Trophies and Trinkets

(stuff I've won in jiu jitsu over the decades)

Over the years from about 1991 through 2015, I competed in an awful lot of grappling competitions.

I learned a great deal out there on the competition mats. I also got a lot of medals and trophies—trinkets, really—that have little intrinsic value beyond helping me remember some of these events.

I competed in hundreds of matches, from high school wrestling to judo and jiu jitsu. I won some tournaments that really mattered to me at the time, but I also don’t remember where most of the medals came from.

Here’s a pile of medals from judo competitions over the years:

You can probably see that I haven’t really prioritized taking care of these mementos over the years. More often than not, I was amused at the apparent loftiness placed on what was often a local or regional event. I don’t mean to take anything away from serious competitors who have worked hard for their accomplishments at all—quite to the contrary, it’s the physical trinket itself that makes me roll my eyes.

Here, they’re usefu…