The Lake Norman Gym Rat

 The Italian gym rat

So who am I? I am CJ Vagnone, a 6 foot tall, 190 pound Italian from Cornelius North Carolina. I live on Lake Norman. I fully embrace the lake life and don't know what I would do with out it. Even with how awful and fake 90% of my high school and the people who came out of it were, I wouldn’t change where I lived or my upbringing because of the lessons I learned at a young age. I think just being on the water alone has something to do with not wanting to be anywhere else though apart for the life lessons.

Lake Norman

My hobbies include training my dog Asher who is a year and 5 month old german shepherd who lives on campus with me, and is my best friend on the planet. Street racing with my "friends" from back home in the Charlotte car scene, which actually sounds a lot cooler than it is because it typically just entails standing around in a cold parking lot for hours trying to lock in bet for a 9 second race or 2. Lastly, my main hobby is powerlifting. Tons of people go to the gym, but not tons of people power lift and not lots of people can do what I do. I think fitness is one of my true passions I just wish there was more money in it so it could be a job not just a passion/ hobby. I do one day want to own my own gym on the side. When I am older that is definitely a dream of mine. That's basically me in a nutshell. I have absolutely no clue what I want to do when I graduate. I have 0 career path and 0 clue what is next for me, all i know is I want a different car for every day of the week and enough money that my kids kids never have to work a day in there life if they don't want to.

I pride myself on being the hardest worker in the room (unless my girlfriend is in the room because then I am second but that's why I date her). I am outgoing, loud, funny, loyal, and I personally think I am a great friend and someone you always want in your corner. After having falling outs with most of my friends in high school moving to college, it really influenced me to be the way I am at HPU and to treat people the way I do and really changed my out look on what a friend is, should be and what the value of having someone like myself in your life can and should be. Like I said before I don't know what the rest of my life holds in store for me, or what I want to do with it but just know, whatever comes in the next few years. I will be the best at it with a great support team of friends behind me.

Keywords: Lake Norman, fitness, lifting, German Sheppard,  cars, street racing