Vickie Simos’ book “The boxer within” is a brutally honest account of life inside and outside the ring. Inside the ring, the blows are obvious. Left hooks and ‘taking it to the chin’, literally, and other parts of the body leave clearly visible wounds. Vickie Simos, the boxer and martial artist, has many bodily wounds to boot and she lies them down in her first book. But there are the other, invisible wounds, bruises, cuts, scratches and fractures that are the most interesting in this book.
Vickie Simos, counsellor and psychotherapist, grew up in country South Australia in the 80s and 90s. The youngest daughter in a family of Greek migrants who made a living working in the farms of Riverland, spent many years drifting in the conservative and restrictive environment of the small country town of Barmera, trying to find herself. A number of chapters are dedicated to describing life for the Greek -Australian girl in a country town, the prejudice and informal segregation of “ethnics” in social settings cannot be missed. She makes her feelings known having title one chapter “Riverland – anywhere but here”.
When you can’t find yourself in one place, you need to hit the road and find another because places have the ability to swallow people. Many places have a soul, and that soul must match yours if you are to find peace and contentment. These come clearly through in the first chapters of Vickie Simos’ book. An understanding family and good friends might make life easier but that was not the case in Barbera where Vickie Simos grew up. No knight in shiny armour either, although it was a boy who is credited for her love for martial arts.
The move to Adelaide helped temporarily the young Vickie but did not give her the answers she needed. “Everyone ends up in a dark place one way or another” she wrote in the title of a chapter in “The Boxer Within”. In the book the reader sees that Vickie Simos ended up in a dark place more than once. You get the feeling that darkness followed her wherever she’d go. She kept it at bay, it seems, by putting on her boxing gloves, or picking up a stick or training in the rain. Every broken rib and twisted finger, every bloody nose and multiple bruises all over her body from training to become a champion in martial arts sounds like it was to smash the darkness within so that the boxer within could break free. “It’s all in your head – help comes whether you like it or not” she writes. After Adelaide, she moved to Melbourne where she studied at the university – the first truly happy moment for Vickie Simos.
Vickie Simos Source: supplied by Vickie Simos
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There are many painful memories and experiences in “The Boxer Within”. Apart from the cathartic quality of writing, her journey shows that you can get up as many times as you fall down. You can hit as well as being hit and you can win in whatever you do as long as you are prepared to accept that there will be many bruises and broken ribs and fingers on the way to victory. After all can you think of a warrior with no battle scars? As long as you are prepared to put noses out of joint, including yours, you’ll be ok is one of the messages. Because, at the end of the day, you are not fighting the others, you are fighting yourself. There is a lot of pain and anger in “The Boxer Within” that the writer does not deny. On the contrary, she lays them down with honesty and ‘matter of fact’ attitude. Many a young person can relate to her describing her anger, a feeling she professes “did not know what was I angry about”. The author’s ability to be candid and optimistic is remarkable.
“The Boxer Within” makes no excuses and no pretences. It is not as much about the journey, but about how you travel in that journey. How fear teaches you to be brave. Vickie Simos is also a personal trainer who combines the fighting spirit of martial arts with the insights of psychology in her professional life. She often works with young people and children as well as adults. She is assisted by her experiences and the boxer within.
