"I hope I one day become the WOW in some one's life", I told a friend today. The wow I was referring to was WOW Motors, our sponsor. When he first walked into my life he was this cute, pudgy, little business man who didn't know a thing about boxing beyond his geeky laugh always made this boxer snicker. Snickers started training him long before our club opened -- behind WOW's dealership, outside. And it wasn't long before this pudgy man leaned out and starting get ripped. He's still got that geeky laugh but it's backed with some crazy calf muscles, hard hits and a passion for boxing.
Up until WOW, Junior Mint was my main mentor here in Korea. I remember when he stepped back into the ring for one more fight. It was like watching a superhero; you just knew he was in his element. He was a wicked coach -- pushing me to my potential at training and sometimes dragging me out to the mountain for hill training. He was a great friend -- chatting with before and after training about the inside gossip or whatnot. He was like an older brother -- texting me to go to bed and giving me advice on life. Junior Mint has worn a lot of labels since he stepped into my life but I never thought he'd willingly try to take them off and sport others.
Slowly but surely WOW President has started filling these roles, putting on the labels that for many years Junior Mint did. Snickers has adapted some of his roles too, incorporating others once worn by our former coach and I too have grown and learned to fill in my own spaces where he once resided.
It's been really amazing to see WOW President develop as a boxer and really transform into this freak-of-nature athlete. I think out of all our members he has been the one who has changed the most. He runs his own imported car dealership, a 24hr restaurant, and he is a full time husband and father to a beautiful family of five. If anyone has a reason why to miss training it would be him but he's incredibly faithful and dedicated to his training and he always brings 100% effort to the club.
He was the first one to show up for training today and he walked in when I was doing pull-ups. I was just about to stop when I realized he was behind me watching. "One more set!", he yelled out so one more set I did. I thought my two sets of 12 and 6 would impress him but when his pull-up count reached 25 I turned away to chew on my humble pie.
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