Be Open (More About Me) — Omar Imam (Flowmar)

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spun the hoop around, and as it moved across my body, I felt like I was a part of it. The hoop was also a part of me. I had never experienced this before in my life: <b><i>flowstate</i></b>.</p><p id="5d78">Flowstate is scientifically defined as a mental state in which complete focus and attention is upon the activity at hand, usually accompanied by feelings of excitement, joy, ecstasy and serenity. You feel in control. Your sense of time becomes distorted.</p><p id="7dd6">You are engaging at a level that is both challenging, yet achievable. It occurs when you engage in an activity that you are passionate about. You might have experienced it, without even being aware of it. Maybe you’re a basketball player, or a dancer or a competitive chess player, or dare I say… maybe a writer?</p><p id="691f">So, after that night I decided that I was going to become a hooper and a flow artist. So I went out, bought one, and started practicing.</p><h1 id="32ba">Leveling Up</h1><p id="0d65">I f*&king sucked. It was terrible, I had no sense of connection with the prop, and I felt like I would never get anywhere with it. Which is exactly how it should be, whenever you start something new. I feel like a lot of times we hear stories about prodigies and spectacular people who have already achieved the thing… so when we start, we forget to be gentle with ourselves and let ourselves have fun with it like a kid. I decided I was going to learn how to hoop around my waist… 2 weeks later. Done.</p><p id="89d3">Cue Shakira — Hips Don’t Lie</p><p id="48d8">No really, that’s how it felt. F*&king awesome. It was the first thing in my life where I <b>decided <i>I was going to get better at any cost. I put in the practice and hard work and I got better. That brings me to how it is actually the reason why I’m writing this article. I started meeting more “flow" people and formed some AMAZING friendships! One of them, <a href="undefined">Lauren</a>, was someone that I worked at the time. She dubbed me “Flowmar".</i></b></p><figure id="4bf7"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*vwguK7zNg-AKHaow4kTYJQ.gif"><figcaption>Image by Author — “Sammie and I”</figcaption></figure><p id="51ea">It was because of the camaraderie that I felt that my friend Vinny and I decided to start our own hoop-making business. After all, since we learned how to use the prop, we might as w

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ell learn how to make and tape them.</p><h1 id="f259">Entering the Machine</h1><p id="9a22">I knew I was going to sell them online, and I had coded my MySpace page back in the day with little HTML and CSS snippets. I figured it couldn’t be THAT difficult to code a webpage.</p><p id="703e">When I went to create the site for the business… I found the biggest passion in my life, coding. I started taking classes at my local community college and from the moment I was able to print out “Hello World!” on the screen in Python, I knew I had found something magical. Creating something from nothing? Absolutely magical.</p><p id="4182">I went on to take a 6 month coding bootcamp for Full Stack Development, and by the time it was over, I had officially completed my transformation into a computer nerd. Currently, I’m in my senior year at Western Governors University studying Software Development.</p><h2 id="6c21">This is going to be an ongoing About Me where I’ll add in bits and pieces as time goes on. I guess I have to keep extending it backward and forward through time.</h2><h2 id="cc21">Time travel!</h2><h2 id="11b6">Awesome!</h2><h2 id="9e51">Connect with me:</h2><p id="d825">Instagram: <a href="https://instagram.com/flowmarhoops">flowmarhoops</a></p><p id="dc69">Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/flowmarhoops">@flowmarhoops</a></p><p id="40c3">GitHub: <a href="https://github.com/flowmar">@flowmar</a></p><p id="e2cc">LinkedIn: <a href="https://linkedin.com/in/flowmar">flowmar</a></p><p id="e062"><i>©2021, Omar Imam. All rights reserved.</i></p><h1 id="37cc">Be Open Says;</h1><p id="a442">Thank you for creating your More About Me's story, Omar! :-)</p><div id="d425" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/medium-writers-be-open-challenges-you-to-create-be-open-more-about-me-3a39e7aadc6c"> <div> <div> <h2>Medium Writers! Be Open Challenges you to create Be Open (More About Me)!</h2> <div><h3>Readers love you as you are! Submitting your writer’s bio and pinned it is highly recommended.</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*-g0I5o0ZUCF2dnH2v8HC0Q.png)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div></article></body>

A Little Bit About Me

We all have those moments in life that we will never forget, probably a handful of them, or more if you’re sappy like I am. One of those major, revolutionary, life-changing moments for me was my 26th birthday. That was 6 years ago, the Summer Solstice of 2015.

