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My Travel Companions

             I have been involved in Martial Arts for a large percentage of my life.  I have found over the years that the people and things in my life constantly change.  Members of my family travel out into the world to follow their dreams and to do what they think is best for them at the time.  My friends often take different paths, leading me to find new friends.  I found even my own personal focus changes and the environment around me changes with it.  There are things that have stayed with me for long periods of time, but nothing has been with me as long as me.

My two travel companions have always been my mind and my body.  Through my travels in life they have remained the only two constants.  I realized this some time ago and decided that if they could be so loyal to me then I would be loyal to them.  I decided that I wanted to make them both as powerful as I could.  I have dedicated my life to being the best me I can be.  I study often and workout each day.  I am constantly at war with my vices and make an effort to be as good of a person as I can be.  Nobody is perfect, including me.  To me a man doesn’t have to be perfect or great to be a man.  To me a man is someone who works towards being better each day.

I encourage all of you to try to be better, not for me but rather for you.  The better you treat yourself the better you will ultimately feel about the world around you and the people in it.  I had a lot of anger in me through too big a portion of my life and I took that anger out on me, and the people around me.  I gained nothing by doing that except more anger and negativity.

At a low point in my life I stared at myself in the mirror and asked myself, ”Do I respect the man I see?”  To that point I felt like I was traveling through life on my own.  At that moment I realized I was going down the wrong path and decided to change my focus.  That was the moment I discovered myself.  My travel companions were with me the whole time.  I just never bothered to look.

Since then I have made a conscious effort to better myself each day.  I still have a long way to go but my outlook on the future is good.  Life is the longest journey any of us will travel.  If we stay true to ourselves, the travel will be that much more wonderful.

BY: Adam Rocco