After my worst season ever I wasn't gonna let myself continue to be the smallest player on the football team. I was fed up with the coaches not playing me due to being the smallest player on the team. I was just finishing up my season and I remember when I was was having lunch with my cousin and uncle. My cousin played football at the University of North Dakota as a running back and he knew what he was doing. He straight up told me that he believed that the extra lifting he did was what help set him apart from the other players. They both with a stern face told me that it would change my life forever, but I didn't believe them. This was when I said enough was enough and I got introduced to lifting.

When I was just getting started in the lifting I hated it, my form was bad and my max numbers were even worse. I was fortunate enough to have an amazing weight facility and coaches to help me get better with everything, not just in the weight room but also out of it, as the weight coach was also the head varsity football coach who was and still is always there for me and anyone of my brothers.

The first time I went into the weight room I was extremely nervous, being one of the only kids my age in there and definitely the smallest of the ones my age I felt very self conscious about everything I did. My coaches however made stuff a lot less overwhelming and I started to feel like I belonged there. It was something I wish I would have discovered earlier in my life but at the same time i'm glad I didn't. I feel like if I would have found out about the weight room earlier it wouldn't have meant as much to me.

Once I started lifting I could definitely tell a difference in my own physical and mental being. I felt better I thought clearer and everything was just so much better in life. The results didn't show up over night and I didn't expect them to either but I knew with hard work I would get results. Gaining weight and muscle mass isn't just lifting u have to eat more food with more proteins and good calories. Even though sometimes it wasn't easy i still can say that i did it.

To this day it's been one of or maybe even the best decision of my life. Not only did it help me gain muscle mass but it also help me gain knowledge and patiences like if I try to max out and I miss it a few time I keep trying because there have been times it took me 10 attempts before I finally hit it.

It was almost as if I became a completely different person once I started lifting. I grew almost 6 inches and gained about 55 lbs in the best summer of my life so far, and when football season came around I wasn't sitting on the sidelines anymore… I was actually playing! When I started to play I liked how it felt being the same size as everyone else, because I could actually play and do something instead of getting tossed around like a ragdoll, and that was the last straw for me. Thanks to my family and coaches that got me into the lifting program i'm now 5’ 10’’ and about 165 lbs and starting varsity football as a sophomore. I truly have no idea what I would be like today i’d I wouldn't of started lifting. That's why I think it's because of my coaches and family I am the person I am today. Now that I look at it, that afternoon lunch didn't seem like big deal at the time, but now I look back and realize that was where my life changed forever. If I got the chance to do it again, I wouldn't change a single thing.