When I walked into the boxing gym last night two people whom I didn’t recognize were sparring in the ring.

The bell rang. One of the men in the ring, young and heavily tattooed, walked up to me.

“I’m Jesse,” he said. “I’m filling in for Dave today.”

“I’m Aurea…”

“…Are you training to fight?”

“Um… no, not really… my eyesight is really bad,” I said hesitantly.

Continue reading the blog of an MIT grad student and aspiring boxer…