Started from the bottom now I'm here.

Being a skinny and under weight kid during the school years and getting pushed around by kids for being scrawny and weak, I didn’t want the same to happen when I entered college.

So, I pushed myself and started hitting the gym on a regular basis not to get back at all those bullies who made me feel insecure but because I wanted to know how it felt like to feel superior to who I was. This fear of failure fueled me and shunned my anxiety aside.
In a matter of 6 months I started gaining weight and muscle. At the end of my first year I gained 15 kilos .

I didn’t allow my determination to fade away and I kept going at it. This made me realize that all this time and effort should mean something and I wanted to show the world the fruits of my labor.
And yes, I made it.

I made it within the top 10 of a men's physique competition and I cannot put it in words how satisfying that was. The glory, the fame, everything. But most of all, I became someone who I myself respected and looked up to.

Just when I thought I proved my school kids wrong ,the real struggle began. 
When you level up and reach the next stage in the game of life your critics don't disappear, they just become bigger and badder. 

What gym taught me is that these naysayers are like the weights with which you squat.

As we squat our shoulders ache and the weight makes you to sink towards the ground, our legs tremble and feel like you're gonna break, but its up to you whether to fall down or put every ounce of energy left in you to push and rise up again.
Don't get me wrong, it's okay to fall down sometimes but it is wrong if you stay down and do nothing about it.

It's like what my role model (Dwayne The Rock Johnson) said -
" We are all part of the same game, but at different levels ". 
This kept me going and I intend to push myself until the people who doubt me begin to tell their friends "Hey, I used to know that guy".

- N.K