DELAND, Fla. — People often spend years trying to find their calling or their purpose.

Marie-Angelis Rosendo, who is 18 now, found hers in 2020, when she started boxing.

Rosendo has become one of the best boxers in the country and recently won the Golden Gloves National Championship in her weight class and has goals to make the next Olympic cycle.

With each punch, Rosendo has felt more free.

The mark of a fighter isn't always the force of the punch, but also the resistance they’re able to handle.

"That's what my coach says, you know, 'boxing is like life.' You know, you're going to get hit with different things," Rosendo said. "You're going to get knocked down. It's about getting back up. It's about pushing through that, persevering through that, going through that, and keep going."

Boxing fell into her lap at the start of the COVID pandemic.

"I was playing soccer before COVID had happened, so I wanted to stay fit. I saw my friend boxing, and I wanted to be a boxer, too. I asked my parents for like a year," Rosendo said. "They didn't want me, but it really was to help my soccer. And when I started boxing, I was like, 'This is what I want to do.' Like, I just had like this passion for boxing, like right off the rim."

She was connected to Luis Rodriguez, the head coach at Lou's Community Boxing, while at church. Because of the ongoing pandemic, Rosendo ended up joining Rodriguez for backyard outdoor boxing lessons. 

"With her, it was just raw talent. I could see the athleticism," Rodriguez said. "I could see that she had a desire to box, a desire to want to go after it. And so that's all you really need is a dream."

Boxing found Rosendo at the perfect time.

"This place has really helped. Because, you know, as a teenager, we lack all these different things. You know, we lack, some people just don't have the confidence in themselves," Rosendo said. "And when I met Coach, I was like, in a really tough spot mentally. I just was gone, you know? So when I started boxing, you know, I always say, God used boxing to save my life."

She was searching for her purpose in life. 

"When I was struggling, when I first started boxing, I was going through depression and anxiety, I was just here," Rosendo said. "I wasn't looking for a purpose. I was just surviving. But once I started boxing, I felt like there's just this connection because it was, you know, wow. I found what I'm supposed to do. So it gave me this sense of, I have purpose."

Rodriguez helped with that.

"I think that that's the epitome of a coach, that you find what's inside and you, and you, you get away or you push away all the, the bad things, and you find that, that diamond, and you start polishing that diamond," Rodriguez said. 

At first, Rosendo’s punches were used as a release.

"You know, at first it was definitely, definitely an outlet for me to let go steam, let go of different things, you know, anger, just things I was bottling up," she said. "But over the time, I realized being angry all the time is exhausting. So now, I can hit a bag and not, you know, not really feel these crazy emotions and feel.

"I used to get in sparring and I would start crying because there's so much emotion, so much so, so many things going on in my life that it comes out in the ring, comes out when you're training, comes out in your sparring. So as I progressed and as I kept growing mentally, physically, maturing really, it helped because now, you know, I can get in there and I'm happy. I'm good, I'm free."

She's channeling those emotions, that freedom, into wins. She competed against eligible boxers in the 139-pound weight class against some women up to 36 years old to take home the championship belt from one of the most prestigious tournaments, the Golden Gloves National Championship.

"When I first started boxing, I could only dream of sitting there one day. Now I'm on runs. I'm hitting bags. I was like, 'One day I'm going to be national champion. One day I'm going to be national champion.' And for me to be that now is like, surreal," Rosendo said. "It makes me feel, like, so happy. So, I did all the hard work with my coaches. All the time and hours you put in, it paid off. So it makes me, like, feel like a little kid again. You know?"

Even though being a kid wasn’t always easy for Rosendo, she’s now doing what she can to help the next group of boxers learn life — one punch at a time.

"That's why I like working with the youth. That's why I like helping people, pouring into people because I see these kids, they're 13, 14 going through different things," Rosendo said. "I'm like, 'Man, that was me one time. You know, that was me at one point.' So it's easy for me to relate and easy for me to talk to these people, to help them, understand them, because, it's like, I was there."