I was probably 9 or 10 when, for some reason, I decided that I wanted to have big legs. I was playing soccer then and noticed all the professional players had these lines outlining the muscles above their knees and hamstrings. I wanted those lines.
So I ran non-stop until I got them.
Being strong was always closely associated with being a boy to me. This was during a period where all of my heroes, Rambo, Mr. T, He-man, Mike Tyson, etc. we’re all some form of body builder lol.
I was always asked to demonstrate feats of strength for as far back as I can remember. Seemed like grownups who hadn’t seen me in a while would always want to see how big my muscles were getting, so I had to “make muscles” whenever I saw them. At some point, I decided to start preparing for these tests.
Mostly, my mom would ask me if I was strong enough to pick up bags/boxes to carry from place to place into or around the house. Like any smart woman, she used my manliness against me.
