Christopher Gemayel | Lebanon
Irish
26 years
Student
Training Since: summer of 2013. Wushu specifically in 2014
Current JI: 2nd
Education level: Bachelor’s Degree
For almost a decade, I’ve been under coach Avedis’s mentorship. Aside from instructing me in Wushu, he’s also guiding me towards becoming a teacher myself. He even goes so far as to give me multiple weekly classes to teach as the main instructor. I never thought I’d be fortunate enough to instruct others in Wushu when I first walked into the training room.
I came in as a skinny teenager with no expectations and turned into a less-skinny adult still with no expectations. But the key difference is that as a teen I simply didn’t care about the world around me, and I never opened myself up to new experiences; I didn’t expect them because I didn’t care. Over the years, however, Avedis taught me to be invested in the moment and not to just shuffle past all the events that unfold in front of me. I feel like I’ve woken up from a hazy dream that’s hard to remember, and now that I’m more awake, I can finally savor the moment.
I remember Coach saying that no matter how long we trained together, there could be a time when we’d have to part ways for any number of reasons. But when the time comes to walk a different path, he’ll give me his blessing, and wish me the best of luck. No hard feelings. No drama. No expectations. No problem. I should just appreciate what I had, and shouldn’t hold on to the past or feel like I deserve something for what I’ve been through. Needless to say, his reverse psychology keeps pulling me back to his classes.
All jokes aside, if I hadn’t met Avedis all those years ago by chance, I might have lived out a decade of my life void of any significant purpose. He taught me how to give myself that purpose, and for that reason, for this moment, I’m humbled to walk the same path as him.
