: Panagiotis Michael
: Mr Be Strong: The Tourist of Life A True Story
: AKAKIA Publications
: 9781909550414
: 1
: CHF 7.40
:
: Biographien, Autobiographien
: English
: 411
: DRM
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB

'One of my dreams was to write a book about my life. Most people stop dreaming when they become adults. We become stern, busy, cynical and we forget to dream. Without my dreams, I wouldn't have made it through life. This book was written as a reminder of the importance of dreams. It is the realization of my own dream, perhaps my biggest one so far. I wrote this book in hopes that someone would gain strength through my story. If my ordeal empowers even just a single reader, then it will have been worthwhile. Had I given up on my dreams, life might have given up on me.'


Panagiotis Michael, a professional gymnast, delivers an 'aerobics' lesson on finding our inner strength and getting through hard times. After a health ordeal which left him paralyzed as an adolescent and battling cancer as an adult, he shares his experience with us through his empirical writing. He gives us an important lesson on empowering our body through exercise, feeding our soul with laughter, drawing strength from our dreams and never letting go of our hope. Because when you stop dreaming, you stop living!


70% of the sales' net income will be donated to BE STRONG Charitable Organization which supports people with cancer from Greece, in order to create the 1st Cancer Survivors Wellness Centre in Greece.

MY CHILDHOOD


 

In a foreign land

 

 

Hamburg,Germany,1971, aglum winter’s day in a dark blue Opel Kadett. The driver, cheerful but pensive, a cigarette in hand and the window open to spare his passengers the inconvenience of second-hand smoke.

 

It’s my father, Andreas. A Cypriot immigrant, who moved away from home at 18, seeking a better life. He worked as a weldor in German shipyards, a tough job considering he had to endure temperatures as low as -18c to provide for his family.

 

Let’s take a look at his passengers: In the back seat my mother, Sophia, cradling a tiny baby in her arms. She had also left her homeland, Topoliana, a beautiful village on the outskirts of Karpenisi, as a young girl, for a better future. She’s a worker at the Nivea factory. Later, she will double as a seamstress to help her growing family make ends meet, since on this day, we are bringing home its new addition: My newly-born sister, Stella.

 

How strange life is! Two people from a far away land found each other and fell in love in 1966Germany. The fruit of this union arrived shortly after. On the 27thof July, 1967, I was brought into this world, though I had no say in the matter. I was their first born, and they named me Panagiotis.

 

Contrary to what most people might think, I was far from pampered. My father was a strict man who came from a conservative, underprivileged family. In later years, I would come to realize he wasn’t as rigid as he had seemed through my childhood eyes.

 

I’m sitting in the back seat by my mother, my wide hazel eyes set on the little creature covered in a blanket. I feel a little uneasy about having to share my parents’ attention.

 

“Mom, where did we get this little baby from?” I asked.

“From the supermarket”, my mother answered.

“Can’t we return it? I don’t like it.”

 

You see, I felt threatened- even though I was only 4, I knew I was losing my exclusivity. That’s for those of you who think kids don’t understand.

 

What we call the ‘stone years’ were particularly tough inGermany. Not that I had any comprehension of this fact at the age of 4, but as I grew older my father's vivid accounts painted the situation for me. In order to marry my mother, he had to sell his only professional tool, his welder.

 

Present at the ceremony were just a couple of acquaintances and the best man. Ostensibly a modest ceremony, it was lavish in feelings of love, companionship and de