I Am Project - A Student

If we are truly judged by the company we keep, I rock. I just spent the entire weekend with Master Dave McNeill and it was one of my best weekends ever.

It’s funny how quickly we can lose the knack of being a student. Of course I have never stopped learning but my learning adaptability skills are definitely rusty. When you have been training with the same people for so many years, you tend to develop a mental and spiritual connection with those people that makes communication, interpretation, and comprehension effortless. I realize now that I have been taking this ease of learning for granted.

Master McNeill is one of the most genuine, engaged people I have ever met. I am not the most socially adept of people out there but the ease I feel when I am around him is amazing. Yet despite being well within my social comfort zone with him and having most of the techniques he taught completely compatible with my kung fu system, I struggled to comprehend and grasp everything he was teaching. My mind tends to work in a nonlinear fashion and is inclined to dwell in the abstract. I usually can get away with this when I am learning from my long time instructor and training mates but I found myself falling into several Spaceman Spiff moments this weekend. On one hand I feel some frustration with not making the most of my opportunity to learn from Master Dave, but on the other hand I am totally stoked about the whole experience. What a great feeling to be a student at this level again. This journal posting could have just as easily been I Am Exuberant.

I can’t express enough gratitude to Coach Tom Callos for all the opportunities and motivation he has given me over the years. None greater than this weekend I have been privileged to share with Master Dave McNeill. I owe both this men a lifetime of gratitude.

“When you love people and have the desire to make a profound, positive impact upon the world, then will you have accomplished the meaning to live.” - Sasha Azevedo (b. 1978)