I'm going to tell the long story here and I'll try to keep from being overly boring.
[Verification Image - Taken this evening]
Starting high school at 12 I was very interested in technology; specifically computers and video games. I started my first job at Dominos when I was 13 and saved every cent I could to buy myself an Xbox 360, which had just released.
I had a good group of like minded friends who I'd spend hours playing games like Gears of War and Halo with, by the time I was 15 my world revolved around my Xbox and the people I'd met playing it - to the point I'd literally spent one new years eve throwing C4 into the air on call of duty and detonating it to emulate fireworks (I KNOW, RIGHT). I'd become a part of the community by posting on forums and making youtube videos for these games and traveled to LANS and competed in leagues for Gears of War, Call of Duty 4, 5 and Halo 3 (my true passion). I was given the title of 'semi-pro' at one point when a team I was playing for had placed highly throughout the season and at LAN events.
Eventually this got to a point where I was a severely overweight stretch mark covered-acne ridden young man who had just turned 16 years old and never kissed a girl, harsh but the unfortunate truth. I was at a point in my life where I was beginning to doubt myself, what I would ever do with my life or if I was becoming the type of person I truly wanted to be. As corny as all this is going to sound it was a quote, from the Leonardo Dicaprio film 'Catch Me if you Can' that really made me take a long hard look at myself.
"Two little mice fell in a bucket of cream. The first mouse quickly gave up and drowned. The second mouse, wouldn't quit. He struggled so hard that eventually he churned that cream into butter and crawled out."
Now when I heard this it hit me right in the feels, I'm questioning if I'm going to be the weak mouse that can't crawl out and if life is the bucket of cream...
I'm beginning to feel like a reeeeal piece of shit right now. I've got a cousin whom I'm very close with and is 6 months older then me and is about to compete in his second Under 18 Body Building competition. I've approached him to help me turn my whole lifestlye around and in the space of 6 months, I'd lost 29kg in 8 months by eating at a calorie deficit, a lot of research, weights and cardio 5 times a week. I regularly questioned how I had let myself get to that point.
The quote spoken by Frank Abignale Snr. in Catch me if You Can still resonating in my mind.
My friendship circle changed and I'm experiencing what it's like to be part of the majority rather then social minority.
By now I'm feeling pretty good for a 16 year old, I looked healthy, was happy and had begun socialising outside of my house, going to parties and had gained a significant amount of attention from my female peers who had started noticing my existence.
Perhaps I was a bit over excited with the attention I received and regret being a dickhead to some people at this point in my life - I had changed my social circle but had no true friends. I looked the way I wanted to but still questioned if I was the person I wanted to be.
I graduated high school and decided to spend some time by myself, away from those who I had called friends over the past year who were really no better then the asshole I was becoming at the time. I spent about 6 months without a whole lot of social activity and really thought about the little things, mainly the way I treated people and how I am treated in return. I started to make a really positive effort to treat people better no matter who they were. Shortly after this i found a really good group of mates almost at random who I continue to see on a daily basis, have lived with and had some of the best experiences of my life with 5 years later.
I really do believe that if this weird series of events didn't play out my life would be in a very different place to where it is today, not one I can see a great deal of happiness in. I am very happy with my life as it is now.
This is just me experience with the way I felt at the time
TLDR :
I was a overweight 15 year old gamer who was unhappy with many parts of my life
lost weight whilst not paying attention to the person I was becoming
in turn became a shit person with shit friends but looked how I wanted.
Spent some time alone, thought about how to treat people.
Started treating everyone around me better
found a some real friends, who have had nothing but positive impacts on my life
5 years later life is excellent.
