MJN21’s BodyBlog

Hey everyone, I’m not much of a ‘blogger’ but I’d like to take the time to share a story that I think people need to read.  Today I got my first haircut in a little over a year and half.  Who cares right?  Lemme explain.  A little while back before I graduated college, as part of being a psychology major, one of my classes required us to spend some time with kids around the city that I was going to college in, who were troubled or were less fortunate.  I came across a young lady who had cancer and with her treatments had lost her hair.  After talking with her for some time she went on to explain to me that it wasn’t the cancer that bothered her, but the ridicule she always received from the other kids who did not understand why she had no hair.  She said she was ‘embarrassed’ she didn’t have hair.  I could not put into words to you how small of a person I felt at that moment or how much I don’t understand why things like this happen daily.  In my line of work, I come across a lot of trouble people but I still thought about this little girl after I graduated and began working.  It bothered me.  More than anything has ever bothered me.  I went through high school and college well groomed, you know pretty boy like hair, spending time on my appearance not only in the gym but you know always having the prefect hair look…the whole package.   Here I am standing in the mirror primping my hair to look ‘just right’ before I headed out that night and this little girl is more hurt by the appearance comments kids made to her than the actual horrible disease cancer itself (that will probably end up taking this young child’s life).  I decided that I was going to do something.  For a little over a year and half I began growing my hair for the simple reason to cut it.  There is an organization called ‘Locks of Love’ (www.locksoflove.org) that collect hair donations from people to make hair pieces for kids under the age of 18 suffering from various illnesses and problems to rid them of the ‘embarrassment’ felt by these poor kids.  To make a donation the hair has to be at least 10 inches in length.  Now I knew it was going to take time because I had such short hair but I did not care.  The reason I am sharing this story is not for people to say Hey man, great job!  No no.  I didn’t do anything but get a hair cut.  I’ve rarely told people to actually WHY I was growing my hair (besides my close friends and family) because I wasn’t doing it for people to commend me, I was doing it for this little girl and the thousands of other kids that I don’t even know that are going through the same life hardships.  I wanted to share this within the bodybuilding community because bodybuilding has become my lifestyle and with “our” (bodybuilding) shared lifestyles, part of it includes vanity.  Yea most of us do it to be healthy, be in better shape to live longer, etc…but it also comes with vanity.  We like the way we look when we make progress, gains, etc. that’s part of the life.  But a lot of the times (myself included) we get TOO wrapped up in that part of it.  Today I didn’t make a personal record in the gym squatting or felt great because of my workout or the way I looked afterwards or boasted about the progress I have made in the 5 years I have been bodybuilding.  But I got the same feeling…simply by cutting my hair.  Now I’m not sure where this little girl is or even if she is still alive and the same goes for the other kids I viewed on the locks of love website.  I won’t even get to see the kid who gets to put the hair I have donated on their head and see the smile that will be on their face because they won’t have to feel ‘embarrassed’ anymore.  But I know it will be there.  I ask everyone reading this to take a second today to step back for a minute just absorb this little blog.  I simply want to inspire others to do something to help someone else.  No matter what it is, do something to help someone else that is less fortunate than you.  Trust me, you’ll feel just as good to help someone as you do when place in a contest, or you do something great in the gym or made an exciting change in your body.  Bodybuilding is doing something good for yourself, and is a year round 24/7 job.  While we are working hard to better ourselves, take the time to better someone else as well…all I did was get a simple hair cut.  But somewhere out there my little hair cut will mean the world to a little kid that will be receiving a hair piece to help ease the pain that comes along with their illness…think about it….