While her peers seemingly had it all figured out, Micary Verville lost her way.
Everyone else knew what they wanted; education, career and social life. Verville didn’t, so she dropped out of college with her mind racing.
Shit. What am I going to do?
A half-decade later, the 26-year-old born-and-raised Portlander and burgeoning fitness influencer confidently answers her old question. Verville is now a rising fitness social media influencer with more than 90,000 combined followers.
“I want to fully inspire other people and show them there’s a way to change their habits,” Verville said. “Not a lot of people are super open about it — and that’s OK because it’s hard to talk about struggling — but I want people to know they aren’t alone.”
A 2016 Deering High School graduate, Verville played soccer, basketball and lacrosse for the Rams. She played lacrosse at Saint Joseph’s College of Maine for a year, helping on the field but struggling in other aspects of life. She transferred from St. Joseph’s to Southern Maine Community College midway through her sophomore year, completed one more semester, then dropped out.
At the same time, Verville started weight lifting regularly. She started at her mother’s gym, a private space located in a former Olympia Sports storefront. Verville felt anxious about the idea of lifting around others, anxious about how others might judge her. Those feelings prevailed when she joined a public gym.
“I was absolutely terrified,” Verville said. “It was really hard getting started and getting myself out there because I felt very weak.”
Months later, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. At-home workouts served as a reprieve when we were told not to go out in public. Once gyms reopened, Verville progressed rapidly — physically, mentally and on social media.
She mended a “not great relationship” with alcohol, dropped her shyness and built stronger social and emotional connections. Being in the gym kept Verville in her own world, not focused on what everyone else was doing.
“You really just have to be yourself and find that love in yourself,” Verville said. “The only person that can do it is you. I have been there and I was severely in there. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what you look like. It’s all about how it makes you feel.”
After gyms reopened post-COVID, Verville started posting her workouts and nutrition tips on her @micvfit Instagram. Influencer status never was Verville’s goal, she said, but now she’s running with it. Her posts still include workouts, nutrition, gym fashion, and most importantly, Verville said, motivational messages often rooted in her past struggles with behind-the-scenes looks into her personal life.
“I want to be as real as I can with people,” Verville said. “I didn’t want to not be genuine about it. Sometimes when people gain followers they start to lose themselves because it’s so hard not to get lost in it all.”
Verville contracts with a handful of companies for endorsement deals and she hopes to someday drop her bartending and serving work in favor of becoming a full-time fitness trainer. With plans to start a personal training certification course “very soon,” Verville plans on first working in a gym, and then moving her personal training online to expand her reach.
“I want to have a big presence and a huge impact on people,” Verville said. “I finally figured out what I want to do.”