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I've been Hitlering myself, Stalining myself, Musollining myself, Maoing myself for the past 7 months. I do this because I am a coward, and totalitarian regimes are conducted by and inflicted upon cowards. Something interesting about me is that I am 5'10.225" in the morning. As the day goes on, my spine compresses and I am shorter by about a quarter inch to a half inch come evening. I generally refuse to acknowledge to myself that at midnight I'm 5'9" because, as stated above, I am a coward, and a vain one. This past September I weighed in at 210 lbs, putting me undoubtedly in the "overweight" segment of the population and just on the border of mildly obese. That's funny to me, that last summer I could have been 5'9" and obese or 5'10" and just bog standard overweight-american depending on the time of day, really. But you have to understand that if I were not a coward, this would not matter. The non-cowards among us, the brave and the beautiful, they pay no mind to these things, they can drink milk without spoiling it.  I am no longer as overweight or obese as I once was. The last time I weighed myself, I was at 187.8 lbs., meaning that I've lost somewhere in the neighborhood of 25-30 lbs of fat when you factor in muscle gains. I still have a long way to go, of course. But I have been lifting weights and counting calories and yes, this has unsurprisingly made my life less unbearable. But I'm still a coward. You can't lift away cowardice, cowardice is not something to be shaved off by a caloric deficit. I operate under the delusion that if I can reach a certain set of numbers it will be mathematically impossible for me to be a coward. Lately, I’ve been coming around to the conclusion that my cowardice is parabolic— diminishing itself quietly into infinity but fundamentally unable to arrive at y=(0).  Yeah I lift brah. You must understand that I do not lift to feel strong, but to make external my constant, gnawing, smothering internal weakness. I used to hope that I could draw it out and smash it away beneath the barbell. I'm beginning to understand that my condition is chronic-- it's cellular, in my cytoplasm. When the muscle fibers tear, it is the cowardice that rips itself apart, and when the muscle fibers rebuild themselves it is the cowardice that comes back all the more potent; I foam roll at my cowardice in hopes that my lower back will be less tight, my hips more mobile, the fear made flesh less aching and sore. But really it just looks like I’m having awkward missionary sex with an imaginary partner alone in my living room. What is it that I’m so afraid of? Why am I saying all this? I don't know. There's a girl who I want to talk to and every time she texts me I feel sick. I apologize for how mundane the answer is, really I do. But every time I try to communicate with her I feel like I've said the exact wrong combination of words. She texted me happy birthday today and I somehow found a way to say the wrong thing. She thinks I’m funny, she likes to talk to me, and every time I make her laugh and I hear her laugh I'm reminded of the insect I truly am. Only a coward feels this way when he's around a beautiful woman. No other explanation. Every single woman I’ve ever loved has terrified me. 

Comments (27)

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this post and comment section is exactly why i love this place. big props to you @steelyfan1998, for showing up each day, staring your coward-ness in the eye and working on yourself. i guess we all have a coward bug within us (at least I do), and hopefully, the girl has one at the same level of buggy-ness for you guys to get along
4d ago
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@steelyfan1998 also happy birthday! you have a terrific way with words
4d ago
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@AMMO I’m glad you enjoyed and thank you for the birthday wishes
4d ago
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fear god and all cowardice will become trivial in comparison 😃
5d ago
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this has to be one of the best posts I’ve read during my time on here, god speed to you brother 🫡
5d ago
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Ah yes, the horror of being known. She seems like she wants to know you, don’t let the coward-bug stop her from knowing you. The coward-bug is too much of a coward to ever admit it, but it wants to be known too. At least mine does.
5d ago
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@CELINE this was beautiful. Thank you
5d ago
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loving people can be terrifying, I think overcoming cowardice is not about waiting or wishing it away, it’s about doing the thing scared. texting her back even if you’re afraid to fuck it up, going on a date uncertain, trying new things even if they terrify you. (happy birthday)
5d ago
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@MOONBEAMS thank you moonbeams :~)
5d ago
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happy birthday!!! you’ve got such a crazy way with words man, the cowardice lurks within us all. i think how much you let it overtake you is the real crux of the matter.
5d ago
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@TIFF ❤️❤️
5d ago
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@TIFF you are very kind tiff thank you
4d ago
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Happy birthday! 🥳
5d ago
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@GUYFAUX thank you guyfaux!
5d ago
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A pleasure to read as always! And I agree with the below comment that you should do yoga that’ll help you with that mobility thing
5d ago
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@TATERHOLE <33 thanks doc
5d ago
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@TATERHOLE also I’ve been doing Yoga to help me sleep as of this past week! I love it
5d ago
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@TATERHOLE omg YAY
5d ago
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i can’t stop thinking about this post — also yes what world on fire said!!!!! 1,009% you’re also an amazing writer if i may say so!! came back here to say: we’re all cowards, you don’t have to eradicate that part of yourself. acceptance of your own cowardice would be the honestly p brave. most people can’t do that. it also sounds like your on your way to acceptance, i feel like your in the awareness phase right now which is the worst :/ but the way that you care for yourself everyday by getting yourself to the gym, that hopefully will slowly chisel away at your self rejection <3
5d ago
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@CHRONICWEBUSER that’s very kind, thank you chronicwebuser. I think I agree. If we eliminated our own weaknesses, we’d have nothing to overcome. I think I have to accept that it will always be an uphill battle, one that will kill me like it kills all of us in the end. But there are small victories
5d ago
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@CHRONICWEBUSER the hill will get smaller if we continue to climb it. or at least that’s what i tell myself 🤷🏻‍♀️ HBD btw ❤️❤️❤️❤️
4d ago
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steely i love ur posts sm. i m am thinking abt my calorie counting then gym phase reading this but what motivated me was not a fear of cowardice but a fear of being undesirable/unattractive. is this gender? maybe! anyway, i hope you feel good and proud and strong. regardless of whether or not that girl is your one true love and you end up eachother’s forever, i hope you get a nicer relationship to yourself and the added bonus of being able to squat well over your body weight someday, godspeed brother.
5d ago
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@WORLDONFIRE its tied to gender but i think it’s more compulsive heteronormativity/white supremacy where in order to be a valid adult in society you have to get married have kids etc etc — and if you’re not attractive this won’t happen? so when we have this like fear of not being attractive (i am guilty) is it because we don’t see ourselves as valuable in the context of heteronormative society??? ykwim??? and gender is a huge part of that too!
5d ago
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@WORLDONFIRE thank you my friend— the feeling is mutual. Getting away from the blackpilling and kvetching in my above post, I really am a lot happier now that I’ve made my physical health a priority. and im fast approaching being able to squat above my body weight, hopefully by this summer God willing
5d ago
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damn bro, you should for sure go to hot yoga and breathe it out
5d ago
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U should go to a yoga class and really face it
5d ago
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@GRAHM4NES I’m trying to get more into yoga these days, may give an in person class a good old whirl
5d ago

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