I really like swords. 

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At my first ren faire, I then learned how to actually swing a sword, a little bit, as I took my very first HEMA class through their booth at the faire. I learned about Lonin, the Seattle HEMA school, and got talked into both manning the booth in the future and beginning to take classes. 

 

HEMA stands for Historical European Martial Arts. 

 

Thus followed the next two years of my life — getting slowly more and more obsessed with HEMA through taking longsword and sword and buckler classes. One of the cooelest things about HEMA to me is the ability to participate in scholarship, as well --- a lot of the defense manuals we use need to be translated from other languages. I've worked on doing my own translation of Comprensión de la Destreza, a Spanish rapier manual. 

 

What's more, after saving money for a year (#studentbudgets), I was able to purchase the wild amount of protective gear needed for steel fighting. I’m participating in my first tournament in June, and while I’m certain I’ll get my butt kicked, it’s been so cool to learn both about the historical aspects of sword fighting and the realities of getting a big ol' sword swung at your head.

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