Some would call me a nerd. Others might use the term geek. A few might even venture into dork territory. But regardless of the terminology, one thing is clear: I play a lot of Dungeons & Dragons, and I watch (and used to do) a lot of boxing.
'How do these two interests come together?' you might ask. If that was your question, here's your answer.
-------------------------------------------
D&D
I've been a bit of a geek/nerd/dork my whole life, starting (and continuing) with video games before moving on to comic books. I picked up tabletop RPGs (role playing games) during high school, but fell out of habit while studying for my undergraduate degree. I joined a new group about a year and a half ago while I was finishing up my MPH and haven't looked back, participating as a character or leading as the Dungeon Master (DM) anywhere from one to three games per week. I spend a great deal of my free time thinking about this hobby; where to take my character in his development as a person, and how to build my worlds so that my players have maximal opportunities for adventure and creativity and genuine moments. As a player character (a 7th level Ranger - Kalder Ossun, Mystic Beastmaster of the Ringing Mountains - if you must know) the game forces me to think strategically both in combat and social situations: 'how do I fight this Wizard?' 'how would our party's Paladin react to this act of wrongdoing?' 'which of these decisions will produce the outcome our party wants?'. As the DM for my two groups, I'm forced to expand my creative horizons, reading, watching, and listening to a wide array of media to draw on as influences for creativity and world-building. One of my high-points of every week is getting to engage creatively and emotionally with both friends and strangers in a shared, fictional world.
Boxing
Despite my often dorky, pacifistic, (all of my D&D characters have been goody-goody pacifists until they're forced to fight) and emotionally sensitive nature, I've always had an energy inside of me that I needed to get out, something that I didn't like. My parents had me try every sport under the sun as a little kid, and I hated them all: I was uncoordinated, not energetic, and didn't have any sort of natural talent. Eventually, at about 5 years old, my pops signed me up at a local karate school and told me that I'd be going every week, rain or shine, until I was old and smart enough to decide for myself whether or not I wanted to keep going. Ten years later I got my first black belt, and three years after that right before I left for college, I achieved my 2nd Dan rank. I'd found the outlet for my deeper, aggressive nature in a way that was structured, strictly disciplined, and mentored. By that point I had become a senior instructor at our dojo, though the number of students was dwindling and I knew inside that once I left, my Sensei would close the school. In the 3 years leading up to the day I left, one of our senior students, an amateur boxer of accomplishment at the university level, taught me how to box.
One or two nights a week we left the dojo open late at night for boxing classes, and I became a glorified punching bag for guys that were often bigger, stronger, and far more skilled than I. But I learned a lot. I learned - through sparring guys half a foot and 40 to 60 pounds heavier than me - that I could face anybody. I became a boxing nerd, compulsively watching fight films online, on DVR, and on live cards. I was never a great, or even very good, boxer in the dojo, but I forced myself to think creatively and strategically to fight these guys who were 6' to my 5'7, 180 lbs to my (at the time) 140. I continued through most of university, helping form a club for all different martial artists to spar each other and think creatively. In conjunction with my more meditative karate training, I learned that I could channel my aggression and fear and anxiety and emotion into a pursuit that ultimately helped build me into a more complete person.
Harmony
Together, my two very divergent interests have helped me to become the most complete person that I know how to be. Both pursuits, martial arts training and D&D, help me to channel my creativity, passion, emotion, and aggression, into productive endeavors that challenge me to reach higher and further. Both have allowed me the great privilege to form deep and lasting bonds with others, and share in a unified geekery around shared passions. In the end, though my two passions don't overlap or intersect, they've helped me mold myself into someone that I can be content with, and that I hope is able to bring joy to others.
-------------------------------------
I wrote this earlier today as a FanPost over at Bad Left Hook, but wanted to post it here as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment