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My parents immigrated to America
from Italy both at different stages of their lives. My father came
to NY at the age of 26 after growing up during the depression, and
World War II. He left poverty to become a tailor for fashion models
in Italy. He then moved to NY with the desire to make money and grow
his own business. My
mother on the other hand came to America from a rich family that
basically had everything they ever wanted. She came to Canada to
live at the age of 8 where she learned French and then later
migrated to Boston at the age of 13. They met and were married 6
years later.
Ever since I was the age of 3 I
have always been interested in looking up to muscle. I can remember
when I was 3 years old I used to wait for the trash men to come and
take the trash. One of these men had big arms and I would tell my
mother and sisters that is what I wanted to have when I was older.
When I reached the age of 5 all
I wanted to be was in the army or be a cop. A cartoon that had a big
influence on me was He-man. Not only did I think I was He-man, I
knew one day I would be like him. Superhuman strength, perfect body,
and a good sense of humor.
My brother was a bodybuilder and
so were most of my older cousins. I grew up in the 1980's and since
my parents worked all day it was my siblings and cousins who laid
the impression on me that I needed to be muscular and strong. So as
a kid I was wild, pretty much out of control but I had a lot of fun
being that way.
I also remember being very sick
at the ages of 7, 8, and 9. I would get major ear infections that
would stop me from going to school. I missed most of the 1st and 2nd
grade because of it. I almost stayed back but my mother would not
let me. She said I was too smart to be given a break. So I began
studying very hard as I was put into Christian schooling. The
teachers were very strict, but I learned a lot. In fact I learned
too much. So much that my mother could not afford to pay for school
any more.
Public school was a joke, I
never studied. I had already learned most of the stuff they tried to
teach me in public school. So my grades stayed in the A-B range and
I got lazy with school. At age 13 I started playing around with
weights. At that point I was one of the best baseball players in my
town and area also. So I worked with weights and I never trained my
shoulders because I was scared it would ruin my swing.
At the age of 14, this girl
Tiffany who was much older than me told me she loved muscles. I
liked her a lot and I really never had a girlfriend at that point.
She would say really dirty things to me in class and tell me that if
I got big she would go out with me. I started lifting and I knew I
would grow because most of the guys in my family were huge. My
brother was extremely large but he liked to party too much.
So I grew, and when I came back
from sophomore year right after the summer I was the biggest kid at
double sessions. I was the biggest kid in high school. I trained my
butt off and ate so much food that I went from 135 pounds to 185
pounds. From that point on I basically honed all my extra time into
training, and playing baseball. I got injured in football which
meant that I could not play sophomore and junior year.
In my senior year I quit
baseball and put all my time into football and bodybuilding. I was 6
ft tall 212 lbs with 6% body fat. I could rep out 225 pounds for 25
reps, and I was only 17 years old. I continued to play football and
baseball in college but bodybuilding took over my life. |
