Zackary Welch

I am a 24 year old boy/man from the backwoods of Mount Airy, NC. I was born and raised in a nice little town of around 10,000 people where I was raised to be very close to my family, community and church.

All my life I have been a bigger person, but I think it all really started around the age of 8 when I had my adenoids and tonsils taken out due to prolonged infections, etc. As you may or may not know, this procedure requires the patient to eat soft, cold, sweet, and very scrumptious foods for a little while after the operation due to swelling and irritation in the throat. So during this time, I went from a big boy, to a very vastly growing bigger boy. From that point on, the addiction had been started and little did I know my lifestyle was being established.

Throughout my childhood I liked to play outdoors; building forts in the woods, exploring the woods, playing in my sand box, throwing ball, etc. but as a victim of my generation the video game was soon introduced. I remember sitting in front of my Atari, super Nintendo, and other gaming consoles for hours at a time as a child not really knowing what type of life I was setting up for myself. So between the introduction of immense amounts of sweets during my operation (s) and my new found love with video games and technology, my lifestyle was becoming more permanent and routine.

Throughout school I was always a person that everyone knew. I was never the popular kid, nor was I the "looser", but I considered myself the middle person. I got along with everyone, was always smiling and was someone anybody could talk to. Throughout my life in school I was never really bullied about my size, but me and my friends sometimes picked around about me being big, etc. but nothing that really hurt me emotionally.

In middle school and high school I started to really realize that I was "bigger" than the rest of my class, and that this may not be normal; but due to the human nature of a young person I thought I could fix this issues at a later date. I always remember my parents telling me to get a hold of the issue while I was young, or it would be harder to do when I got older; but as you may know kids always know more than their parents so I always put it off. My parents always encouraged me to become more active and get in shape as they would pay for gym memberships, sports fees, diets, etc. Pretty much anything that I was willing to try, my parents were more than willing to provide a way for me to do it; it was just a mere problem that I had little to no self motivation.

As high school was rounding out and my life at community college was beginning I remember the point in my life that I technically hit "bottom" when it came to my weight. I have always been a thrill seeker, someone that likes to go to haunted places, dark scary places, amusement parks, etc. I was a big fan of going to Carowinds, which was about two hours away from where I grew up. I will never forget the day that I went with some friends and got on a new roller coaster for the first time (used to be called the Borge, brand new at the time) and the safety harness would not fasten. I remember this big black man coming over and trying to stand on my chest so the harness would clip, but we could not get it, so eventually he said "dude, you're too fat, you can't ride", these words are forever etched into my mind and left an impression on me for probably the rest of my life. I was devastated, one of my biggest loves, amusement park rides; had been taken from me. But like always I struggled through the hardship of that day, and pushed off the "loosing weight" to another day.