MY (SORTA) BIG DEBUT!

I have to admit, I'm a bit nervous about this first post. Not only is this my first (belated?) attempt at joining the global blogging community, but I feel like I need to produce a profound, mind-numbing and utterly rewarding memorandum to keep you all coming back. After all, if you're reading this first post, you probably were on the receiving end of my email blast and are wondering what exactly I have to say that's remarkable enough to bother you and most everybody else I know.

Well, as of right now, um, nothing.

But that's the point. I wish there were a melodramatic crossroad in my life that I've stumbled upon, or some epic dilemma that I'm currently struggling with that I could share with you all. But there's not. And again, that's the point. I feel like right now I have the rare (God-given?) opportunity to completely control the direction (note: direction, not outcome) of my life.

Yes, that is correct. I. Am in COMPLETE control. Of my life.

Finally.

Between some new year's resolutions and sacrifices for Lent (not just for Catholics!), I have found the strength, created the time, dismissed the excuses, and amassed the willpower to kick off my campaign to become a professional boxer.

I am very happily employed at a PR firm here in Boston, and while that provides for me in every sense of the word, I still find my life to be lacking something - something is jut not right, and at the end of the day I just don't feel "complete." We all have it. That one passion, that one thing that is "it." It intrigues and amuses you, captivates and compels you. It fulfills you. Beyond the laundry list of adjectives you share with your friends to describe "why you like to ____," there is that certain intangible it factor that drives you to it again and again. And while all of my life people have told me to write (namely teachers and my Mom), it just doesn't do it for me. Writing is a huge part of my life - my Communications degree, my job, the impulse to create this blog - and I love it, I really do. But it just doesn't do it for me.

PR is my vocation, but boxing is my life.

Some of you might be saying "it is? Really? I knew you liked it, but..." And that's exactly the point. I've trained, I've stayed in great shape, I've "maintained" during frustrating dry spells of inactivity, I've waited for opportunities, struggled with logistics, failed at balancing school/job/bad habits with boxing, encountered every interference (read: excuse) in the book.

But no more.

This blog will serve as a running chronicle (journal sounds so totally junior high...) for my thoughts, actions and day-to-day life (inside the ring AND out, mind you), as well as a point of contact for you all to stay in touch and contribute whatever comments or opinions you'd like to share, not just with me but with my (minuscule now, but hopefully rapidly growing) readership. I swear this blog won't pigeon-hole itself on boxing, and while the editorial control here is supremely mine (as is my new campaign to "leave it all on the playing field of life"), I really would love to read people's comments and add an interactive dimension to this. After all, you clearly are or have been a part of my life, and that's what this blog is all about.

My subsequent posts won't all be this long, either. I promise. But then again, like everything in this world, this is a work in progress. I'd like to post once a day, whether it be an update, a monologue, a rant, a rave, or just something funny that happened. I'm bound to tinker with the format here as well - whatever it takes to keep you all (and myself) involved.

We'll see how this blog develops (again, with your help, too), but I do know that one thing will remain constant - my determination to live my life to the fullest and accomplish all of my goals along the way.

Lost opportunities never return, and I don't intend to let any more leave without me.

Go Royals.

God Bless.

- JDM