I volunteer as a coach at my gym, and have been since 2018. I coach 2 of our kid's classes, and I absolutely love it. It's been one of the best parts of my jiu jitsu journey.
There's a kid who has been coming to my gym for years who has some very unique health challenges. Occasionally he will have seizures, and I don't think anyone really understands why. I've seen it happen on the mat years ago, but I was far away when it happened because I was with a younger group of kids.
Today, I'm teaching something from closed guard and right at the edge of my field of view I see this kid collapse on the mat. I call out to him "are you OK?" and then I see him start twitching, and I know he's not OK. I get to his side as quickly as possible, but my heart and mind are racing, and I just don't know what to do. His mom and our head coach come rushing over in what was probably less than 30 seconds but felt like minutes. The mom just calmly talks him through it like she's probably done 100 times. The seizure eventually stops and instantly this kid is in tears... clearly scared and feeling/thinking who knows what. We get him off the mat and he leaves early. I shift my attention back to the other kids and they are petrified. I at least know why it happened, but they are clueless. I do my best to just continue class and get their minds back on training. But hours later this is still on my mind. That whole experience scared me quite honestly, and I'm still processing it...
So I get through my own training and decide to grab a bite to eat at one of those build your own pizza places not too far from the gym.
I order my pizza and go up to the cashier who is this young guy. I don't recognize him at all, but he looks right at me and goes "Coach David... I remember you!" Turns out he was a student of mine back in 2019. We get to talking and he gets on his phone and is able to find some pictures of him and I after one of his belt promotions. He tells me how much he loved training jiu jitsu, and how his parents wouldn't let him come back after Covid and then he just got involved in other things. He's going off to college next year, and what he wants to study is right in line with what I do for a living. We exchange numbers, he sends me the pic, and I tell him to keep in touch and to keep me in mind when he's ready to do an internship in a few years. I'm blown away by this kid... so friendly and confident, great with customers, multi-tasking like it was no big deal. I sat near where he was working and we talked almost the entire time.
I honestly can't remember the last time I experienced such polar opposite emotions in such a short amount of time. I wouldn't consider myself religious or spiritual, but I can't help but feel like I was meant to experience both of those events. Not really sure why, but I needed to share this. Thanks for reading.