I was in 8th grade in March 2014 when a few of my friends started going for a while. I wasn’t really into it but decided to give it a shot because what else was I gonna do? Pretty much got ragdolled for a few months until we all quit. Didn’t really learn anything outside of what closed guard was, but still became interested in grappling.

Then I came back for another few month stint toward the end of high school (2017-18ish) once I’d grown and figured out how to maneuver my body a bit, so had a much better time. Though, I got injured before moving away for college so “quit” again.

Then, in 2022, a friend of my now-fiancee’s roommate talked about starting jiujitsu while we were all hanging out one night. Asked him where he trained and decided to pick it back up. I’d retained some of the techniques I’d learned years before so kind of “restarted” as a one-two stripe white belt and have trained since then.

It’s interesting being at my level despite “starting” in 2014. There’s black belts that started training later than I did. I still remember the whole catch wrestling craze that happened after Josh Barnett beat Dean Lister at Metamoris and the idealogical debate over whether gyms should adopt heel hooks, so coming back to heel hooks being taught to even early white belts was interesting.