COSTUME REVEAL + My Story! Losing 100 pounds and overcoming life’s obstacles.
Dedicated to the person who got me through the darkest times in my life, @taylorswift.
Here’s the meaning behind my costume. My entire outfit is based around the lyric “the monsters turned out to be just trees”. This lyric truly means so much to me. It justifies to me that all the negative people in my life, all the hardships I’ve had to overcome, and all the self-doubt I’ve had to endure cannot do any harm to me because I am an evergreen tree whose leaves will stay on all year long.
My sign goes from black leaves to green to golden. The black leaves are symbolic of the harsh times in my life while the golden leaves represent where I am now, in the golden age of my life!
The roots on my pants are also golden which continues the reputation theme throughout!
I’m really proud of this costume and am so grateful that my close friends were willing to spend a week helping me get this finished product. My birthday’s on Sunday and it just feels great to know I have such supportive friends.
FYI this is pretty lengthy but for those struggling I hope it’s worth the read.
When I was fifteen, I was in the worst place of my entire life, yet I didn’t even realize it. was living with my single mother at the time in my hometown Miami, Florida. In the span of eight years (since my parents divorced when I was seven), we had moved about twelve times. We could never afford to keep up with the bills, but we just kept on moving around until we could find some sort of stability. We spent almost an entire month with our running water cut off and we had to carry buckets of water over from the next-door neighbor’s house so that we could shower. After my parent’s divorce, I made an immediate connection with my step-mother. She soon became my second mother, one who gave me all the emotional support a kid needed growing up. When my mom spent long nights working two jobs to pay the bills, my step-mom sat with me to listen to Taylor’s songs, she’d cook my favorite food (fettucine alfredo), and she’d just listen to me talk about just anything.
But then when I was fifteen, she was gone. My dad and her suddenly split up and I went from spending half my time with her, to loving her through a phone call. I had lost the only stability I had ever known. Soon thereafter, my mom and I were evicted from the house we were living in and I was sent off to live with my dad and his new girlfriend, one who was everything but friendly. Gone were my home-cooked meals, bonding sessions, and overall emotional support. During this time, I made it to the weight of 285 pounds. I had high blood pressure and fatty liver disease. I’d find myself sleeping through the mornings to wake up to a cheeseburger and shake waiting for me in the fridge. Every morning. I no longer had nobody to talk to and was left to sink into my own thoughts.
As an obese teenager, I was usually the outcast in a group of other kids. I couldn’t run as fast, had to catch my breath after going up a flight of stairs, and was just seen as abnormal. That, along with my love for Taylor Swift among other pop stars led to me being a social outcast. This meant I didn’t really have anybody to turn to for help, besides well, Taylor’s music.
But as the months continued, so did my loss of self. It wasn’t until I was diagnosed as pre-diabetic that I knew I had to turn my life around before it was too late. All the negative people in my life told me I could never change my ways and that well, I’d be unhealthy forever. But Taylor told me something different. Taylor told me, “Today is never too late to be brand new”. And damn right she was.
I moved back in with my mom and I was determined to change. I completely changed my eating habits… in its entirety. I went from drinking two liter bottles of Coke-Cola and a bottle in Nutella in a sitting to eating grilled chicken and vegetables instead. I started walking every day until I found myself walking six miles every day. I joined a CrossFit gym and began to walk six miles and attend a CrossFit class every day. Before I knew it, I had lost ten pounds. Then twenty. Then forty. Until I found myself weighing 190 pounds, a weight I hadn’t been at since the sixth grade. I began shedding the skin that made me feel ashamed of who I was. The skin that caused me to feel like I wasn’t worth believing in.
My determination in school also helped me extremely and I was able to skip the eleventh grade and graduate high school a year early, becoming one of the top twenty students in my graduating class. I put all my drive and ambitions into becoming a healthier person and a smarter person. I was not going to let the person I was change the person I had the potential to be. Taylor always told me otherwise. Taylor’s music was like the best friend that understood everything without an explanation… she just always understood me. She gave me the pep-talks I wouldn’t have had otherwise. She was, in a way, the closest thing I had to someone who believed in me.
By the April of 2017, I was notified that I would be getting a full ride to an honors program at a local college to get my associates degree before transferring to the university of my dreams. I was entering college, a new person inside and out because of the changes I made in my life, which would have not been possible without Taylor.
Then in college I was given the opportunity to create a project for diabetes awareness and prevention in Miami, one that I never thought would go anywhere. I submitted my project to the Clinton Global Initiative for World Change and I was notified that this year, I would be getting an all-expense paid trip to travel to Illinois this fall to attend this world conference, and possibly be able to shake hands with Bill & Chelsea Clinton. I was wonderstruck. I still am wonderstruck. I can safely say that I am finally clean of all the demons that once lurked in my life.
And now, I can proudly say I rid myself of high blood pressure, fatty liver disease, and pre-diabetes. I just finished my first year at college and have a 4.0 GPA and am pursuing a degree in the chemical engineering field. And I will hopefully be transferring to the university of my dreams, Georgia Tech next year. I am the happiest I’ve ever been and I just want you all to know that no matter how dark the times feel, how hopeless you feel, you can overcome it. And you will come out stronger than ever. You’ll come out clean.
I will be attending the reputation tour in Miami, Florida on 8.18.2018 and will be sitting in section 149, row 17, seat 17. I hope I can thank you Taylor in person for everything you’ve done for me. @taylornation
Thank you, Taylor for being the only person who told me you believed in me. Thank you for showing me that I am worthwhile and that I am not damaged goods. Thank you for making me clean.
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