After a long break, I’m truly happy to meet you again and to be here on such a wonderful platform. I really love to travel and share my experiences. But for now my freedom is limited. I believe that soon I will be able to free myself from these restrictions. I came to overcome my depression. I want to tell you about my life. I want to change and start a new life...
Part 1 — Childhood and Family Struggles
My name is İsmail Alkan, I’m 35 years old, and I’m the only child of my parents. I was born in Malatya, but when I turned six, we left the city and moved to Ankara, where we lived until I was nine. Then life took us to İzmir, and we started anew. The reason for the move was painful: my father had cheated on my mother, and I saw it with my own eyes. I was still a child, but I told her everything. Looking back, I realize it was a mistake — my words set the divorce in motion. My mother and I left for İzmir, where we stayed with relatives who helped her find a job. I started school, made new friends, but deep down, I constantly missed my father and prayed he could be with us again. My childhood was far from happy — it was filled more with pain and stress than joy. I was a bright student, but family troubles kept me from focusing on lessons. I spent most of my time with friends, skipping classes. My mother and I argued often, and I became a troubled teenager… yet I still longed deeply for my father. Eventually, my mother understood that I couldn’t live without him, and she agreed to reconcile. It was the happiest day of my life — my parents were together again. After a hard period, we started over: in İzmir, our family made a living selling books from a street stall — pirated books, to be honest. After school, I’d run straight to the stand and open my own table. Perhaps because I was a child, people often bought from me, and I made good money — enough to surprise my father.
Part 2 — Prison, Betrayal, and Solitude in the Mountains
As I grew older, my problems grew with me. I realized that often I was the one making my life harder. In this world, both the good and the bad you do — you do to yourself. At 23, I ended up in prison, serving six years and three months. It’s a terrible place — spending all that time locked in a cage was incredibly hard. But I didn’t give up: I focused on sports, I read books. It became the greatest lesson of my life. I went to prison because of my friends, and I lost my trust in people. Then, while I was inside, life dealt me another cruel blow — my mother cheated on my father and married another man. It was as if fate was playing strange games with me. I was exhausted. I haven’t spoken to my mother for five years, and it pains me — in my moments of greatest need, she was not there. I longed to go somewhere I could feel at peace. I found that place in the mountains. There, I lived alone, trained, read books, and every morning I would listen to the melody of the birds. It brought me joy and serenity.
Part 3 — Another Fall, a New Decision
But eventually, I came back to the city — and once again, through friends, I got into a fight. I lost control; when the police came to break it up, I didn’t even see them — I attacked everyone. For that, I received another sentence, and this December I will go back to prison. Life has kept playing its strange games with me. Still, as I said before, whatever you do — good or bad — you do it to yourself. I tried to do good, but I kept meeting evil in return.
Recently, I fell into depression and stopped training. But now I’ve made a decision: despite my troubles, I will rise. Because those who do not give up in the hardest moments are the ones who win. I’m starting my journey back to the best athletic shape I had seven years ago, and I plan to get there within a few months.
Maybe you’re in a similar situation. Maybe I can inspire you. Let’s do this together! I will make videos with pictures and tips on training — how to build muscle, how to lose weight. It will make me happy to share what I know.
Thank you for reading🙏🏻