So what career did I go for after college? Well, a couple of things, but I'll get to those other things later. I became a boxing coach. Yep, my boxing days didn't end after high school. Honestly, I wish they had never ended at any point.
Now, I didn't actually box on any Moscow University team. I joined a boxing club outside of the university sometime during my sophomore year. And I quickly became one of the most popular guys in the group. Of course, I was the smallest guy in the group and the guys often loved to mess with me because of this, but I hardly cared. These guys were still my best friends and I loved to hang out with them. Oh, and they thought my long hair was really cool. For the record, I didn't start growing my hair out until my senior year of high school. I just thought it would look cool. My parents thought it looked stupid, but they think a lot of things I do is stupid. Such as moving out of the country and getting married at nineteen.
Because of my awesome fighting skills (still not bragging), I received the nickname "Atomnaya Bomba." Translation: The Atom Bomb. Yep, the geeky little shrimp who spent all day reading comic books grew up to become The Atom Bomb. Man, my life story is weird.
So yeah, I, Alex "Atomnaya Bomba/The Atom Bomb" Cooper, became one of the greatest fighters in the club. Like my high school years, I won many tournaments and championships. I just loved how so many people that I took on would hardly take me seriously at first due to my size and girly hair and then immediately fear me after getting knocked out in just a few punches. I'm sorry if this sounds wrong, but man did it feel great.
However, Atomnaya Bomba retired very early from fighting at the age of twenty-three. Because that's where I began my career as a boxing trainer. So my boxing days didn't entirely end right there. It was just time to pass skills on to other people. Though competing in matches and tournaments was cool and all, I became much more interested in teaching it. And much like my fighting skills, my training skills were quite impressive. By age twenty-six, I was considered one of the greatest trainers in Russian boxing history, having some of the most successful clients. It just felt too good to be true.
But all of that wouldn't be enough without my giant circle of friends. Even though I still had Rafa and the guys from the boxing club, I got to know so many more people during my Atomnaya Bomba and training years. All of these people quickly became very good friends to me. Many of them lived in countries outside of Russia, which is why it became very helpful to learn languages other than Russian. Yep, Russian is not the only language I went out of my way to learn. I am currently fluent in six languages: English, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Czech, and Slovic. I also have learned a little Bulgarian and really hope to finish it someday. I wonder how easy it will be to finish learning Bulgarian in the United States?
Anyway, whether I visited with them every so often, had lunch with them, talked to them while working, called them on the phone, Skyped them, or whatever ways you can communicate with someone, there were a lot of people who I called really good friends. Though I lost contact with most of my former friends after high school, I now had this large circle to make up for it. Yeah, life in Russia was just awesome.
But of course, my relationships with my friends was nothing compared to my wife and my beautiful daughters. Although I enjoyed my career very much and spent a lot of time with friends, I always made sure to put my family first. Elena and Yulia will always remain my number one priority.
So everything in Russia seemed to just be perfect. I had a successful career, a large group of great friends, a wonderful wife, and two gorgeous daughters. My life in Russia felt complete.
Oh, and then there's the icing on the cake. When I was twenty-four, I received my Russian citizenship. Yep, that's something that I still find awesome even though I no longer live in Russia. Oh well, maybe I'll decide to go back someday. If I find a good enough reason to do so.
Yeah, you're probably wondering what exactly caused my great life in Russia to fall apart. Well one day, The Atom Bomb sort of...bombed.
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