Anna Ferguson

It's like this moment of just like...

pausing and reflecting and feeling that I just did that hard thing and it was hard, but I got through it.

And now my body feels relaxed of all things after doing some high intensity sport.

And so that was kind of the first inkling that I had that there was maybe something here that was powerful.

I didn't know it at the time, but I just, I knew that I loved Muay Thai.

So I kept going back and I started doing jujitsu.

I started doing MMA and I started fighting and I actually went overseas to Thailand.

It's intense, you know.

And it's an interesting thing because I came into the sport at the time where it wasn't big for women.

So there wasn't many of us, which is a good thing and a bad thing.

So, I mean, like I was very skinny, so I like as in I was low weight, so I could cut down weight and be much taller than some of the other girls that I was fighting against.

But it was fun.

It felt functional.

It felt real.

It felt like I could defend myself.

It felt like that combative energy that I had within me had a place to go that was really healthy and it had an outlet.

And I was surrounded by people, men, who I had maybe put in a dangerous space in my mind, don't interact with men.

These men would all look after you and there was a real community in that space.

And it was the first time

that I felt included, right?