“I had an unfair advantage in that I really, really hated being a chode. Most people just find it moderately uncomfortable.”
– Owen Cook
Long time readers may have picked up on this already, but I’m going to finally state it outright: I did not enjoy my childhood.
I didn’t grow up dirt poor, or get raped by my uncle; I just didn’t have a lot of fun growing up. Around the time I became a teenager my family moved to rural Iowa, a place where I didn’t fit in. I was the type of kid who liked art films, poetry, books, fixing computers, and cooking. Everyone else liked football, hunting, and trucks. As such, I spent most of my teens feeling like an outsider. To say that things weren’t great would be an understatement. Thanks to a combination of my environment and Web MD I thought that I suffered from an incurable case of depression.
I decided to make a bold move and leave the country, a decision which made me realize that I wasn’t depressed after all. I returned home with a new found confidence and started to really enjoy my life.
Then summer came.
I was back with the same people I’d grown up with, and I didn’t enjoy it at all. I spent most of my time at home reading books and avoiding everyone. Three months of boredom and depression really took a toll on me. Since then I’ve been dreading summertime and trying to insure that it will be better than last year.
While I’ve made a lot of new friends from going out and talking to strangers, I wanted to make sure that my summer would be a memorable one. To do so I’ve spent the last two months getting huge on a 20-rep squat program, dressing more stylishly, not using my Facebook account, and becoming more cultured.
I’ve secretly been working on each of these items since early April, and I’m now at the point where I feel comfortable enough to share my results with you.
The recap begins tomorrow, stay tuned.