A Bit About Me
(I believe that truth is a crucial part of someone, and so, when I write this I write it from my heart, opening myself to whoever reads it, without skipping over the difficult parts, because those things are precisely what make the most out of someone.)
I was born on April 12th on a beautiful island in the Mediterranean Sea called Ibiza. My mother raised me by herself, as I had no father; my life was always surrounded by animals, dogs, cats, birds, rodents, pigs, horses, even an elephant, which for me were more human than other people. When I was 4 years old, my little sister was born. By that time, my mother owned a very successful decoration shop on the island, which at the cost of her energy and time; as she was the only one running it, gave us security and a good life. But I also lost contact with the harshness of life, acting as a shield, which is potentially good when you want to raise a child to be optimistic, to allow them to love and care; which for I’m immensely grateful, but I also acknowledge the ignorance I had towards pain, scarcity, and injustice in the world. In any case, I essentially remember my childhood vibrantly with affection, carefreeness and love, as if it was the prologue to the book of my life. Although, as I grew up I remember being by myself more often, for instance, sitting on the same bench everyday eating the same sandwich alone, just watching people playing and the world moving by, and although that might sound depressing I was very much happy, thinking about the world, looking at small details, and in a way developing a strong friendship with myself, or at least getting to know myself better, where did my thoughts and actions came from and understanding things deeper. But at the end of the day I did have trouble socialising and several times being picked on because of my short temper and naivety. I remember not knowing my place in the world too well; living day by day doing the same things that were inside my “safe space”. After some time, I met the one person who would change it all; she opened my eyes when I couldn’t, she was the trigger for me to awake from a dream-like state in which many of us fall in, and not because she was perfect, she was quite the opposite of that, but she was the most real thing I ever saw, or better put, the most real thing I ever felt. When I met her she was mistreated by her parents and with serious self-esteem problems, with trauma coming from the moment she was given away to some relatives in russia, to experiencing death as a child, being internalised in a hospital for some rare tumour disease, but nevertheless, surviving it all and with a smile, with a beautiful sense of humour and love. I fell in love with her and I promised to myself that I would take care of her and protect her, to give her the life that she deserved. I had to understand an aspect of life that was unknown to me. Trying to protect what at that time was the most important person in my life from suicide and abuse, especially at such a young age, it changes you, forces you to mature and understand the value of life. But not everything is black or white, you must understand that the greatest pleasure comes from effort, from overcoming difficult moments. The happiest moments of my life will always be those in which I felt that someone really loved me. One day, she came with bruises on her face after being beaten by her parents. We went to the police, and then took her father to court. My mother was ready to take custody of her, but the judge was biassed, making fun of her and making comments on her blue hair and not taking our allegations seriously. We lost the case and she was sent away, not knowing when she’ll come back. We managed to communicate with a Nokia phone as they cut off our communication and after months of even worse treatments she came back to the island; I proposed to marry her that summer, and so we made it official. After more than two years I could see how her insecurities and fears slowly faded away, how far she went and how strong she became. But life tends to be more of an obstacle course than a smooth road, and so after a difficult period I discovered my wife's infidelity with a man almost three times her age, not long after that I lost her forever. At that moment, I felt like dying, it’s hard to think how this felt more painful than anything I’ve experienced and most likely anything I will experience. Life became miserable; I could barely get out of bed, I literally felt that part of me died, along with my dreams, my purpose, my love and even my identity to some extent, and also the feeling of knowing that I was not enough to keep the promise I made. With no friends left by my side and feeling at a very low point with my family. But I came to the conclusion that I can’t fall lower than this, that life is still beautiful and there’s still hope for me, that, is either giving up whatever is left of me and my life or push harder than I’ve ever done before to seek a new life. Some time passed and I started to read, to create art, to get into philosophy, to develop passions that I left aside for years, and then I decided to leave everything and travel with a bicycle through several countries and with the money I had on me, for months. This made