CAS Reflection 3

CAS Reflection 3

Brendan Anders

May 3, 2016

            This past week I went to the gym for my first time ever. For years now my grandpa has been pushing me to lift weights and to take care of my body. Recently, my dad began supporting the idea of me working out and encouraged me to find somebody who would go to the gym with me. The commitment to working out was an issue for me. It seemed an unnecessary waste of my time at first. I committed to working out with a friend several months ago, but our plans took a turn for the worse. I became sick and he became sick and our doctors told us we weren’t supposed to work out until 6 weeks had passed. After resting and waiting and catching up on schoolwork, this past Wednesday I was finally able to commit to working out. I think that probably the biggest challenge of this experience was just showing up the first time. It was really easy for me to blow it off with excuses like “I don’t have a gym pass” or “I can’t today,” but really these were all just excuses that I used to validate me not dedicating some time to that aspect of my life. I think that I finally chose to go for the first time because I wanted to become better physically. I was a middle school athlete, but I stopped participating in sports in high school. I am in marching band, but the marching season isn’t really long. I started running this past year and that kind of reminded how it felt to be really active. Perhaps it was just the longing for physical activity by my body, or the endorphins that go rushing through your brain when you’re working hard, that helped me choose to go to the gym. Personally I’ve never been all that big about physical activity, believing that becoming smarter was more important. Part of the IB Learner Profile is to be balanced, and so I decided that maybe it was a good time for some more balance in my life. Going to the gym the first time was both daunting and exhilarating. I went expecting the place to be full of huge guys that were all looking down on me for being so skinny and weak. I was surprised to find only two men that seemed extremely muscular, and so many more were just average and everyday people. This really opened my eyes to the fact that a lot of people really are working to make themselves better. One man in the gym worked out for longer than me and my friend did, and he looked to be at least 65 years old. This experience challenged me to revamp my thinking about the gym community. I was subject to many of the stereotypes that are often found with people who work out. I am pleased to say that the experience was not at all as daunting as I had originally feared it would be. After working hard with my friend for about 45 minutes, we finished our exercises. The way I felt afterward was actually extremely surprising. While I knew I would be sore the next day, I felt refreshed and really alive after working out. The experience really opened my eyes to what really can become of something that you underestimated or held inaccurate predispositions about. It also helped me understand why some people develop an addiction to working out; the feeling that comes with it is so great. I felt confident not just about my body, but also who I was as a person. While I know that I don’t have to be the most ripped guy ever in order to feel good about myself and to be a great person, I could see a noticeable shift in the way that I looked at myself. I have worked out five more times in the week since then. While I know the commitment will be challenging with school, I know that I will figure out a way to make it work. Finally, this experience really helped me realize even further that I cannot keep relying on stereotypes to justify why I do or don’t do some task. If I had never taken the risk and looked past what I had heard and experienced it for myself, I never would have had the chance to have this experience, and I am all the better for it.