Gus' Journey

By: Mark Soria Castro

Early June in the year 2019 Gustavo Ornelas decided to change his life around. He got picked on at school for being overweight.

This made him feel insecure about himself. “Why is it so hard to lose weight but it's so easy for me to pick up a fu**ing bag of chips” he would say.

He would tell his parents about his plans on losing weight. They wouldn't take Ornelas seriously due to the fact that he would continuously tell them that he was going to start putting the work in and lose a couple pounds but never stuck to the plan.

In 2018 Ornelas attended Bridges Academy, This is where all the fat jokes began, they would call him names like “Fatboy” “El Budlight 408” and “Fatass”.

When it would be time for lunch he would eat alone because he was afraid if they saw him eating they would make fun of him. So when he would receive his food he would go to the back of the cafeteria like he did every day when it was lunch time.

Once he would finish eating he would throw his trash away and play games on his phone, his favorite mobile game at the time was “Clash Of Clans”, A mobile game in which you build your own empire and battle others who try to attack your empire. He would spend the rest of his lunch on his phone playing the game until it was time to go back to class. Once the bell would ring everyone would go to their assigned class number and wait for the teacher to open the door.

While Ornelas waited outside the kids next door to his class would make fun of him for his appearance. “Hey tits,” one kid would say as the others giggled.

Ornelas finally had enough with the others picking on him for his weight. The same day when he arrived home he persuaded his father to purchase some gym gear for him .

It took Ornelas exactly one year and two months to get into the shape he is today. “It wasn't easy but I knew that it was best for me,” stated Ornelas.

By the time that Ornelas was a freshman at Yerba Buena High School most of the kids that would pick on him couldn't even recognize him anymore. He came a long way but at the end all of it paid off.

Ornelas says, “ I tell my story not to brag nor to act cocky, I tell it so i could motivate others to do better, If it wasn't for the kids that picked on me at school i would have probably still looked the same if not worse. For that i'm not mad at them, In fact i thank them for everything they put me through. If it wasn't for them i wouldn't be the man i am today!”

“Every force you create has an echo, your own bad energy will be your undoing.”