{"id":4636,"date":"2019-07-05T23:35:04","date_gmt":"2019-07-06T05:35:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/?p=4636"},"modified":"2019-07-05T23:35:04","modified_gmt":"2019-07-06T05:35:04","slug":"ronin-diaries-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/?p=4636","title":{"rendered":"Ronin Diaries 3"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4637\" src=\"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/ARUNSHARMA-2019-low_res_05.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/ARUNSHARMA-2019-low_res_05.jpg 620w, http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/ARUNSHARMA-2019-low_res_05-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This is my friend Arun who I met almost 4 years ago. He was a purple belt at the time but I wasn&#8217;t interested in learning Jiu Jitsu from a school with an established legacy. I was 38 years old or so and\u00a0 looking to meet someone who could give me a personal window into expressing myself through fighting. As soon as I met Arun I knew he was the guy who could help me rediscover what I lost in art school.<\/p>\n<p>Arun is about 10 years younger than me and he feels like it often. He&#8217;s like a raw nerve searching for pain salve. He struggles a lot with alienation and childhood trauma. But as he&#8217;s coaxed me closer to the warrior spirit, I&#8217;ve helped him get more mastery over his emotional wounds. I might be saying too much maybe, but our relationship has been extremely important to the last 4 years of my development. He was my first real Jiu Jitsu sensei. Eventually both of us moved on to learn under Jason Eisner and Nathan Drona. Like I said in a previous post, there was a split at our gym and Jason quit teaching at the club. He put some mats in his garage and Arun and I have been sparring there whenever we get a chance. Last Wednesday Jason gave Arun his black belt.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4638\" src=\"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/ARUNSHARMA-2019-low_res_02.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/ARUNSHARMA-2019-low_res_02.jpg 620w, http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/ARUNSHARMA-2019-low_res_02-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A handful of us with significant connections to Arun showed up to support. It was extra special to see Arun get his belt in this way; in an unofficial club in a random garage in the hills of LA. This is very much Arun&#8217;s personality, and also the way I romanticize martial arts life through the movies I grew up with. I think about Danel-san waxing cars in Mr. Miyagi&#8217;s yard and shit like that. I even think about the\u00a0 Ninja Turtles training in a sewer and the spirit of that feels real to me.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4639\" src=\"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/ARUNSHARMA-2019-low_res_03.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/ARUNSHARMA-2019-low_res_03.jpg 620w, http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/ARUNSHARMA-2019-low_res_03-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Anyway I thought about sharing these thoughts on Instagram but I don&#8217;t think Instagram deserves complete thoughts.\u00a0 Sunday I&#8217;m competing in Las Vegas. My brother, who Arun and I have been training once a week is also competing for the first time. I hate competing. It fills me with dread, but that&#8217;s why I have to do it. I hope I accidentally break my arm on the way there so I don&#8217;t have to do it though for real. OSS!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4641\" src=\"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/ARUNSHARMA-2019-low_res_04.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/ARUNSHARMA-2019-low_res_04.jpg 620w, http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/ARUNSHARMA-2019-low_res_04-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4640\" src=\"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/ARUNSHARMA-2019-low_res_01.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/ARUNSHARMA-2019-low_res_01.jpg 620w, http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/ARUNSHARMA-2019-low_res_01-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Photos taken by my buddy Gari<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is my friend Arun who I met almost 4 years ago. He was a purple belt at the time but I wasn&#8217;t interested in learning Jiu Jitsu from a school with an established legacy. I was 38 years old or so and\u00a0 looking to meet someone who could give me a personal window into [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4636"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4636"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4643,"href":"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4636\/revisions\/4643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}