07/20/2017
Around this time three years ago I began to making the necessary steps to open Brunswick Martial Arts & Fitness. I was sitting in the school that I had trained at for two decades not sure of what my future or the future of the school held. I was talking to a friend who looked at me and said, I know you, if you let this go you'll always have regrets and you'll always have doubts about what could have been. Not fully believing in myself but knowing that I had support I began acting like the owner making executive decisions and knowing that I wanted to keep teaching. I remember thinking how much martial arts affected my life and how much I wanted to inspire someone else the way that I had been inspired.
The first couple of months I would come in early and take care of basic necessities of the schools and I would always take a few moments to stand in the center of the mats and look around at everything knowing that between those four walls was not only my dedication but the dedication and loyalty of dozens of students who took classes and their parents who trusted their children with us.
The first test came four months after we opened and I remember looking to the back of the room to see my parents, who have never missed a black belt test at BMAF, and I shared a hug with my mom after. She wrapped her arms around me and said, you did it. Those first couple of months were the toughest for reasons that I share and ones that I keep close to the chest but after that test, I knew that I would make it and a sense of ease washed over me.
Months went by and some of the original students left only to have their spots taken with new faces who would become pillars of our community. Slowly our family grew both in size with new members joining and in depth with all the new experiences that they'd bring in too.
Unfortunately along the way something changed. I stopped looking in awe at the four walls. I took for granted how hard the students worked and lost an appreciation for the things that I once treasured the most. I changed and in one of the toughest moments of my life I had to look at myself and say that I honestly wasn't the same person I was when I first opened the school.
After some contemplating I decided that it was time to take the necessary steps to close the doors of Brunswick Martial Arts & Fitness so with that I'd like to let everyone know that Tuesday, August 1st will be our last day of classes.
I chose a Tuesday because when I was a student it was always my favorite day to attend class and as a teacher it was always my favorite day to teach especially when I started the teen class and really grew as a martial artist, teacher, and person.
I want to say thank you to everyone for the memories that have been created at BMAF since it's inception. This has been one of the greatest opportunities of my life.
I want to say thank you to Mr. Mark for standing by me and putting his trust in me from the earliest inception of the idea for BMAF.
I want to say thank you to Ms. Judy (for those of you who remember her) for putting in a lot of the early leg work of BMAF and sticking with me through thick and thin.
I want to thank all the students who signed up with in that first month and began easing my doubts about how or if I were going to make it through the beginnings of my new endeavor.
I want to thank everyone who has donated their time to making BMAF a better place in whatever capacity you did.
I want to thank all the amazing individuals who mentored me and helped me grow as a martial artist, business owner, and person.
I want to thank anyone who has ever said a kind word about BMAF or brought a friend in and helped us grow.
I want to give a special thank you to my parents for supporting me in ways that I can't even fathom and being my biggest supporters whether it was helping me fix something in the school or showing up to an event or just stopping in to see how things were going.
As our school motto says, Iron Sharpens Iron, Man Sharpens Man,
I hope that BMAF has sharpened you because I know that you all have sharpened me.
Mr. Brandon
