I travel to a lot of different Brazilian Jiu Jitsu schools and I always fell like its “deja vous all over again” (Y. Bera) and I’m back in first grade.  When its the first day of school you don’t know anyone and you feel like everyone is checking out your gi and lunchbox….I don’t carry, let alone have, a lunchbox but you know the look and feeling. There’s a group of white belts that are nervous what you might be like on the mat and some guys who want to “show you the ropes” and rules of their mats and maybe even smash your face a little…or a lot.  Although most of this is made up in my mind, some of it is based on real experiences.  Each BJJ school has subtle nuances that just cant be known until after that first day and no one wants to be the new guy that screws up some of the school’s tradition.  These differences can occur when bowing in and joining class, coming in late, getting to the school early, when to wear or remove flip-flops, what to call the teacher or even wearing the wrong color uniform.  I have never had anyone give me ‘the biz’ for screwing up, but there’s that feeling of being perceived as “the goof-ball” that’s lingers in the back of your mind… Its liking going to a party and sitting in a bowl of gravy and although everyone is telling you, “its okay” when you know they’re looking at you like an episode of “Gilligan’s Island” because you’re the dumb-ass Gilligan walking around with gravy on the back of your pants at a party”

          We all get over  that “first day of first grade” and go on to learn a bunch of cool stuff  and make a lot of friends but its a moment burnt in our minds…at  least my mind.  You say, “oh, we all have a first day of 1st grade” … not me… On my first day of first grade I was suspended for 3 days for fighting a 2nd grader when I got off the bus and the guy I jumped…we’re still friends to this day.  And those “new  kids” I meet on all of those “1st Day of BJJ School”… well, we usually end up fighting too and best of all, we usually end up becoming friends too.