Though I haven't been involved with the sport for as long as I've been involved with D&D (the latter has about a five-year head start), it's been a part of my life since childhood. I fenced for fun, I fenced competitively, and I even did a bit of instruction when I got to college and there wasn't an existing fencing program. After college, though, came graduate school and various part-time jobs, and research, and teaching...fencing just kind of fell by the wayside. For a long while, for many years, I didn't miss it.
Then I did.
Earlier this summer, I got back in touch with my old fencing coaches, a couple of guys I hadn't seen or spoken to in about fifteen years. During our family's recent visit to New York, Matthew and I dropped by one of their practices. It was great to reconnect with those guys, and by the end of the session I knew that my interest in the sport had been rekindled. I found a couple of fencing clubs in Reno -- an hour's drive from my house -- but then a nascent group emerged at the local community center, no more than five minutes from home. Last night I joined them for a bit of sparring, and although I've got fifteen years' worth of rust to shake off, and I'm fifteen years older now, and I had nowhere near the endurance or the precision of motion that I had in my prime -- I did okay. More importantly, it was fun. Next Thursday can't come fast enough!
No comments:
Post a Comment