Put Down That Bag of Bricks

By Destro Designs – Viper Den Studios

My brother Mark Fogarty dropped a video today chronicling the story of how his channel became Destro Is My Spirit Animal. It’s a very personal, revealing story, and I give him a ton of props for having the courage to share it.

And here’s why.

In this incredible community we have on Twitter, one of the things that makes us so cohesive—and makes this such a great place to be—is that openness is rewarded with positivity and encouragement.

It’s a huge thing in life to open up your chest, expose what you’re carrying inside, and risk having somebody reject it for one reason or another.

As dudes, we’re largely expected not to talk about these kinds of things, especially openly with people we may have only met over the internet. For generations, guys were taught to keep their struggles to themselves, suck it up, and keep moving.

But seeing people willing to break through that wall has been an incredible thing for so many of us. In fact, I would argue that it has legitimately become a staple of our community.

It’s truly at the core of why this place is so great.

It started with dudes like CG Horror and Mark Potter being incredibly open about their struggles with mental health and the things they’ve gone through. By being willing to talk about those struggles publicly, they became something of a guidepost—a lighthouse—for our brothers and sisters who needed to know that taking care of yourself matters.

They showed people that there is nothing wrong with trying to heal the shit that keeps us down or holds us back.

Because no matter who you are, you’re carrying around a bag of bricks of some kind.

Maybe it’s something somebody did to you. Maybe it’s something you did yourself. Maybe it’s regret. Anger. Failure. Rejection. Trauma. Fear. Or something you’ve carried for so long that you’ve almost forgotten what life feels like without it.

But if you want to live fully, eventually you have to learn how to put that bag down.

Stop carrying dead weight from shit that happened to you years ago.

That doesn’t mean pretending it never happened. It doesn’t mean ignoring it. You process it. You acknowledge it. You understand how it affected you.

And then, somehow, some way, you drop that fucking bag.

You stop letting yesterday dictate tomorrow.

And, true to the spirit of this community, Mark does exactly that in his video.

He puts himself out there. He tells people what this community has meant to him. He explains where Destro Is My Spirit Animal came from, and in doing so, he shares a piece of himself with everybody watching.

That deserves recognition.

So, major bravo to my brother Mark for putting himself out there and letting people know what they mean to him—and for telling the story behind the name.

Bravo, brother.

Take your standing O. You earned it.

Watch Mark Fogarty’s video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wwnx__ChIVA

— Destro Designs – Viper Den Studios