My Muay Thai journey began about three years ago. I first met Kru Yai before I knew him as Kru Yai. I met him as JJ. I went to Gonzaga University where I double-majored in behavioral economics and international business and minored in French. In my first semester of my junior year I was living in a house out in the Logan, a neighborhood near the Gonzaga campus. Anybody who lives in Spokane knows the Logan isn’t exactly the best place to live but it's affordable student housing.

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There was this guy who, it turns out, had been stalking my housemates and me for a few weeks. One Friday night he waited until my friends had left that evening then kicked down the back door of our house, thinking that we had all left. Some of my roommates were still in the house. The two in the basement were able to lock the door and stay safe. The girl that lived in the hallway across from me came out of her room from studying for an exam because of the loud noise the guy made kicking in the door. He held her up with a hunting knife. He demanded money and her phone. She didn’t have any cash on her but the girl thought quickly and told him she had a credit card and could take him to an ATM to pull out cash. He agreed and when he opened the door she ran and got away. The suspect still had her phone on him which helped the police find him less than an hour later using the “find me phone” app. He was only two blocks up the road. The whole experience was terrifying. 

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The attack was a pretty big deal so the University offered self-defense courses with the head of the night security, JJ. My housemates and I got preferential treatment in signing up. The first thing Kru Yai taught us was you don’t want to have to fight someone in the real world. Create space and run away. So, my housemate was really smart, handling the pressure and getting out of that situation.

 

After a few classes, several people dropped out but I didn’t. I started doing it and thinking “man this is really fun.” I’ve done some martial arts before like shotokan, taekwondo, and even tried fencing. I’ve always done some form of physical activity but Muay Thai was so direct and so no frills. You can add some fancy moves to an elbow like make it a spinning back elbow but really when it comes down to it, it’s just you smashing parts of your body into somebody else’s face so that they will leave you alone. I’m a woman and I’m a woman in a big scary world so I like to be able to defend myself. 

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I started doing the self-defense classes every week with Poi Chu* (PC) Brandy and PC Danny.  PC Danny said I should start coming to the actual Muay Thai gym. In my head I was thinking it was a Mixed Martial Arts gym, that there was going to be big dudes asking what I was doing in their gym. I showed up a few times.

 

Those first few visits, everyone was super welcoming and my friend Billy came with me. That was hysterical because we didn’t have any gear and we only knew just enough to get by. We would throw up our shield blocks but still kick each other shin-to-shin because we didn’t know you’re not actually supposed to do that. It was wild. We were going hard and doing hardcore pro shit by our second day in the gym.

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Once I graduated, I returned home to Colorado but before I left, Kru Yai said that if I came back he wanted to make me one of his fighters. In my head I figured he was just saying that because I’m the only one that showed up. 

 

Later, I did come back to Spokane. I had an apartment but I didn’t even have a bed or anything. Still, on my second day back I messaged Kru Yai and asked if I could come back to the gym. He immediately responded that there was a BBQ that night and that I should show up to meet the team. That first team BBQ was just to be social, then three weeks later we had an annual summer seminar with all the Muay Thai sister schools within United South East Asia Cultural Association (USEACA). I went to the one held in Seattle even though I still had no gear, no gloves, and didn’t know anybody. Once again, I showed up. I got about a month's worth of training in three days. It was hard and exhausting but I look back at it now and know I can do that and be fine. 

 

Starting out it was rough but interesting because I got to see the immediate camaraderie between not just the members of our gym but also the gyms within USEACA in general. It's not often you get to see gyms that regularly fight each other yet actually maintain a positive friendship. It's not just a partnership. This connection between these sister schools made a lot of sense to me. 

 

Officially, I have had 2 fights and I’ve won both of them. I’ve had other fights that were exhibition fights. Those don’t count unless they’re at a “smoker” in which a KO or TKO can count towards your official record. My first non-official fight was a sparring party. It was kind of my seasoning to get in the ring and get hit. I got in the ring with Makayla Wellmaker. It was just two, two-minute rounds. I lost contact and she popped me super good in the face and it was a gusher, the worst bloody nose I've ever had. 

 

I remember talking to teammate Cory Bussey and he said the team was all watching me. It was one of those defining moments. I was in the corner in between rounds and looking down and seeing my own blood on my gloves. That's a moment that really grounds out if this is something you want to do. He said that they all watched me look down at my bloody gloves and I kinda smiled a little bit and then just zoned in and kicked her in the head. He said it was the coolest thing he’d ever seen. For me I had such clarity. I could handle this and I belonged here. 

 

I had to wait to officially fight because of the pandemic. I was actually supposed to take my first fight back in April 2020, at a time when we were still training hard for this upcoming fight not knowing the longevity of the nationwide lockdown. But I have been legit in a fight camp since October of last year preparing myself. 

 

My sister has been supportive even though this is not remotely up her alley and like most mothers, my mother was not exactly happy about me fighting. However, my family live streams all my fights back in Colorado which makes me happy. After my first fight, my dad was very much on board with me doing this. It’s the vibe of “my daughter will fuck you up” and he’s proud of that. He's always been proud of my accomplishments as long as I’m doing something that I’m happy doing and not something I’m being told or forced to do. He saw that it made me joyful which is weird because it's a physically dangerous sport. 

 

During my first fight my mom could only watch peeking through her fingers. I ended up getting a TKO which was wild for my first fight ever. The first thing I did after I got my medal was call my family. My mom said it was the best thing she’d ever seen. My dad was like “Way to go Megatron!” He’s been calling me Megatron for a long time. What was a childhood nickname is now my fight name. I’m not sure how I fight like an evil space robot but it holds true. Now my family watches all my fights. 

 

This sport has been formative for me and has changed me and changed my perspective on a lot of things. Very bluntly, you stop taking shit in your life, you start recognizing what you will and will not tolerate and what you will and will not stand for and you in turn become aware of your exact worth and why you're doing the things you are doing. Muay Thai provides me with clarity and it's definitely taught me humility. It’s easy for people to take a fight and then take a break and not show up for weeks but that's not how this group rolls. 

 

PC (Poi Chu) Brandy has been with me since the first day I walked into the self defense courses at Gonzaga. At this last fight it was important to me for her to be there because it was the first time for her to wrap me and corner me before I head into my next chapter. When I decided to move to Boston for a job, the hardest thing was telling Kru Yai and the rest of the team that I was leaving. It's not goodbye forever, though. I know I can always fly back and see people but it’s my first gym and these people are my family. Kru Yai always tells me, “You know where home is.” Kru Yai is my combat dad and has already spoken with the Kru out there in Boston. 

 

My favorite saying is “I’m not here to just exist, living just to survive. I want to live. I want to know what it feels like when I’m pushing myself as hard as I can. I want to know what it's like to push myself and be scared and figure out how not to be scared. When you have that adrenaline dump there's no feeling like it.” This is very grounding and I’m going to keep fighting and chasing this feeling.

 

*When you're fighting, you can earn certifications if you want to coach. The levels are junior Poo Choi (PC), Kru, Kru Yai, Poo Choi Ajahn, Ajahn, and Grandmaster. There are only a few Grandmasters in the world. The definition of Kru or a Kru Yai goes beyond being a coach. A Kru or Kru Yai  is a mentor, a parental figure, a strategist, and a teacher.