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I was in martial arts starting at the age of 14, and I got my black belt by the time I was 18. Soon after, I was teaching an entire school, with about 150 students. It was unbelievably intense because of the self-awareness part of becoming a black belt.

My father was one of the first Tae Kwon Do Masters to come to the states in the '60s. He had one of the first all-African-American fighting teams, and I was basically raised in a karate studio since I was 3. It's part of my blood, competing, and all that stuff was responsible for a lot of me just growing up.

I started taekwondo at 5 or 6 years old and did a bunch of kick-boxing later, too. Eventually I became a black belt and coached as well. I did some basketball and softball growing up, but most of my activity was martial arts.

I got into Taekwondo when I was nine, and I started training Muay Thai and Brazilian Jujitsu later in life.

When I was in my early 20s, I studied tae kwon do and hapkido. I earned brown belts in both of them.

Martial arts was really the first thing in my life that I followed through on and accomplished a degree of proficiency for.

I had a black belt in Shotokan as a kid.