When I was younger, I got picked on alot as a kid, for dumb things like the flanel shirts that I wore, or how my jeans always had a hole in the knee from playing outside. Or how I was the only guy in my Elementry school with hair to my collar. I'm sure alot of kids feel that way when they aren't accepted by the "popular kids" but It just felt like it effected me more so than most kids. But i'd say one of the biggest reasons was because I was so skinny as a kid. I even remember getting together with family every year and renting cabins in michigan on one of the many lakes. And during my breaks from swimming, I would hear my own family members asking my father "why is he so thin?" and "what was wrong with him?" I really became frustrated by everyones criticism of the way that I LOOKED. Especially when they werent in the best of shape themselves. One day when I was about 11, I picked up an old set of dumbells that I found that belonged to my dad. I decided to mess around with them. Not knowing the reverberations that would unfold from my actions that day. Without knowing it, I had just lit a match and was about to start a fire that would turn into my passion for bodybuilding. I dont know why, but doing those first few sets of bicep curls made me think less about the childish name calling, and criticism and and more about how I could do whatever I wanted to do. Or be whatever I wanted to be. It was like my own way of escaping reality for a bit and doing something that was just for me. No matter what happened with kids at school or my friends that I had at the time, I could always just run on a track or go home and lift weights. I didnt know what I was doing at the time, but I knew parts of the body from my science class and I figured I had to work each one of them. Eventually it turned into a hobby and I bough my own weight set (150lbs and a bench/curl machine) which I still have in my garage to this day. After not too long, I outgrew my weight set and I joined my first gym with my best friend at the time, in summer of 2005. Since then I've had some serious pitfalls (inguinal hernia, bad bike accident) but I've stuck with it. My efforts in the gym have yeilded me the best results of all the people that I know. It turned from a way to release stress, to a hobby, to what I would consider a lifestyle. I am a brother of the Iron, and I plan never to quit as long as I live.