Soon wrestling consumed me.

I think I understood from the beginning that wrestling isn’t something you do for fun. You do it because you need it. It turns out lots of kids do.

15 POUNDS BY SAM POLK 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 22

There was a time when wrestling was the reason I ate what I ate, slept when I slept, why I bleached my hair blonde, and wore black socks.

The summer before freshman year of high school my family moved from Glendale to a new town. La Canada was whiter, wealthier, and more suburban. I saw opportunity. In Glendale I’d been a nerd, picked on by tough kids, ignored by cheerleaders. I figured that in La Canada I could reinvent myself as a badass. I figured wealthy kids would be easy to intimidate. No one in La Canada would know that I was the one who usually got picked on. I got my ear pierced, bought baggy jeans and a chain wallet, and stared hard at other boys, just like the tough kids in Glendale had stared at me.

Three months into freshman year I stared at the wrong rich kid and got knocked…