A Long ass 3 months

So after the news that Daniël was invited to spend 3 months in the States it all happened really fast, we had about a week and a half to het everything sorted. Luckily he already had his American Visa so that was one less thing to worry about. But he was told to get a Canadian Visa as well as some of the tournaments he will be competing in , like the Morris Cup, will be in Canada.

So he was off, I took him to the Airport by myself as this is the only way I wanted it, but it was hard really really hard, defiantly much harder than what I though it might be. I hugged him tight and watched him disappear into the terminals, then with no warning the tears started flowing, and did not stop till the next day. It took about 3 days before I heard something from him again and finally I could relax. I went a bit mental for those 3 days as you can imagine, I knew the people he was going to meet that side and got in contact with them just to make sure my fiancé is still alive but he was and I was going to relax or I’m going to survive these next 3 months.

Things went really well there, he had a few tournaments in which he did exceptional in.

He got to train with some of the worlds best and made so many friends, he got to train at places like Pedro’s, where he met Travis Stevens(2016 Olympic Silver medalist) And Kelita Zupancic ( 2x Olympian)

A few weeks into the tour I got an invitation to fight the Kurash Worlds in Turkey at the end of November, this was really exciting as Daniël will be joining me for this competition, our first and probably last International competition together. I was ecstatic even more so when Mr. P invited me to join Daniël in on his last two weeks of tour for a little bit of a holiday. This made the 3 months feel even longer, but at least I had something to look forward to.

Meantime he was included into the National team to go to Cameroon for an African Open. This was good news because he did not fight trials that year meaning that our federation saw the hard work he was putting in and all the good results he was getting in the States.

His results were as follows:

2nd  New York State Championships -73kg

3rd  Yonezuka Cup -73kg

1st Morris Cup Open -66kg (Also the Morris cup for most outstanding player of the tournament)

3rd International Montreal Open -66kg

1st Senior African Open in Cameroon -66kg

All together this tour was good, But its not always all smiles no matter what the results are. Being away from home for 3 months can take a toll on ones mental state. It took allot of FaceTime, love and support to keep him motivated and ready for the next tournament. It was tough and he wanted to come home allot, heck I wanted him home every day but sometimes you have to be the strong one no matter how much you miss him just to help him push a little bit harder.

We did it, it was the last day before I fly to the states, and when I land he will..... not... be there to pick me up..... why?