Pushing Past Limits

I had an uncle who lived here in the United States, who would come to our house to visit my mother and me or come to the parties we would have. My uncle would always help and give me advice whenever I had a hard time with bullies at school or trouble talking to girls.

Ever since elementary school, I have had problems with bullies because of my weight. In middle school, it wasn’t such a problem because I could defend myself, but I was still insecure about my weight.

Quarantine made it worse. 

My uncle would point out to me in Spanish, “Son, you know you still have time to change the way your body looks if you want.” 

I would point out in Spanish, “I run but I don’t see any changes in my body.” 

He would then reply, “Of course, you won’t see any changes in two or three days it takes time,”

I would just mutter, “Well I won’t change, I’ll still be fat for the rest of my life.”

By the time I got to high school, I still looked the same, but the only thing that changed was my age and my attitude. When I hit tenth grade, I still looked the same until I made my decision in mid-September.

I remembered something that my uncle said to me once: “Son, even though you might get tired of running remember to always push past your limits” 

I just replied, “Thanks, you always know what to say.”  

Then that’s when I decided to join the track team and worked hard every day even when I wanted to give up, but I still kept going and by the end of November I had lost lots of weight. I talked with my uncle and he said, “I’m so proud of you, and keep on going!” 

I replied, “I couldn’t have done it without your help uncle, thank you.” 

And that’s how I got to be who I am today with my uncle’s help and advice that he would give me every time he would visit me.

But now he’s not with us anymore. He had to go back to Mexico last year.