Thankyou Cage Warriors

Those of you who’ve read the title will know what I’m doing here. Of course, Cage Warriors (CW) aren’t the only people I need to thank, but it felt right to thank them here considering that a good chunk of my posts are about Cage Warriors trips. Just a warning that this post is a little more emotional and a lot more personal than my usual posts. So, what exactly am I thanking Cage Warriors for?

Well, let’s start from the beginning of this rollercoaster ride. Since June 2018, I have had 3 family bereavements, including losing my dad suddenly in that June, add to that trying to do a dissertation and everything else completing the final year of a degree involves and it sort of felt like the universe had thrown everything INCLUDING the kitchen sink at me and gone “DEAL WITH IT!”.

It was during those early months after losing my dad that I found Cage Warriors while searching for something to buy tickets for (to give me something to look forward to). I saw the CW98 Birmingham date was the weekend before my birthday and decided it would be the perfect present to myself.

We then ended up adding CW97 in Cardiff to the list of events to attend as part of my friend’s birthday present because well, why not?

Nothing was an issue at CW97, those of you who’ve read my blog of that trip will know they brought the meet and greet to me when I couldn’t find an accessible route. I immediately felt comfortable and, as silly as it seems, like I’d joined a family. And that’s the first thing I have to say thank you for, for making mew feel comfortable while I was still trying to deal with my world being turned upside down. Even though you had no idea what I’d gone through with losing my dad, that experience at CW97 will always be important to me.

Thank you for giving me something to focus on when things sucked, and I was struggling with grief. Planning trips to CW shows, whether that was figuring out which shows we could go to or booking coaches and hotels, pulled me out of a grief spiral more times than I care to count. The amount of times “it’s ok because I get to go to CW in X days” or “CW is on in x days” became my mantra is slightly ridiculous, but everyone needs their light at the end of the tunnel in dark times and CW was mine.

Thank you for providing an escape from the madness of the final year of my degree AND providing mini deadlines for coursework. The motivation “this essay needs doing because I have to go to CW this weekend” was used a few times and I’m not joking when I tell you that my CW104 tickets were stored in an envelope marked “FINISH DISSERTATION!”

Thank you for providing a sense of normality when sometimes nothing else made sense. Even if normality means: get on the coach, get to the hotel, have a beverage or two, see some brilliant fights, sleep and get on the coach to go home, that sense of normality was still appreciated.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity and excuse to travel like I’d always been saying I would, and like I promised myself I would after I lost my dad. It may have only been UK travel, but it’s started me on the travelling that I’ve forever been talking about.

Thank you for the best “do you remember when…” memories, memories I’m still talking about months later.

Thank you for putting a smile on my face in the worst times.

Thankyou for helping me maintain my sanity and stay invincible, I can never put into words what means (even if I have tried here).

Stay Invincible!

Em (Invincible Woman On Wheels)

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