WASSUP YALL! Gordon here, I’m taking my pre-workout right now. Come with me if you want to lift.
Seems like a lot of people here at Rhodes look at me and just see a guy who works out- a lot. Yes, that is true, and I love it; it is my hobby and passion. I’m sure you can think of something you’re passionate about. Take a moment to think about that, what are you passionate about? How does it make you feel? Do you do it alone, or with friends? Aren’t you happier when you do it? Do you have a goal or vision attached to what you love doing?
These are questions I think about when I think about lifting. I really look up to people like Arnold, Calum Von Moger, Bradley Martyn, and David Laid. Recently, people who have known me since freshman year here at Rhodes have seen me go through a transformation ever since I lost a fair amount of weight in the past year. People are always like “dang you dropped a ton of weight!” I smile and thank them and these days I feel like I’m seen just as a “gainz bro”. What I mean is people only see one side of me, and it’s that I like to work out because I do it every day consistently. People think they see me and know what I have been through and what my story is, but there’s not just one way to look at something.
For me, the passion for weight lifting started almost three years ago. My friend Channing started weight lifting after he found out that his dad was a bit of a bodybuilder. We had just gone through some turmoil as friends and had some high school drama going on as well. One day he asked me if I wanted to lift. I said sure and found out that doing something with a friend is a lot more fun and rewarding then doing it on your own. Certain things kept happening in my life and I found it really hard to find a foundation or an anchor in life. I was feeling more alone than ever. I felt homeless. Family and social life had gone to absolute shit and both Channing and I had rough break ups with our girlfriends at the time.
As a result, we would hang out, play Call of Duty, and lift as a stress reliever. It helped a lot and it was so much more productive then just sitting in a puddle of self-pity. You actually learn something about yourself when trying to perfect the correct form, when seeing and feeling yourself getting stronger, and when watching your best friend develop just as quickly, or quicker, than you. It is something super cool to witness.
I eventually went to play varsity rugby and proceeded to get injured while Channing just kept getting stronger. He’s always been bigger and stronger than me, but after my recovery, my goal became to catch up with him.
So if someone asked me why I am so passionate about weight lifting, like Anu did, I would sum it up by saying it keeps my life in balance and keeps me anchored and motivated. Lifting was and still is a great stress reliever for me. So much has happened in the past three years -from personal growth in college, family struggle through a recent divorce, and the death of my only grandparent. I lost touch with myself and my identity during these times, but having a friend to go to and exercise with gave me a foundation and an identity that I needed.
As of today, I still lift everyday and I love it. I keep striving to get better and stronger. Some people might think this is because I am insecure about my body or something like that. That is not the case. I love who I am and, naturally, there will be the hard times, but life is about growing and learning. For me, I had shaped a part of my identity around lifting because there was nobody and nowhere to turn to at one point. No family, literally. Being adopted, I have no birth parents or siblings that I know of. I was abandoned as a baby in Guatemala until my family from Dallas picked me up. I thought that family would be a safe place, but of course there were toxic relationships going on there.
I was just a kid floating around with no family and no identity, so I made one of my own and never looked back. Looking back into a past I do not know and cannot find will not help me grow; I can’t see the road ahead if I keep looking in the rearview mirror. My goal now is to pave my own road ahead, especially since realizing that I do have control of what I will do. I choose to be the best version of myself in all aspects. I have a vision of having a wife and a family someday. I don’t mind what hardships I have been through to get here. And what I do know is when that time comes, I want to be the best father/husband for my wife and kids. I will be able to fulfil that by developing myself now, rather than figuring that out when the time comes.
Everyone has struggles and hardships in life. It is so easy to give in to anger and sadness during those times. I believe that when the weight of life gets heavy, the only thing to do is ask yourself what matters most to you and what your foundations are. Once you know what they are, whatever they may be, let them be your supports. Raise yourself up. If there is one thing I have learned from training in the gym, people are a lot stronger than they think they are. You just have to believe you can do something before you do it.
every body 