Nick Quillen

Penny Sobocinski

ENG 1100-70

9 September 2017

How has exercise changed my health, my body and life?

Throughout life I have gotten to know who I am and what makes me the person I have become.

Throughout the years I have gained a passion for exercise and training. From the moment, you step in

the gym scanning your membership card and seeing your friend waiting for you to workout with them.

The air fresheners and disinfectant smell roaming the air for cleaning the machines. From running on the

treadmill to getting calluses from the rugged barbell and getting that cold drink of water with sweat

dripping down your face. Canceling the outside world out with my favorite songs on repeat and having

my time to myself. This what the gym is to me and can’t thank my dad enough for showing me this

lifestyle.

In my life Family is always number one and the end of the day that’s all we really need. I have

been blessed with both parents that have raised me to become who I am today. I am very close to my

parents and they are my biggest influencers in my life. With my Mom, I feel like I can go to her for

anything and she will understand will remain the loving Mother she is. With my Dad, he didn’t have the

perfect childhood and he often saw his parents favoring his bother and being the odd man out, which

can be very heartbreaking. Through this he was driven to grow up and become a better father and have

a stronger family than he experienced. From surprising me with Cleveland Browns tickets to having
someone to go to in need, I look at him as my best friend and he is the model father than I will be one

day.

In life, we can get busy with work, sports and school it’s very difficult to balance everything out

and not to forget about the ones that love you the most. With my dad working 60 to 70 hours a week

and me going to school and having lacrosse practice after it was very hard to find time to spend with

him. My dad has been into working out and weightlifting since high school and thought to myself what

better way to spend with him to work out and have that bond between us. With this starting while I was

in middle school, thinking I will gain an advantage over the other more experienced players, he showed

me all the steps and how to become faster and stronger. Looking back at these days I didn’t take it as

serious as I do now but I can’t thank him enough for showing me how to live a healthy life and spending

that time with me.

Exercise has many health benefits that come along with it. Most people assume the physical

benefits of working out but it has greatly benefited my mental health. Throughout school I tend to have

bad anxiety and stress about test and my grades, so serve that some nights I would get no sleep.

Through the years It has gotten much better with experience and through exercise. With exercise, it has

given me somewhere to get my head clear and give me a break everything that life throws at you. When

I found balance between everything that’s when I started to find success in the school room. On the

same track, I have experienced a lot of physical health benefits, from being a toothpick at 6’2 155

pounds when I was 16 to now gaining 30 pounds and staying in the same shape. Most people would

look at me and wouldn’t think that I work out but the process is long and I’m more motivated than ever

to stop being average.

Other than having a good family structure, I think having a solid friendship really influence you

the most. Friendships from moving schools to finding who you are and I have experienced many friend
changes. It’s sad to say that a lot of my friends that I grew up with playing backyard football and hanging

out on the weekends have moved on. Most of those same guys went the partying route with drugs and

alcohol. It was sad to see your friends being killed over drugs and I’m very blessed to be raised right and

not going down that pathway. The best friendships that I have right now are through the gym, the guys

that I went to football workouts with and surrounding myself with people that have the similar traits as

me.

Through working out I have developed personal traits that I didn’t know I had before. So many

people say that you need so much free time to work out and can’t fit it in their busy schedule. You must

be determined to better yourself. When I first started working out I had to balance out school, lacrosse

practice and finding time for the gym. Sometimes I would find myself working out at 6 am and some

nights it would be after an exhausting practice. I had one goal of becoming stronger and use to always

live by the saying that we all have the same 24 hours. Outside the gym, I see myself as a hardworking

student with studying and working towards becoming the most successful student that I can be. Seeing

myself as hardworking through training because of the work you must put in to become better, just like

school you must work hard outside the close room to see the grades you worked for and want to

continue to find the real me.

I find myself remaining active throughout college and the rest of my life to continue the same

passion I have for the gym. In college, you must find what you want to do for the rest of your life and my

dream is to invest my money in a gym to share that same passion I have for it and change people’s life.

So, thank you dad for teaching everything that you know and changing my life.