1st Stripe Purple

Living in Escondido really changed my personal life. I don't visit my parents or my cousin every week anymore. Heck, I haven't been to either my parents' or cousins' house in more than a month. It also affected my BJJ life. I just found myself dreading the drive from work (RB) to ATOS (Convoy) after 8+ hours of work. Then I dreaded more, the drive from ATOS (Convoy) all the way back to home (Escondido). I slowly stopped training because of the drive. I hated doing it 2-3 times a week. So I made the decision to either find a school closer to home or quit BJJ. And for some reason I can't seem to quit BJJ.

After checking out 3 schools in the Escondido/San Macros area, I settled with Gracie Barra Escondido (GBE). Having a lineage from GB was nice because I was able to talk to the instructors about my previous GB instructors and they knew who they were. They even know some of the students I used to train with at Gracie Barra San Diego (GBSD). I was even able to show Magid Hage a picture of myself and his son, Magid Hage IV, when I was still at blue belt.

Long story short, I continued my Brazilian Jiu Jitsu journey at another school closer to home and earned my first stripe on my purple.

Details: Gracie Barra Escondido, Magid Hage, Advanced Class 7 to 8:30pm, Tuesday, May 16, 2017.