me feel something again, like I was still alive, it felt like a new beginning. And so time went by, and I decided to strive higher than ever, I put absolutely all my energy and focus into studying in Oxford, for me this was my only chance to survive, to get where I wanted to be in order to start from scratch, and so I began the process, which was absolutely unrealistic, both economically and physically, but I started convincing myself that I was already there, because I feared that whatever was left of me would die if not. And with the crucial help of my mother nevertheless and an incredible amount of stubbornness I made it. After this I promised to myself that I will fight as hard as It takes in life, no matter how impossible my goals may seem, because the things you’ll regret the most are those which you didn’t do, not those that you did. At this point who I was, my identity to call it something, was completely different from what It once was, with new values, ideals, attitudes, dreams and behaviours; it was like a rebirth. There’s the psychological argument to be made that there’s certain experiences in one’s life that can alter the brain, for instance a close to death experience, the loss of someone, an epiphany, etc. Things that can change someone’s personality and identity so much that defies the concept of self. And so it was a new beginning, I even changed my whole name legally; a new view of the world opened up to me, good people who care about me, new friends that felt and feel to this day like family, a way of life that was focused on understanding, enjoying and experiencing the beauty of life instead of trying to survive and living to see another day. People finally saw me as I really was, and somehow Oxford was the place of my second birth. But as I said, life is like a obstacle course, so covid hit and I was forced to return, my mother couldn’t keep the business afloat without foreign customers and the bills kept coming, and so we were faced with the hardest of choices, to sell to house in which we lived all our lives, the house we would pass onto our children if we had any, our place in the island; pay off the bills and debts, buy a cheap house in the Spanish countryside and for my mother and animals to life out of the money left. I still had my expensive studies to finish, and I was faced with the dilemma of spending that money to finish my studies in Oxford or to keep it, go to an institution in Spain with the same curriculum, much cheaper and use the rest of the money to make a freelance carrier for myself, but giving up my chances of going to the top prestige universities in the near future, the decision bugged me for months but I ended up going for the second option; I started investing that summer, and learned over the course of several months, learned from some big mistakes, and after learning to manage properly my money and not be guided most of the times by emotions, I made almost three times my money on my investments, although between the apartment, food and extras I finished my studies roughly with the same amount as I started with. But once I took my studies off of my shoulders and I successfully secured some money, I started my plan, which I put deep though into for almost a year, the whole time I spent in Spain; And that's where I am now, in the first phase, which consists on travelling for two years, 50.000km and 60 countries, every country in Europe and Central Asia by bike; Afterwards I will finish writing the book about the journey, finish the documentary/film and create a large portfolio of stock-photography, then I will proceed to create my first business, which will consist on building and selling luxurious Tiny Homes, Campervans, Swimming pools, Mobile Homes made with shipping containers all over Europe. After 3 years we will start making Airbnb’s on various locations with such Tiny Homes and after 5 years we will open another facility in the United States to meet demand and expand; finally after 10 years o more I will hire a CEO and dedicate the rest of my life to pursue other passions, to travel to everywhere on the hopes to understand, love and overcome; to create things/businesses/projects that will eventually help people; hopefully open an animal sanctuary; pursue the understanding of Arts, Literature, Philosophy, Architecture, sociology, economy, politics, zoology, physics and artificial intelligence. Hopefully one day open my own investment firm on innovative and disruptive technologies; And expand into many more sectors, ones which I wish will contribute to society. Plus many, many more dreams/pursuits that I won’t get into detail now.
“Strive for reaching other galaxies and at least you’ll reach your nearest star”
It’s not a fact of achieving it, but how you lived your life in accordance to what you believe in. To fight for that which you dream and believe and feel accomplished either way, even without being successful in the end. Because life is this beautiful book that is being written with every decision you make, once it’s finished you want it to reflect who you were, what you did, and how you did it. Only thing that matters is what you take out of life.
And that’s it, a very summarised story of who I’ve been, the life I’ve lived and the life I strive to lead