People often ask me how do I have so much energy? I often had trouble answering this question and was unsure of what to tell people. Lately I’ve been thinking about this question more and I feel I have a better understanding of how to come up with an answer.

For starters, I feel as though being an athlete and staying active heavily contributes to me having a lot of energy as it allows me to move around and work hard for something I’m passionate about. I usually wake up early to go for a run and sometimes I have my hard workout days where I’m pushing my body to the absolute limits, stuff that no normal person would do. When I do those workouts, it gets me fired up and pumped for the day.

Something else I feel is worth noting is the number of hours I get from sleeping. Usually, every night I would try to get 8-9 hours of sleep so that I can have a good amount of rest before I go workout in the mornings. I know that getting a lot of sleep per night allows me to gain a lot of energy for the day and allows me to perform at the highest level. But there are times when I don’t have workouts, usually these are days where I call them “off days” which are vital for that mind-body recovery elite athletes need so that they can stay healthy for long periods of time, and during my off days I like to compose a good mindset for that day.

Having a good and healthy mindset contributes a lot to my energy. It allows me to keep that energy going and keep a good aura around me, an aura which I believe others see in a positive light.

Now others will say “Mann you got TOO much energy!” which in some ways I can see how I can have “too much” energy. In situations where it was semi serious I would be joking around or not being in the same mood as everyone else is and it’s something I’m working on even now as I’m writing this essay.

Self-expression, as we know, is crucial to our overall well-being, however, with me I can express myself a little too much. I want to note that the way I express myself can be good most of the time but there are times when I can be “too energetic” as my girlfriend would say whenever we’re shopping for groceries at Kroger. I admit I can be too hype in situations where it is unnecessary or inappropriate. Another instance of excessive self-expression there would be times when I would be at the doctors, and I would just say some of the stupidest crap in front of my mom and the others nearby and it would PISS my mom off. She would get on me about me being too energetic at the doctors and I used to be annoyed by that because I didn’t think it was a big issue and I was just vibing. But looking back there is a time and place for everything and the doctors are NOT the time to be making fart jokes in front of elderly moms and their 8-year-old kids. There’s a healthy way of self-expression and how you decide to express yourself will ultimately decide how others perceive you but if you can do it the right way, I believe heavily it’ll give you more energy in your days.

Lastly, I have always been a super energetic person throughout my whole life even during my days of being an introvert. My energetic nature is how I live, it’s how I do pretty much anything I do in my life from running track to studying with the boys. Obviously being a naturally energetic person will contribute to me having energy but I didn’t put this in my essay to just flex that I naturally have energy all the time because, in reality, there are days where I don’t. I put this here because I want to tell the world that it’s okay to naturally have a lot of energy. You see, even though there can be times where being “too energetic” is bad, there are also a lot of times when you shouldn’t be afraid to showcase the energy you have and not to feel held back by the bounds of society. We’re always told how we should express ourselves, what society thinks is right and why we must care, how we present ourselves in public, the whole jargon. But I am telling you that you don’t always have to be bound by society’s rules. You can always go a little “off-track” with society and be who you truly want to be. I strongly believe that doing that heavily contributes to having a lot of energy and is why I embrace being naturally energetic when I’m around my people and embrace my ways of living. Embrace yourselves, don’t be another soul trapped in the eyes of society, be you.

That is how I have energy.

Picture taken by Milesplit at the Golden Eagle Relays in February 2023