Age 18 – Way more confident, positive and keeping a positive relationship with everyone

So in our family, birthdays are pretty much split into a couple of groups; the birthdays from May – September, and the ones from January – February. There’s this one cousin, who’s like my lost brother when it comes to family activities, who sat next to me during our Christmas dinner. My mother told me that she noticed something. That one cousin (who’s like 2 years younger than me) had been looking up to me for the whole night. At first I didn’t really believe her, but I just decided to ask my cousin to come and have a private chat somewhere.

Just some information about my cousin; He’s 16 years old, but his age doesn’t match his maturity. He’s a smart, aware and responsible kid. He knows what he’s talking about, to put it like that. We didn’t meet each other since the end of September, during the last birthday of the ‘group’. (I started NoFap in the beginning of October)

When we were talking, I asked him what he thought had changed from the last time we had seen each other. He confessed that he started looking at me like I was his role model since that day, because in his opinion, I was way more confident, positive and above all, interacting and keeping a positive relationship with everyone I came across. He said that he had always known me as that one guy who started to seperate himself from the rest, who avoided contact and didn’t really care about what was going on IRL, at least that’s what he remembered from the last time we met. He loved how much he could learn from me to be the best person he could possibly be. After I heard what he had to say about my mental health, I truly realized what NoFap was all about.

For me, NoFap hasn’t really been something which I participated for the sake of getting those benefits everyone’s talking about. Ever since I started NoFap, I wanted myself to get back to what I used to be when I was 12/13 years old; enthuisiastic, positive and excited to explore the world. Little things which get noticed by my mother, turn into what I value the most in life. Getting indirect compliments like this, it’s incredible to see what NoFap has brought to my personal life and mindset. People appreciate who I am, and I appreciate who they are. This is just another confirmation that I’m getting back to living with integrity again, and I’m genuinely excited to see what the world has got to offer in the coming years!

Thanks for reading my story, I just had to share it with this community, because it wouldn’t have been possible without NoFap. I haven’t been posting much on this subreddit, but I came here every once in a couple of days to read stories/motivational messages/etc.. To all of you who are struggling to keep going, I hope this little story has motivated you to keep improving yourself over the course of the following months/years <3. Feel free to ask me anything about my NoFap journey so far 😉