Good stories. Here's mine:
I always had an interest in grappling. Did some wrestling in high school, but nothing serious. In 1985, Gene Lebell's book, "Wrestling Finishing Holds" came out. I read it over and over. While I learned a lot of cool holds, there was no system described pertaining to positions: their hiarchy and how to acheive them.
Fast forward to the UFC, I watched, and, like everyone, was amazed by Royce. I was especially floored when he beat Dan Severn, a wrestler, and a big one. At that point, I knew I had to learn that stuff, but, unfortunately, BJJ, wasn't being taught anywhere in my area, New York City.
My break came in 1996, when Renzo Gracie moved to the states, an opened a school in NYC. In a case of Getbig Six Degrees of Separation, Renzo's partner was Onlyme's friend Craig Kukuk, who had been already training students in a Karate school for a few months.
The first guy I ever rolled with was one of Craig's students by the name of Matt Serra. Within seconds of our "match" Matt had me mounted, and I was wondering what the hell I had gotten myself into. Another guy who started at the same time as I did, was "New Zealand John Danaher, who went on to write the book, "BJJ Theory and Technique" and is now GSP's grappling instructor. The early days there were awesome. It was just a few of us sitting in a circle with Craig or Renzo. Now, I go in there, and I hardly recognize anyone.
Anyway, little by little I learned and, ten years later, I still don't know shiit. That's the thing that surprises almost everyone when they start out: the complexity of jiu jitsu.
While I'm well aware that I'll never win the Mundials or the UFC title, I've had a blast learning BJJ and hope to continue doing so for the rest of my life.
