Come One, Come All If You Know How to Fall

In the leadup to the January 1997 semester, I realized that I had enough elective credits to graduate. A few years prior to that, while I was still living in South Carolina, I had switched majors from engineering to art.

Even still, with perhaps five more semesters total left, I had some room left for classes that I simply wanted to take, but didn’t need. One of these classes was an additional art history class, and another was a literature class I thought I’d enjoy.

Judo was one of these extraneous electives. I was all too eager to try judo, having wrestled in high school a few years prior. I really enjoyed wrestling, and very much wanted to continue after high school. Unfortunately, USC didn’t offer a wrestling team or club back then, so I drank beer and moshed instead for a few years.

Finally, in January of ‘97, I took my first judo class. It was part of the university curriculum, so it catered to the lowest common denominator—very slow and cautious at first, but I didn’t mind thi…