I've been lurking on this subreddit for a good while, decided to make an account to say something. I don't use social media regularly, so I may or may not end up deleting this somewhere down the line.

I've always been into combat sports, and I started attending sessions as of late. My reasons? I enjoy hurting people. There's nothing that would make me happier than being able to beat someone bloody until they beg or cry or plead to stop. Might as well learn how to do it well in a controlled environment.

There's also the fact that my physical condition has seen good highs and severe lows. I want to lose weight and build muscle, and I intend on fixing myself.

A little background - my mother (and her mother, that would be my grandmother) always make a point of denouncing UFC as sport for brainless brutes. My grandmother loves interrupting me when I'm watching a match and poking holes and looking for flaws to elaborate on. She tells me she'd much rather see me do tennis or basketball or something along those lines.

My mother gets very antsy whenever I talk about potentially signing with UFC in the future. Discussing a tournament is enough, to be honest. I'll admit - it's a narcissistic thing to say, considering my lack of experience and my generally poor physical and mental state. But it's a job that pays, and hard work that pays off. According to her, cage fighting is a job for unintelligent testesterone fueled brutes who'd rather be a thug or criminal than work a respectable job.

I could earn millions and millions and retire by 30 but no - working my ass off in a dead end 9 to 5 is 'respectable.' If I were to get that one opportunity to strike gold and secure my financial future and get set for life, she'd rather me turn it down in favor of a normal job.

I've tolerated the snark and the underhanded comments, and I've chewed them out multiple times. If you don't want to support my interests, shut the fuck up and stay out of my way. That's my code.

And you know what the funny part is?

If I do make it - if I start earning copious amounts of money by following one of my many socially unaccepted passions, they will all say they believed in me from the start. They'll praise me, verenate me and go on and on about how they knew I was destined for great things.

Let's not forget the handout sniffers.

Cheers. Have a great day, gentlemen.