How it all started...

Another day in the office. What's new? Nothing, as usual. Same shit, different day, that's what I say. At this point, the only motivating factors are the fact that I have my packed food ready for another boost of much needed protein and the all-glorious moment of going home. With all the shit occupying my desk like thriving fungus, I find myself yearning and at the same time dreading for the workout that is waiting for me when I step into the house later. It is back day, yes, the bittersweet sigh that is no more alien to me after all these years. While I'm sitting here with an orgy of thoughts grinding all at once in my head, I can't help but remember how the flare was ignited many years ago...

It was a dull and boring evening spent in a shopping mall located in Bangsar. My parents dropped my brothers and I off, quite hesitantly, as they went off to their friends' place for a meeting. As vividly as I recall the moment, there are much that now appear to be vague. It is, after all, a very long time ago. If i were to give an estimation, I'd say at least 12 years ago. Though it is no doubt an important strand of memory as not only did the events on that particular night made me what I am today, it was also then that I bought one of the first things with my own money, as measely the amount was. Life was hard, money was scarce. I was a boy with a few notes tucked neatly in my wallet with a big smile as if they were the crown jewels of England. It took what felt like ages to reached that sum, a figure I can no longer recall.

Anyway, my brothers and I took to walking around the mall. Life lessons taught us well in not to desire things we could not afford. Window shopping was almost second nature so our parents knew that we would be fine on our own. After what seemed like an eternity, we stumbled upon a sporting goods store and it was then and there that I saw it. A pair of green dumbbells. They looked like works of art in the DISCOUNT section. It was like having Monalisa in a shady wet market. I knew at that moment, coupled with all the reasons an intent young boy could conjur, that I just had to have it! Reasons that I chanted to my brothers and with much success, managed to get them on my side of my personal guilt war and the impending one with my parents. I made the payment, we jumped in success, I was left broke, but we felt like millionaires.

My parents were dubious when we claimed that we would use it for a very long time. At that point, it was more of a shield conjured up for an incoming verbal attack but much to our surprise, nothing of the sort happened. But long and behold, our very first dumbbell. The stepping stone. The flint. The spark. The beginning...

-Zeus