Alexis Monroe. Full time single mother, sound designer, musician, dancer (Salsera y Bachatera), blogger, spoken word artist, photography enthusiast, audio engineering student, Jiu Jitsu practitioner
“The foundation of my love and passion for Jiu Jitsu stems from my experience as a female wrestler (high school). Once I'd graduated, moved back down to So.Cal and decided to not attend Menlo College to continue my wrestling experience, I felt a sense of emptiness for two years.
There was this voice in my head that kept leading me to the term Jiu Jitsu which I knew almost nothing about. Once I attended my first wrestling technique/jiu jitsu class at HBJJ, I was like 'Oooh Yea, this is my jam right here.'
The combination that included wrestling was perfect for me, not to mention the group of ripped guys who turned out to be gentle giants who embraced me and reassured me of my capabilities, and built my confidence level up quickly at a low time in my life, I knew from that point on that this was the team and sport for me.
The reasons I train today and will continue to train are due to qualities such as self-integrity that I have developed and will continue to strengthen and my mental capacity that has been stretched not only on the mat, but off the mat into my personal life. The experiences that I have had on the mat that involved pain, blood, sweat, tears, mental strength, sometimes weakness, smiles, and joy are all so similar to the experiences that I have had as a single mother thus far, as I also feel that my experience with Jiu Jitsu was an endurance booster and prepared me well to fight through the tough times that were ahead of me.
While my main focus is being a new mother, my other passions include sound design and sound engineering, which are very male dominated industries, but I don't even sweat it anymore, probably due to my slight growth in mental competitively, but of course in a nonchalant manner (the same way I like to compete in tournaments).
The memories that I have with my dad as a little girl being his "Roll Dawg" while he trained for boxing is a similar experience that I hope to have with my son..."
All photography in the People Who Train series is by photographer Mik Milman. See more of his work here.
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