As students we tend to not get much of a chance to communicate and discover new things about our teachers. Although, the more you communicate with your teachers, the more you’ll unravel about their lives. You’d be surprised to hear the thrilling and exciting stories from the adults you’ve only known in this big brick building. It might come as a shock to some students, but teachers aren’t prisoners of school. They hold mysterious and interesting lives with passions like ours.
Mr. Grant is a history teacher during school hours, but once he steps off school grounds he’s a father of two, a husband, a son, and friend with a former passion for martial arts. Everyone’s journey to a new path in life is different from others. In Mr. Grant’s case he responded that his journey in martial arts began as he was, “just out of college and I just wanted to have a different lifestyle”. Martial arts can be challenging but it’s also a stress reliever and for Mr. Grant Jiu Jitsu “benefited [his] life in ways that [he] couldn’t imagine”. When questioning the former Jiu Jitsu fighter on what advice he’d give to people wanting to start their own journey in martial arts, he answered, “my advice would be, if anyone wants to train whatever the martial arts is, do it for your own reasons. And beyond that, never forget what your own reasons were, and remember you could always update them. But if you’re doing this to impress other people or you’re doing it for notoriety, that’s not really a good reason”. So when entering the world of martial arts, do it for your own purpose and goals or else It’ll lead to a loss of interest. Martial arts can positively influence and lead someone to create interesting but amazing bonds like it did for Mr. Grant, where he states, “A lot of the guys I trained with, even though I don’t train anymore since I have two little kids now, I still talk to those guys and we still hangout. Some of the best friends I’ve ever had, I made through Jiu Jitsu. We would fight each other actively for 7-8 minutes at a time trying to do a martial art to each other and afterwards they’re still like your best friends, and that just was a really fun time in my life”. Mr. Grant loved Jiu Jitsu as it changed his life and perspective of the world. It helped guide him through a confusing and difficult chapter of his story and although this chapter of his life had to come to an end due to Covid, his wife’s pregnancy, and the gym shutting down, it will always be something he cherishes and keeps close.