Brandon Jean is a junior finance major, passionate about karate and NSU’s Boxing Club. This passion has taught him about himself and how hard work and dedication can open up a lot of opportunities.
Since I was young, I always wondered what kind of person I would be and what stories I would tell when I got older. I was in a rush to grow up, until about second grade, when I made a realization about how my life would end up; I thought that with the way I was then, I’d probably become the happiest homeless person ever.
At that time, I was bad at pretty much everything I did. My face was probably hit by half the balls in elementary school and my parents probably saw the teachers more than I did. I was even envious of nerds because they were at least good at school. But when you’re a procrastinating problem child with no physical ability or creativity, it is practically impossible to figure out what you can become in life.
Once I entered fourth grade, I realized that I couldn’t let my life become some standard or run-of-the mill; I had to do something, become something or be somebody who could make a mark on this planet. So that same year, I took piano lessons, hoping that was the skill that would accomplish my goals. However, even though I was good at piano, it was so tedious that I grew tired and soon grew to hate going to lessons and practicing. I ended up quitting. After that, I kept trying different things, with no luck, and figured I should just come to the realization that I had no talent for anything.
It wasn’t till three years later that I actually found a skill that I was good at and that I enjoyed. My mother found an ad for karate lessons near my house and wanted me to do it since all I was doing was re-watching the same “Simpsons” episodes. I thought once I got there I would see teachers who were all Japanese and talked like Bruce Lee. To my disappointment, they were all American. On my first day, they told me to start a sparring match, or making the motions of boxing without actually hitting anyone, with some of the teachers and other more experienced students who had all been doing karate for at least six or seven years. I loved the idea because I wanted to see all the secret moves of karate all at once, and to my teachers’ and my own surprise, I was able to keep up with all the students there. It was like everything was moving in slow motion for my eyes and I just knew how to do everything without thinking very hard. That’s when I discovered that fighting is what I do better than anything. So, I decided to focus all my effort and attention on anything and everything about fighting.
Through karate, I started to learn three things about the person I am now: my fighting spirit will never die, I have no interest in fighting people I deem weaker than myself, and I am a sore loser who will never admit defeat.
After about seven years of karate, I got tired of fighting the same people every day. So I stopped going and was looking for somewhere new where I could find strong fighters and train for a low price. After not finding a place in my budget, I saw a flyer on my car for a boxing club at NSU. I thought it was worth a shot. I got in contact with the president of the club, Maeve Paolini, and she told me that she wanted to revive the sport and make it a sport in all the colleges again. I admired that goal, but I didn’t really seem to understand what that meant for me.
All I wanted to do was fight. Since then, I have meet many fighters who have earned my respect and admiration. However, I thought there was a kind of debt to pay the club since I got so much enjoyment from it and I wanted to do my part. When I reached out to help Maeve, she told me that she was having trouble doing things at NSU since she wasn’t able to be there every day, so I agreed to help her and the club as a way to repay a debt. After the end of the fall and winter semester, we now have two great coaches with lots of experience, a great gym at the Recreational Complex, and a great team that makes every day so much fun. There is no other club that I would want to be a part of and I look forward to seeing what will happen for the club next semester and what incredible stories I’ll be able to tell from my time in it.
