I can’t appreciate an arms-in-the-air feeling of accomplishment after two and a half hours of hard work, battered shin-bones and shaky hands to cap off a damn pristine Saturday evening.

Thanks for reading, everyone. Keep the Affectionate Chaos near and dear to your hearts.