“I am a fighter.
To be a fighter, you have to be passionate. I have so much passion, it’s
hard to hold it all in. That passion escapes as tears from my eyes, sweat
from my pores, blood from my veins.
So many people assume that I’m cold and callous, but the truth is you
need a big heart to fight. I wear my heart on my sleeve, and I have had it
broken too. I can compete with broken toes or stitches in my foot. I can
take a hit without batting an eyelash, but I will burst into tears if a sad song
comes on the radio. I am vulnerable; that’s why I fight.
It has been that way since I was born. I fought for my first breath. I
fought for my first words. The battle to be respected and heard is one I’m
still fighting. For a long time, I felt I had to fight for every little thing. But
now, one big battle every couple of months makes up for all the minor ones
I forfeit every day. Some lost battles are small. Getting cut off in traffic.
Taking shit from a boss. The everyday slights that drive us up to the edge.
Some lost battles are life altering. Losing someone you love. Failing to
achieve the one thing you have worked hardest for.
I fight for my dad, who lost his battle, dying when I was eight years
old, and for my mom, who taught me how to win every second of my life.
I fight to make the people who love me proud. To make the people
who hate me seethe. I fight for anyone who has ever been lost, who has
ever been left, or who is battling their own demons.
Achieving greatness is a long and arduous battle that I fight every day.
Fighting is how I succeed. I don’t just mean inside a 750-square-foot cage
or within the confines of a 64-square-meter mat. Life is a fight from the
minute you take your first breath to the moment you exhale your last. You
have to fight the people who say it can never be done. You have to fight
the institutions that put up the glass ceilings that must be shattered. You
have to fight your body when it tells you it is tired. You have to fight your
mind when doubt begins to creep in. You have to fight systems that are put
in place to disrupt you and obstacles that are put in place to discourage
you. You have to fight because you can’t count on anyone else fighting for
you. And you have to fight for people who can’t fight for themselves. To get
anything of real value, you have to fight for it.
I learned how to fight and how to win. Whatever your obstacles, who
ever or whatever your adversary, there is a way to victory.
Here is mine.”
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