As the story has it, one day I headed to the opposite side of the globe – the Flipside. I arrived in Korea February 16th, 2005 and thought I’d do a year, then leave. I was wrong. I stayed, launched my first company, Flipside Fitness, and then opened Korea's largest boxing club, Hulk's Boxing (now called Hulk's Club).

After 11.5yrs in Korea, I then picked up one day and returned to Toronto, Canada. But then I left again.

Now I live in the Philippines where I am the CEO and head coach of Empowered Clubhouse, the Philippines' first and only boxing clubhouse exclusively just for women. I also am the founder of the Lil' Sistas Project, CEO and designer of Slay Gear and Baa Baa Black Sheep .Ph.

Sunday, July 24, 2016

Going Back to Basics of Boy Meets Girl... Sunday, July 24

I met up with someone tonight after coffee with the Captain, a close friend whom I've known since university.  He's someone that I love, a favourite person of mine, and as we walked and talked he reached out and took my hand.  It wasn't the first time he's held my hand actually but it was the first time he has continued to hold it.  There was a moment of realization when I looked at my hand, looked at him and then noted that I couldn't remember the last time a guy actually held my hand.  The realization of it both shocked me and made me sad at the same time.  

What kind of guys have I honestly been dating?!  Apparently not guys who like holding hands.  

Holding hands is like the basics of dating, right?!  I mean even elementary kids hold hands with their school yard crushes.  It used to be a physical sign to others that such and such were now a couple and yet no one I dated really held my hand... seriously?!   Yup.  Have we progressed so much in the dating world that holding hands has become as foreign and of the past like the rotary phone and typewriter?  No more first, second and third bases.  Homeruns have come to be the expected norm after a few dates, sometimes even before that, and no effort is exerted now towards getting to know someone because no effort is expected.  Courtship is dead and now dating is all about a two feet hop into things and a hope for the best.

Do guys even buy flowers for girls anymore or is that just a holiday thing, like for birthdays or Valentine's Day?  Snickers once bought me flowers, twice actually.  He bought me a blue rose because I wasn't feeling good and then he bought me a big thing of flowers when I had got a really bad hair dye and had told him I was on the bus coming home, crying.

The last guy in Canada who ever bought me flowers was a Pakistani boy, Pardeep, from my public school.  I had stuck up for him in the school yard a few times when some bullies ripped his turban off and that sparked a crush for him on me.  He showed up with flowers at my front door and, as embarrassing as that was for me as a 13 year old girl, I had to give him props for being brave and doing such a thing.  He died last year.  He fell off a roof when trying to escape the cops but despite his ending and all the gossip that grew around it, I'll always remember him as the first guy who ever bought me flowers.  I remember when he gave them to me too, as if were yesterday.  He told me if I didn't like them he could replace them with others but I'd have to wait because he didn't have enough money left.  He had used his allowance to buy me those particular flowers.

Courtship is dead, holding hands is a thing of the past (at least for me) and guys don't buy flowers anymore.

The Captain is old school though by the fact that he courted his crush -- Little Miss Shangahi -- and last night he took her out for a beautiful date.  She showed up in a stunning dress, proof that she's just as old school as he is with the idea of courtship and the attention she gave to the date.  I really hope they work out and make for a good couple.  I've yet to meet Little Miss S but can vouch for how much Captain Bowtie likes her and how sweet of a person he is.  I wonder if he held her hand, I forgot to ask.  

Snickers used to hold my hand but over the years it became more like him toting me around by the hand like a mother does with their child, leading me here and there. I've always been the girl on the arm of a guy but not the girl that's ever held hands with one. 

It was nice to hold his hand.  It seemed innocent but not, and there was a pure sweetness about it.  

I used to hold hands with some of my female friends in Korea and I consider myself quite affectionate with my friends here in Canada, always sure to hug them hello and goodbye, but this was different.  Now he and I hold hands.  

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