As much as I love grappling, I don't enjoy it when someone is in a north-south position and suffocates me with their sweaty chest, haha. The same when some dude's crotch is in my face if he has me in a triangle from the top.
Oh, for sure, bro, I didn't much care for those, either. Not one little bit. Nor when I experienced my first elevator sweep - when I had never seen one before. It was a WTF? moment. As was my first can opener. (having not seen it) the discomfort was as much physiological as it was physical, but still. (hurt like hell because I was stubborn back then)
Do you remember your first suplex? (catching, not throwing) Damn near soiled myself. (seriously, I was really scared, thought I broke my neck for a second) I had never seen one before, much less felt one.
But I'm referring to the long run in sparring/rolling. All of those moments become things of - "yeah, well, I should have know better, or gotta' get a handle on that". When you train for four or five years, those first years become fond memories, some of the memories hurt, for sure, but they're still great memories. They might not have been fun "in the moment" but they sure as hell are fun memories now.
And the same goes for striking. When you throw that sweet, perfect, overhand right, you know, your baby, that mother f'kin
fight ender, which just misses by a hair, and you eat the left hook from hell, which you never saw coming - it sucks then, but it's all kinds of awesome now.
If that ain't fun, I don't know what is. You know why? Because it hones you.