“A little over a year ago, my late auntie she passed away from a car crash. She has three sons and one daughter; one daughter had passed away a few months after. She was always like a second mom to me. She helped push me to always pursue my dream of going to the military and my sport of football. So it was between late March that I realized I had to get my stuff together, I didn’t want to be lazy anymore, I didn’t want to be pushed around, I didn’t want to be the last one anymore, so I pushed myself physically and mentally. So, from a year ago to now, I went from 225 to 160, that’s about 50 pounds. I have anxiety and I was judgmental on my body; I was always the big guy in the group not necessarily lacking but it was bad. Now I feel more confident and more diverse and more confident. Quarantine affected me and my family hard because during quarantine we were separated from my brother because he was in military school. It was very complicated with one of my parents not at work, then the other parent was always working and just school life was really a change in our environment, and it was hard to adjust. It kind of sucked yes while they were always working, but I knew that one of them wasn’t working so they were like a stay at home dad and it was more comforting knowing that they were a little safe and not in danger.”