Something I’ve learned through my 11 years training at my Kung Fu studio is the importance of awareness. You can be the most gifted MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) champion on the globe, but if you aren’t aware of your surroundings, anyone could just hit you on the head, and your MMA won’t be much use anymore.

I have yet to actually master this concept. I’m a natural born klutz, and since I try to pay attention to so many different things, I end up running into trees, parked cars, poles, and people. Especially people. I have gotten used to this stupid thing about me, but sometimes it comes up at the worst times. Oh, what am I saying? It always comes up at the worst times.

One of these “worst times” was at the first student tournament I worked as an instructor. Once a year, all of the White Dragon schools come together and compete against one another, whether it is in combatives, Tai Chi, or Kung Fu. It’s an important annual event to show the unity in the schools, and how much everyone has learned, so it needed to go off without a hitch. That’s where I come in.

In large events, I get nervous. I tend to suffer from intense anxiety and whenever that occurs, I often break things, or say something completely reckless. Knowing this beforehand, I made the conscious decision to fight fate, and not allow myself to be remembered as that one instructor who messed up big time at her first tournament.

Just saying, fate really likes to fight back. Fate’s shot: I was made an auxiliary judge. From what other people were telling me, I was under the impression that as a newbie, all I’d have to do was fetch water for all of the senior instructors. Now I had to hold mitts for little children while the instructors judged the kids, and the parents judged me. If I helped any kid, even a little bit, the parents would declare “biasness,” and I’d be in huge trouble. This was particularly hard to do, seeing that I had children completely turn the opposite direction, and kick when they were supposed to punch.

To my relief, I did just fine. The day lasted from 9 to 5, and by the time it ended, I was absolutely exhausted from all the mental stress I was putting on myself. So, I made the worst mistake possible, and relaxed, letting my guard down completely. It was during the cleanup when I realized that fate has a mean sucker punch.

Since it was the end of the day, everyone was parting ways, bidding each other adieu and going to salvage what was left of the sunlight. While I was picking up trash, I was told that one of the instructors I had been talking to was leaving, and that if I ran, I could catch her on the way out. Just saying, if I had not listened to this person, I would have avoided this situation altogether. But I am an impressionable creature, so I turned around and bolted to the stairs.

I literally went about two steps when I collided with a somewhat elderly woman crossing right behind me. You ever have those moments where something happens, and everything goes in slow motion? I swear, that woman was falling at the slowest pace possible, and I just couldn’t save her. I wasn’t even the only one seeing this; everyone watching agreed that she couldn’t have collapsed any slower. And there I was, trying desperately to grab her arm and hoist her up in vain.

It took some time, but I was eventually able to help her up from the ground, apologizing profusely. Then, right when I thought that was the worst of the situation, a voice behind me says, “Why are you knocking down my mother?” I looked up, and there was my Sifu in front of me. I think I died a little inside when I realized I had knocked down my boss’s mother. She was very forgiving, though I didn’t give her much time to accept my apologies; I was pretty much sprinting out of there.

It wasn’t until later that I found out that I was exceptionally lucky, because the woman had Osteoporosis, and knocking her over could have seriously injured her. According to my Sifu, her Tai Chi training really strengthened her body, allowing her to take the impact with limited damage.

There really is no clear moral to this story. It’s just one of those times that instead of teaching little children how to fight, I taught myself through experience that I need to be aware of the situations going on around me. While you should never be permanently uptight and on edge, you should never completely let your guard down, no matter where you are.

Still, I shall forever be known as the instructor that tackled my Sifu’s mother. And my breaking spree didn’t stop there, but maybe I’ll write about that later, if I don’t break the computer first.