Motivation is everything

Dear class of 2020

Let me tell you about my four years of high school, When I first walked into Oak Hill High School as a Freshman I was 4’11 in height and I was about 100 pounds in weight. I would always get brought up in the conversation when it had to do with height difference. My friends would always joke about how small I was, they would make jokes saying things like “ he’s as small as a peanut”. I didn’t let it get to me because friends just like to joke, but after my first season of soccer at the high school, it started to get to me. I was not happy with myself because I wasn’t playing as good as the other kids were because they were so much taller and stronger than I was.  After the season ended, I decided to start working out because my older brother Evan told me he would help me build muscle by creating workouts for me to do because he is a lifter who is going on to be a personal trainer.  I started going through the motions and practicing my form on all my exercises with my friend Cameron. I worked out with him because we both had never worked out before and we decided to start fresh off the bat with it and thought we would try to motivate each other. We went strong for a few weeks but then we started to lose some motivation because basketball season had started up for me so we decided to just get back on our workout grind once the season ended. 

I ended up having a pretty crap basketball season and I was still so weak so it was really starting to get to me, I needed to change myself for the better.  I decided to change my diet and I started eating a lot more protein based foods and I was watching the foods that didn’t include much nutrients like candy and soda. I changed my sleep schedule around and I started going to bed at 9:30 on school nights so I could wake up at 5 in the morning for the weightroom. By the time freshman year was over I was able to go up about 50 pounds on most of my exercises and I gained about 5 to 10 pounds of muscle. When sophomore year came around I decided it was best for me to quit soccer because I didn’t like it as much as I used to. I decided that I should use the fall season to workout instead, and train for basketball. This is where I really built up my motivation. By the time basketball came around I was slowly improving, I was still getting pushed around but I felt like things were starting to change for the better. After the season ended, Cameron and I just kept lifting and we were really starting to see results. I then started to notice that I wasn’t getting called “peanut boy” so much so that was good. Things were changing for the better and all of the work was starting to pay off. 

By the time junior year came around the corner I had gone up on most of my exercises by over 100 pounds and my motivation in myself just kept growing. I kept setting goals for myself to reach and once I would reach those goals I would just keep setting the bar higher and higher. It goes to show you that if you want something and you strive for it then you can do anything you want. And to this day me and Cameron are both still working out and motivating each other and we are going on to study in the Physical Education program at CMCC. I’m so thankful for the people that helped me get to where I am today in the fitness aspect of my life. I’m so thankful for this because when I was too small and too weak to be good at the sports I wanted to be good at, it was really starting to tear down my confidence and self-esteem.So to reflect on my journey through high school, the message I was trying to get through with is that motivation is everything. Motivation is what gets you up in the morning, motivation is what tells you to get a job, motivation is just so much more than people realize. Motivation can not only tear you down, but it can tear down those people who are also included in your lives. So learn from my success of motivating myself and do the same thing and better yourself day by day. Because I promise, if you really try to put your mind to it, then it can be easily accomplished.

Photo on Foter.com