MY GRANDFATHER'S DUMBBELLS (A PROSE POEM)

My Grandfather's Dumbbells

This I have always known: working out is tough. Even the most active and strongest person would tell you that. Even someone who does it every day would tell you that. And, with age, working out just gets harder and harder. My dad has never been the hard working out type, and neither have my brother, my mother, or my sister. My grandfather, however, has, and he has been for all of his life. To this day, he still wakes up early every morning, goes to the sports club, and swims and runs and comes back home. This about him, I have known for long. In a way, I suppose, it influenced me more than I imagined. I remember going to his and my grandmother's house every weekend, and seeing a pair of dumbbells he had on his room, which he used to work out at home. These, to my view, represented his perseverance and determination to keep making an effort to have a healthy life, despite his age, which is often seen as an obstacle by people. To be sincere, I never actually saw him using those dumbbells, but I did hear dozens of stories throughout the years involving him on the sports club before or after working out, as well as some anecdotes about running marathons. I know, a marathon? That's forty-two kilometers. That's about five hours of just running and running, seemingly endlessly. That's insane. I don't know that I could stand that on my best and healthiest day, and yet, right there, I had my grandfather, still going the distance, literally and symbolically, no matter what. Nonetheless, the dumbbells were always a small but significant symbol of my grandfather's persistent attitude. I would see them every time, and tell myself that, one day, I'd have my own dumbbells. Not just literally, but also symbolically, with what the dumbbells implied: that age is not a limit. If age is not a limit, why should anything else be? And, one day, one a weekend while I was on fourth or fifth grade, upon noticing how much I aspired to work out and have a healthy lifestyle like him, my grandfather gave me those dumbbells. Since then, and though he still works out on the sports club, I used them to work out at home, making an effort to maintain his inspiring and motivating values in my own lifestyle.