For the longest time, I stayed away from the weight room at my gym.

Not because I’m a weakling who can hardly lift 50 pounds (I mean…I really don’t have any muscles…but that’s not the reason), but because the weight room is traditionally a breeding ground for testosterone. A box full of dudes grunting and veins popping and machines clanking. A place where a tiny redhead listening to Kelly Clarkson on her iPod kinda sticks out.

Even though I wanted to do more than cardio, I was resigned to the fact that I would never visit such a room. That was until a friend of mine changed me forever.

Sara is a lesbian. Therefore she’s not really intimidated by dudes. Thus, the weight room isn’t a scary place for her. Consequently, she told me we were going to start going there.

At first I was very, very uncomfortable. I felt like an idiot with my little weights. I felt completely out of place, always moving the little peg from 250 pounds to 75 on the machines, trying to ignore the hulking figures bench-pressing two times my entire body mass, wiping the puddles of sweat out of my way. It was intimidating. It was daunting.

But it was also sort of liberating.

Once I got inside, I realized no one was interested in me. Guys don’t go into the weight room to stare at girls. They go there to get buff. They go there to show off to other guys. Their eyes rarely wander (probably because if they did 178 pounds would come crashing down on their heads), and almost no one strikes up conversations. Plus, the music isn’t half bad.

These days, I venture into the weight room all by myself. I still feel a bit intimidated at times, but I don’t let that stop me anymore. Worrying about what other people think and see isn’t worth it, especially when the majority of the time all they’re really seeing is themselves in a mirror.

Besides, the other day I spied a dude who was scrawnier than me jumping to reach the pull-up bar. If no one said anything to that guy as he lifted all his 98 pounds off the ground, I’m certain they’ll leave me and my bright yellow 10 pound hand weights alone.