One trip to Burleigh beach lead me to many interesting people. Followed by one simple question: "What do you do that makes you feel alive?

The man in the hat

“The true answer to that is...I think. I use my brain. I believe it’s the essential aspect of being human and that makes me feel alive. Now I may think of different things: food, a pretty woman, star signs or politics, but I think.” - Professor Peter Gresshoff (70)

I could not help but notice Professor Gresshoff’s hat and German accent when he accidentally bumped into me and apologized. When asked to be taken a picture of, Professor Gresshoff removed his hat. However, I suggested to keep it on. It was a nice feature.

The mom

“When you see the first view of the ocean and the sun glimpsing on it. I find myself getting quite emotional. The ocean is big and powerful, makes me feel like I am quite insignificant. All my big worries are actually only small worries when it comes to the enormity of the planet I suppose.” – Tabitha Pallister (40)

As golden hour was about to begin I noticed English Tabitha from far away, playing with her son by the ocean. Patient. She looked patient. Six months ago, she moved from Singapore and discovered the beauty of running during sunset.

The happy child

“Music. It gets me on my feet and it makes me dance. I like dancing, but I don’t like it as a sport or doing competitions, I just do it for fun. 2002 is my favourite song.” - Clara (9)

South-American Clara is the type of girl you spot miles always. She has bright blue eyes and a wandering spirit. “Please mommy please, I want to become famous”, she begged when I asked her parents for permission to interview her.

Hopefully someday someone will paint a picture of her while singing at top of both her lungs.

The teammate

“The sense of bonding you gain with your teammates while rowing. Especially during a race when you all have to be in perfect sync and harmony in order to be successful in the race. The races are painful, everyone wants to give up, but we all know if one person stops you have to let your entire boat down.” – Emma Gharibian (20)

American-Armenian Emma replaced the feeling rowing gives her with travelling. Ocean might be close, but her teammates are not. A friendly face at Burleigh turns out to be an exchange student at Bond University.

“Carrying the face of ugliness”, a Sudanese saying, is used for people who does something unfamiliar, confronts an issue and takes the blame for it.

Ahmed Umar.

If you have the opportunity to study at Bond University and enjoy writing, I highly recommend enrolling in Writing for News Media. My amazing teacher Mike Grenby taught me everything I need to know within journalism. At times it was stressful having to write a story while having lack of motivation. Whereas other times all the pieces fell into place. I would love to share one of my favorite stories. I got the opportunity to interview former fighter Angela (Rivera) Parr, as well as current fighter Jazzy Parr and Celia Hunter. On a sidenote, I´d like to say I´m grateful for getting to interview such lovely people!

Angela (left) and daughter Jasmine Parr training at Boonchu Gym in Burleigh Heads for upcoming Muay Thai fight.

Burleigh heads is home to a group of women dedicating to the art of Muay Thai fighting.
Angela Parr is a former fighter and one of the co-founders of Boonchu gym.
“I started out doing self-defence, and the trainer had an advanced side, he trained Muay Thai fighters,” Mrs Parr said.
“In the class he showed a video of a girl fight.
“I was like ´That´s exactly what I want to do´.
“Sometimes you´re born to do something in life, and I was born to do Muay Thai.”
Mrs Parr, who is from America, started training at the age of 17 and retired five years ago at the age of 33.
Her husband “John Wayne” opened the gym in 1999 after returning from Thailand.
However, she said her road to success has not been easy.
“I was really poor when we were 23,” Mrs Parr said.
“I got pregnant when I was living on a mattress with my husband in an apartment with no chairs.
“It takes a while.
“Now I’m really lucky that I can go shopping and I don’t have to look what I put in the trolley.
“My living is from running a gym, fight promotions and fights.
“Now my kids do it, also my husband is still currently fighting.”
‘Princess’ Jasmine Parr, 15, Mr and Mrs Parr’s daughter said she definitely feels the pressure when it comes to carrying her last name.
Her dad is a former 10-time World Champion and mom was the first American fighter to win a gold medal in the IAMTF World Championships.
“When I started at 8 years old the news did a report on us, and they said that my parents were the worst for forcing their child to be a part of the sport”, Miss Parr said.
“But ever since I’ve grown up I´ve always wanted to fight.
“I would love to be a professional fighter and be able to travel all around the world.
“I wanna be known as my own person.
“I say this all the time, but I really want to have more belts than my parents.
“I know that I want to create my own legacy.
“That´s a goal of mine.”

Celia Hunter and Tammie Hetherington: Fighters can be friends, too, when the Muay Thai training workout is done.

One of the gym members, 27-year-old Celia Hunter, from England, had her first fight at Nerang PCYC earlier this month.
“To be honest the thing that kept me motivated and keeps me motivated is because I thought I could never do it”, Ms Hunter said.
“It’s like proving to myself that I can, and also because I keep getting comments saying ‘oh no you shouldn’t be doing this sport, you’re too pretty or too girly.’
“It makes me want to do it a lot more.
“It pushes me to train even harder.”
Mrs Parr and her daughter Jasmine said they agreed with Ms Hunter statement that it is not always easy to be a female fighter.
In certain areas in Thailand, where Muay Thai originated, female fighters are excluded from the ring.
“When I fought at eight years old they made bad publicity about girls fighting,” Ms Parr said.
“There were other boys fighting, younger than me, but they said nothing about it.
“I was always a bit confused with why that was an issue.
“I believe I can do whatever a male can do.”
Mrs Parr said when she was fighting the sport was very male dominated.
“I was probably one of the lowest paid fighters in the sport, but then you know, recently Ronda Rousey (American martial arts champion) made a platform for females,” Mrs Parr said.
“The female fighters are more respected now than they used to be, but it´s still the boys make the more money.”

Detractors - 'You´re too pretty, too girly' - make Celia Hunter (l.) want to fight even more.

The sport commands respect.
A high level of athleticism is required in Muay Thai because fighters use their entire body as a weapon.
“In my last fight I got knocked out,” Miss Parr said.
“I got called with an unlucky shot.”
“She hit me in the neck.”
Mrs Parr said in 2001 she represented America at the World Games in Thailand and fought fighters from Morocco, Switzerland and Russia.
“I beat them all, and then I won the ´Best technique´ over all the girls,” Mrs Parr said.
“There were like over 55 countries there, so I think that was my biggest achievement.
“I had to constantly cut weight.”
“Just to be able to fight over really bad certain circumstances, there was so many issues but no matter what all I focused on was the fight.”
In spite of criticism all the women said they encourage women to participate in Muay Thai.
“The hardest part is coming in through the door cause it looks so intimidating with all the fighters, you know the sweat, the tattoos and the no shirts,” Mrs Parr said.
“But really marital art people are so nice.
“Just get in there and do it, don´t hold back.”

If you are interested in trying Muay Thai, Boonchu Gym is located in Gold Coast. (7/9 Kortum Dr, Burleigh Heads QLD 4220) x

- Z