How fitness changed my life

[MousemanLV]

Hello. My name is Elvis and you might know me as MousemanLV. I've been playing LFS since 2007. I've been fortunate enough to still be a member of the TC community despite my toxic attitude throughout the years and the lack of ability to maintain what I set out to do in the first place.
I decided to leave a rather long message on this forum because I hope I can inspire someone to change their life as well.

I've been a victim of bullying from a young age and I have only opened to a few people in my life about it. I decided to share a little insight on TC forums because I have met some awesome and genuine people here and I'm thankful that I'm still not banned despite my attitude. Thank you.

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This is my story on how fitness, calisthenics and street workout in particular changed my life below.

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Throughout elementary school I was known as the nerd. Even up to this day I have a very good memory of how my classmates treated me. I was bullied, daily. It destroyed my confidence and I was very, very shy. I did not tell my parents about it and even the teachers did not bother about it much.
I had no interest to go to school, I was in fact terrified to go to school because I was made fun of every single day. I felt very bad about myself back then and I did not want to live. It was one of my worst experiences in my life.
Such attitude from the people around you can really destroy you. When I say I was terrified to go to school, I really mean it. My grades were poor, I had no interest to learn or participate in anything.

I later found how gaming would improve my mood. I had something actually to do on my free time. Gaming made me forget about everything else outside my home. Although, it began my computer addiction. For 2 years straight every single day I sat a minimum of 4-8 hours behind the screen. I felt depressed, I was depressed. Even when I was bullied and had no PC, I had one or two friends I could contact and go out with, but once I got my hands on a PC, I never did..for those two years, I did not go outside much, or at all. I felt sad, very sad about myself, but I just kept playing games for those 2 years straight. It was one of those things that kept me somewhat alive, I found some people that would actually communicate with me. It was also the foundation for my English - I had rather poor grades in school when it came to foreign languages, but thanks to GTAA (SAMP in particular) it helped me learn English a lot quicker and for the first time in my life I was excelling somewhere in school, I was getting good grades and I was getting recognized for something.

When I got into highschool, my confidence was still very low. Fortunately enough, I got in a new class where I didn't know anyone. It turned I made some good friends over my highschool time that I still communicate with up to this day. Thanks to them, I felt slightly better about myself.

Summer of 2015 - that was when I graduated high school and exactly when I began street workout / calisthenics - discipline where you use your own bodyweight to train. I used to visit my local park to train on bars (pull up bars, dip bars), but I did not like the idea to travel every single day back and forth in order to train. So..I built my own bars in my backyard.
At the very beginning I was VERY bad at calisthenics. Every single basic movement you could think of - I was really bad at them. It took me such a long time to get my first dips and my first proper pull ups.

Since I used to do running before I began street workout, I had the mindset of ''go hard or go home'' and that's what kept me going. I did not know what I was doing, I was just performing moves that I knew. After doing some research on the web and finding communities like HASfit, Bar Brothers, AthleanX, I had more information than ever. Thanks to them I made my own routines and have been using them ever since.

The hardest part was the first winter. Since I've been very dependent on having bars, I had to train outside no matter the conditions. Since it does get as cold as -25 degree C, I still trained despite how uncomfortable I felt. Not to mention the fact I was then studying Logistics and I would get up at 4;30 / 5;00 am to train when it was freezing cold just to get my training sessions in. I had the silliest excuses to get back to sleep, but I DID NOT. I never felt like waking up and training while everyone else was sleeping, but I've always kept the anger inside of me. The people who bullied me are still in my mind. Sadly, I cannot forgive them, I simply cannot forgive what they did and that's what really keeps me going. As Brandon Carter said in one of his videos, you need to find something that pushes you. And for me, it is the people who made fun of me. In my opinion, there's no such thing as motivation, it's more about discipline. It has become a habit of mine to train throughout the week 5-6 times. Whenever I don't feel like doing it, I remind myself how people treated me years ago, it continues to drive me because the best revenge is success.

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If anyone tells you cannot achieve what you desire - prove them wrong. I've been working out seriously for the past 2 years and it has boosted my confidence, I've been getting along better with people and I'm finally getting attention from the women. I still have a long way to go but I will continue because I still keep my goals in mind and they have been there ever since I started working out.

There will be people who doubt you, that's why if your gut tells you need to do what you need to do, JUST DO IT! It will take time, it will take dedication and effort. I'm still far from perfect, I still have a lot to learn in calisthenics, but I refuse to give up. I've gone through bad times and if you can just remain calm and do what you are supposed to do, simply don't stop and keep grinding. Don't let the society bring you down, you are greater than them. The hard work will pay off, trust me. It will and I've already experienced it.

Keep grinding and remember that greater times are to come. I realize that most people might not take this thread seriously, but I hope I caught someone's attention because I know people tend to go through hard times and I hope I can inspire someone to keep pushing even though they might feel like it's time to give up. I've not been the best I've been, not just on TC forums but on other forums as well. It's the frustration that has made me act in a certain way. It's silly, I know. But over time and now as well, all the past experiences have made me realize that such mistakes should never be made again. I'm one of those individuals who learns the hard way, I know. I am who I am and I hope you guys will understand why I'm writing this. It hasn't been easy for me to open up about it nor it hasn't been easy to maintain my training routine 5-6 times a week for the past 2 years..but you know what, it's all worth it in the end, because you experience and you learn

Stay strong.