With all of the time I've spent watching it, analyzing it, learning the business... I suppose it seems like a natural assumption that I'd like to participate in it. The fact of the matter is, I would love nothing more than to be apart of it. The reality of the situation is that I'm too old to just start breaking into it on a professional level. Most competitors who are breaking into the business are between the ages of 18 & 24, and they have some level of High School or Collegiate sports experience under their belt. I don't even have that. I've never done anything but lift weights since I was 15.
Regardless, I do think about it quite a bit. For all the love & desire I have for it, it would seem a shame if I lived my whole life and never did get to step into the squared circle at some point. Like I said, to be any sort of professional is an opportunity that has passed me by, but I'd still live to throw on some tights and get in the ring, even if it were in front of 50 people.
With that in mind, I've been thinking...
After I've finished this bodybuilding competition, and I can get settled in my new job, I'd like to start looking into wrestling schools. I'd like if nothing else to learn how to wrestle. I want to learn arm drags, suplexes, submissions... And then possibly get to compete locally. If only for a short while. I don't see it being something I'd do long term unless I somehow found that I was a natural for it, but I doubt it.
Like I said, it just seems like it would be a shame if I lived my whole life as a spectator for something that I love, and never tried to do it myself even once. You never know until you try. I'd rather try and fail, then have never tried at all. If nothing else I'm sure I'd walk away with an even greater respect, and understanding for the business than I already have.
I've always had, and even more so in the past few years, a fatalistic sense of destiny. I just have this feeling that I'm not going to live a very long life. I may have another 20 years at best, but I have a hard time seeing myself making it past that. I hope I'm wrong, but I just have a bad feeling about it. Just under 5 years ago I suffered through some events, that I feel like stunted my life in a way... and literally sucked half of my life out of me. Like someone cracked the hourglass, and now it's all spilling out slowly but surely.
The one upside to this haunting feeling, is it has pushed me to start enjoying each day I have, enjoy each moment I spend with friends and family, and strive to do all the things I'd like to do in my life. My Father has always strived to do all of the things that he wants to in his life, and I've always respected that. He's competed in bodybuilding, he took up scuba diving and swam with the sharks, he ran the Chicago Marathon, he competed in 2 Iron Man Triathalons, he's learning how to play piano, and taking up golf. Not to mention all the places he's travelled. I think he has the right mentallity, and I'm trying to follow the same, and do all the things I want to in my life, and not waste a minute getting there. People like to assume that they'll have time later in their lives to do things, well I'm happy to just wake up and be alive each day, so I'm trying to do as much as I can now, to do all that I want.
So before it's all said and done, Tommy Else WILL step into the squared circle and compete.
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