I’m sitting on the floor in the hallway at E. Ridge High School while my best friend Frank is in his competitor’s meeting. Today is the Natural Northeast bodybuilding show that he has been preparing for the past year. I’ m sitting here in the hallway with all the other folks who have come to support the competitors.

Frank has worked really hard all year and it shows. Today he looks even better than he did a year ago when he won his pro card at this same competiton. Although I go to the gym with Frank, there is so much more that goes into this than weights. He’s done countless hours of cardio and maintained a strict diet designed to fuel his growth and development. Watching his passion and drive to live healthy and be in the best possible shape is a lot of fun.

Today will be a long day mostly filled with sitting around waiting for things to happen. At the moment there’s no way to predict the outcome of this competiton, in fact we aren’t even sure if there are any other competitors in e pro division.

These competitions provide a strange irony for all the hard work as competitors are going to be judged by a dozen people and their particular biases and whims. I would consider Frank to be victorious even before setting foot on the stage as he is sitting here in better shape than last year, and most likely in best shape of his life. Those are the factors he can control. Everything else is up to others and factors beyond his control.