I am so thankful you shared this. Its a really powerful experience. It is so easy to think we see the world, and know how it sees us, where really our hardest moments can be a nothing to the other people involved. Maybe they really had forgot, or maybe they do remember, but it didn't mean the same thing to them, just another fight in many won and lost, another reason to push on. I wonder how many things that we remember cringingly years later, were actually forgotten by everyone else within a few days. I suspect a lot of people could take something useful from this, myself included. You have a knack for inspiring self improvement without ever telling anyone they need it, but instead supporting, encouraging, and never giving up yourself.
Seems as though, in the end, your friend brought you a lot more than an epic defeat. Very glad I spotted the notification and caught this, thank you 😊
I was going to say that, for me, it was the only two battles I fought that year, when, for them, I was just another guy from an unknown city who pissed them off then got what he deserved hehe
And in Karaté we don't notice people's faces much when we battle, we notice other things first. I only remembered them because I stayed to watch the rest of the competition that day.
And you, my friend, seem to notice the untold in the stories ;)