LeeLocks's blog

A few days ago, I completed my first year as a member of the MF community. I discovered this site after a personal loss that pushed me to do things I hadn’t done before. I had always had an interest in wrestling. When I was a teenager, I couldn’t understand why wrestling excited me. I thought it was an anomaly and that no one else felt this way. Little did I know that there are thousands of people around the world who feel similarly, who enjoy the challenge of confronting someone, exchanging energy through personal interactions that involve effort, sweat and lots of physicality. 

This site has opened a window to a world where I feel at ease. It is a window that has allowed me to connect and wrestle with people in and from different corners of the planet who share with me a specific and peculiar taste for strength struggle and physical contact. It has just felt natural to reach out to others in every city where I find myself or those who visit my city to ask if they want to wrestle me. Not because I am collecting matches like stamps but because I truly enjoy meeting and wrestling others. 

Reflecting on my wrestling experiences over the past year, I can say in full honesty that the wrestlers that I’ve met so far in my MF journey have been amazing individuals from all walks of life from arts to medicine to engineering to gardening to politics. I keep wondering if those of us who love wrestling also have a similar mindset to overcome challenges, to put ourselves somehow at risk, to be resilient and literally, fight. 

As I write these lines, I scroll through the list of the wrestlers I’ve met, and each profile name brings to my mind vivid images as if I were able to taste the moment of the fight again. Some have taught me, some have squeezed and punched me hard, some have twisted me, some have let me twist them. It has been a privilege meeting these individuals and some, I’m sure, will be friends for the rest of my life. 

I write this reflection in gratitude to those who make this site work, in gratitude to those I’ve met to wrestle and have created an impact and in gratitude to those I have only communicated with and even if we are thousands of miles away have demonstrated encouragement and affection through words.   Until the next round.