The resources you need are as follows, a personality that can appeal to multiple friend groups, have an inner group of friends that you are close too, and a gym membership. The personality part is easy especially when you have a fresh start somewhere. If you don’t play sports tell them that, but don’t hesitate when you have a chance to play football with everyone. Even if you make a complete fool of yourself (I did, more than once) they’ll accept you… in time. You’ll definitely get ridiculed but its different from when you were being bullied because you find yourself laughing too.
High school kids are a lot more funny than middle school. Plus you come to find out that everyone does something stupid, then it’ll be your turn to make the jokes. Kind of like a cycle of ridicule. Anyway, make friends with as many types of people because it is through others that we discover ourselves, some wise person said. Next, your inner group of friend’s part will always be easy, because they’ll present themselves over time without you doing anything, but just living your life.
For example, one of my best friends is a girl named Chelsea, (yeah I came a long way from not talking to girls to being friends with them), and the way we met and became friends is my most memorable because it was the most weird. She had just gone to the bathroom when I came to class late, there was an empty seat (her seat) right next to the door, so I sat there. She gets back and tells me I’m in her seat. Now sarcastic assholeism has changed over the years and the phrase “it doesn’t have your name on it” was still popular at the time… I promise.
Well after I said that she replied “if you don’t get it up, I will sit on you and fart on you. ” Now what’s going through my head is that she is lying because no one actually has to fart when they say that. I was wrong, this girl I barely know sat down on me and farted, something normal girls wouldn’t do. I was so shocked, that I couldn’t do anything but laugh. I made friends with that un-girly like girl doesn’t bluff when she says “I’m going to fart on you. ”
Turns out she also has a sister, a twin, who was just as strange and both became my closest friends, along with my friend Requan with the biggest ego I have ever seen in such a scrawny body, Kyle, who is pretty much similar to me, but with terrible luck, Dontae, who is completely random and will dance in the middle of the hall to only the music inside his head, Eric Johnson, who was basically my high school rival, in fact our hello to each other, was “what’s up fat ass,” “Nothing, little bastard,” (he was pretty short).
There is a few more, but all in all I was surrounded by real friends and it felt great. This needs to happen before you get the suffix, because if you can wear tank tops in front of friends, who will tell you in an instant how ugly you are, you can wear them in front of anyone. Finally, joining a gym so you can finally have no excuse of why you aren’t working out. This is by far the hardest step because most gyms suck! Either they are too small or too expensive. And if they are both, honestly what are you paying eighty dollars a month for?
Some sweaty guy dropping weights two feet from you literally scaring fat from you. So I didn’t have this resource until my last year of high school. I had decided to start taking college classes at Cleveland State University and it was the best decision I could have ever made. Not only did I get access to their three floor gym, but I took less classes at my high school, the college classes I took transferred over, and I would never, ever have to take quantitative reasoning and foundations of writing at Carlow University ever!
Back to the point it was the most diverse gym I have seen, in terms of equipment and placement. No one would be flooding the gym with sweat inches away from you as they grunt ridiculously loud to show off to the women who really just wants this guy to shut up and take go take a shower. The gym was amazing and there was really three things that helped me lose weight the most. First, the indoor track. It was such a beautiful thing, who wants to run outside when there’s a nice temperature controlled room with a track in it. Second, the monkey bars who were my own personal progress bar.
They would alternate between high bars and low bars and when I first got into the gym I just did not have the strength to make it even half way across. And third the boxing area, which was the key to my workout. I invested more to learning how to box than I did anything else. I put money in for proper gloves and hand wraps. I watched hours of boxing videos learning the proper form, punches and different techniques that exist. I would have family members who were in the some form of the military or just fought a lot in their life teach me different things. I studied for boxing more than I did for any test ever.
Which transitions into my next step, find an exercise you love, and then combine it with all the bullshit you hate. Step 6: find an exercise you love, and then combine it with all the bullshit you hate Some people love running, I don’t I bloody hate it, and have complete respect for people who actually want to run miles on end. Some people love lifting weights, I don’t my arms hurt, I love the results, hate the workout. I love boxing, its cardio without killing me, and strength training without making my body feel like I’m blowing a balloon waiting to be popped.
But boxing isn’t for everyone so find what makes you feel good in the gym because if you’re only doing things that you hate why the hell would you be happy about doing them every day. My workouts would consist of me warming up with some form of cardio, usually running. Next I would using the boxing area for about thirty minutes to an hour if I were really into it. This involved 3-5 minute routines on the heavy bag, an uppercut bag, and a precision strike machine. After boxing, I would go work on my body parts for the day, if it was Monday, Wednesday, Friday, my workouts would consist of chest arm and abs.
Tuesday and Thursday was legs and back. Although, no matter what day it was I would run on the track. No matter how much I hated running I began to learn how important it was. Plus the basis of my workout is gaining muscle to burn fat. By that I mean if you only do cardio when you go to the gym, that’s great but you’ll systemically burn an amount of fat each time. Now you can raise that amount if you build muscle because muscle helps to burn fat at an increased rate. Plus having muscles looks good especially when wearing a tank top.
Lastly, every day I would end with the same thing, the monkey bars, because I was determined to master it. I became such a gym head at the time. On Tuesday and Thursday, I would have a 1 credit beginner weight lifting class, and yet I would also work out after again that day. Exercise was definitely on my mind every day and I hated when I missed a day. After about a month and a half I decided that I would make a bold choice. I would wear a tank top. Step 7: Confidence beats insecurity, Sun out, rain out, snow out, guns out
I started wearing tank tops every day when I would work out. I felt good about myself when I looked in the mirror while working out and saw how my body had developed. Then the most amazing thing happened to me and will happen to you, people began to notice, how my body was changing, how confident I had become and how happy I seemed. And I was happy because I had friends, I didn’t have superpowers… yet, but I felt strong and not just physically I felt that I was strong enough to be someone who deserves to be respected as everyone should.
And since that bold choice of putting on a tank top I haven’t gone a single day without wearing one because it isn’t just a shirt it is both a reminder and a symbol. A reminder of what I have been through and to stay strong and a symbol to myself and others that my no matter what I look like from now on rather I’m sculpted manliness with a great body and a six-pack or I’m flappy manliness with a junk food and a six pack, I’m no longer insecure about what I look like. I earned my suffix through blood, sweat, and tears and am proud to be called Tank Top Eric.