I was hanging out at my friends’ home, celebrating the occasion, staying up late, being hooligans, you know the drill. We decided to go to a park around 1 or 2 in the morning because we had the urge to get on the swings. There was one not too far away, right down the road, so we thought “Sounds like a grand idea, let’s do the thing!” Hayley, Michelle and I arrived at the park, and sat on the swings for a little while, just talking about life and how it’s crazy that we’ve been friends for about 8 years. The night was calm, with the sounds of the insects of Texas (that could be a punk rock band) lightly humming in the air.

All of a sudden, Hayley jumps up and runs to her car and pulls out a hula hoop. She brings it over to me and says “Here, play with this!” I looked at her confused, but intrigued at the same time. I was never very good at using one back in elementary school and never had any interest in them at all. I grabbed the hoop from her and she quickly grabbed it back: “Oh! I forgot!” She pushed down a button on the hoop and pushed two parts of it together. It lit up. Immediately my eyes grew wide and I didn’t give a damn if I couldn’t do anything with it, I was going to do something with it regardless of how badly I might fail.

Image by Author — “Breaks”

Hayley went back and sat on the swings with Michelle and they played music off of a phone. I can’t really put into words the feeling that overcame me when I began to dance around with it. It was like something inside of me was unlocked, and I felt freer than I ever had before. As I spun the hoop around, and as it moved across my body, I felt like I was a part of it. The hoop was also a part of me. I had never experienced this before in my life: flowstate.

Flowstate is scientifically defined as a mental state in which complete focus and attention is upon the activity at hand, usually accompanied by feelings of excitement, joy, ecstasy and serenity. You feel in control. Your sense of time becomes distorted.

You are engaging at a level that is both challenging, yet achievable. It occurs when you engage in an activity that you are passionate about. You might have experienced it, without even being aware of it. Maybe you’re a basketball player, or a dancer or a competitive chess player, or dare I say… maybe a writer?

So, after that night I decided that I was going to become a hooper and a flow artist. So I went out, bought one, and started practicing.

Leveling Up

I f*&king sucked. It was terrible, I had no sense of connection with the prop, and I felt like I would never get anywhere with it. Which is exactly how it should be, whenever you start something new. I feel like a lot of times we hear stories about prodigies and spectacular people who have already achieved the thing… so when we start, we forget to be gentle with ourselves and let ourselves have fun with it like a kid. I decided I was going to learn how to hoop around my waist… 2 weeks later. Done.

*Cue Shakira — Hips Don’t Lie*

No really, that’s how it felt. F*&king awesome. It was the first thing in my life where I decided I was going to get better at any cost. I put in the practice and hard work and I got better. That brings me to how it is actually the reason why I’m writing this article. I started meeting more “flow" people and formed some AMAZING friendships! One of them, Lauren, was someone that I worked at the time. She dubbed me “Flowmar".

Image by Author — “Sammie and I”

It was because of the camaraderie that I felt that my friend Vinny and I decided to start our own hoop-making business. After all, since we learned how to use the prop, we might as well learn how to make and tape them.

Entering the Machine

I knew I was going to sell them online, and I had coded my MySpace page back in the day with little HTML and CSS snippets. I figured it couldn’t be THAT difficult to code a webpage.

When I went to create the site for the business… I found the biggest passion in my life, coding. I started taking classes at my local community college and from the moment I was able to print out “Hello World!” on the screen in Python, I knew I had found something magical. Creating something from nothing? Absolutely magical.

I went on to take a 6 month coding bootcamp for Full Stack Development, and by the time it was over, I had officially completed my transformation into a computer nerd. Currently, I’m in my senior year at Western Governors University studying Software Development.

Be Open (More About Me) — Omar Imam (Flowmar)

How Plastic Circles Changed The Trajectory of My Life

A Little Bit About Me

Leveling Up

Entering the Machine

This is going to be an ongoing About Me where I’ll add in bits and pieces as time goes on. I guess I have to keep extending it backward and forward through time.

Time travel!

Awesome!

Connect with me:

Be Open Says;

Medium Writers! Be Open Challenges you to create Be Open (More About Me)!

Readers love you as you are! Submitting your writer’s bio and pinned it is highly recommended.