For the longest time, I hated the idea of working out. Being a dancer, I figured that dance is the only exercise I needed to stay healthy and in shape. The only problem with that mentality, however, is that dance practices eventually end when summer and winter break come around, leaving me with no form of consistent exercise to enjoy over the breaks. When I would actually consider going to the gym and working out, I would find every excuse not to do it, blaming it on various things such as tiredness, joint pain, sickness, etc., and I truly thought that the only way to get a good workout in was to run endless miles, lift extremely heavy objects, and spend hours upon hours at the gym.

This past summer, however, my entire mentality about working out changed. During the summertime I would wake up, go to work, and come straight home for the night, occasionally hanging out with friends and family. About a month into summer I found that after doing the same thing day after day and having a lot of time to myself that I was starting to get into a funk...a big funk. I didn't know how to get out of it, and I thought that I had tried everything possible to help it, such as sleeping, spending time with friends and family, rearranging my room, etc., but nothing seemed to be working. Just when I thought I had tried everything, I remembered something that someone once told me: "When you're sad or unhappy, exercise, because exercising releases endorphins, chemicals in your brain which help make you feel happier". After an extensive mental debate with myself analyzing the pros and cons about getting out and going to the gym, I decided to give it a shot.

To my surprise, I found that after a few times going, I did actually start to feel a little bit of a shift in my mood. Whenever I started to feel myself get into a funk, I would get out and go to the gym, and before I knew it, I wasn’t going only because I felt gloomy, I was going because it became a habit, and because it became a big part of my life.

Never in a million years would I have envisioned that working out would become a big part of my life. For me, working out isn't just about looking good and working on my physical appearance; it's what keeps me happy. It's what can fix my mood when nothing else can, and it's what can bring me back to the present moment and make me forget about my stress for at least a few minutes. It has taught me how to motivate myself and become my own biggest fan; it has taught me to push my body to do things that it hasn't done before, while also teaching me that it's okay to stop when your body just simply says no; it has taught me how to be patient with myself and my body, while being appreciative of all the great things my body can do; it has given me a brand new aura of confidence that wasn’t there before, and it has taught me how to compare myself to only myself and to nobody else.

Beyond the physical aspects and most importantly, it gives me something to look forward to everyday. When I don't have any plans for the day or don't have any people to spend time with, it's what gives me a reason to leave the house and get excited about something. Although I have seen progress physically, I have seen just as much progress mentally as well. Working out isn’t something I do for anyone else, it’s something I do for me and only me, and it has become so much more than just doing it to improve my physical appearance.