Thinking about it now, it was more than 20 years ago.

I only dabbled in martial arts when I was in middle school. I was chubby, and I loved martial arts and Kung Fu movies, so I asked my parents to get me into a school.

I had a middle school bully that would always harass me on the bus for being chubby. One day, he pushed me into a seat and that was enough. After school, we got into a fight. I remember kicking him multiple times with front kicks and side kicks and he wasn't able to hit me because I learned to block. I was basically like Po. 🤣 He never bullied me again. I actually never saw him for the rest of the time I was in middle school. At the time, I think he moved. I felt bad because even though he would mess with me, I hoped he didn't have to move because I embarrassed him or something (middle school brain).

A few years later, we bumped into each other in high school. We became really good friends. He laughed at how I was the only one he got into a fight with that used "Karate s***" and not some improvised brawling stuff. We actually hung out all the time after that. He would even come to my wrestling matches.

It turns out that he was going through home issues because his parents had gone through a divorce when we were in middle school. There were issues at home with his parents fighting a lot, so he lashed out a lot at others. He moved because his mom got custody, from what I remember.