When a person is born, they need to be raised properly in order to be successful. Success also depends on your environment and, unfortunately, your means. Some people are born in more enlightened households and others will have to struggle to the top. In a world of inequality, there is little to do but accept our position and work our way up. There are rules to follow and obstacles to overcome. As an experienced empowerment trainer with proven success, I need to tell you that anything is possible. If I could do it, anyone can.
I was born in a time of plenty to immigrant parents new to Canada who knew just enough to scrape by. Having sent me to Greece to be raised by my grandparents to age 7, you can imagine what kind of a transition I was in for starting the second grade with almost no knowledge of the English language. It was tough to even know how to communicate with my teachers. I managed to pass the 2nd grade with fairly good marks, thanks mostly to my math skills and the way I quickly picked up grammar. In grade 3, I was put in a class in the basement of the school called BP (basement paradise ). It was a nice way of cramming the less successful students in an underachieving class. But I loved it. I soon became the smartest kid in the class. This was due to my mother's constantly looking over me and making sure my work was done and often sending me next door to a retired teacher's house to make sure I was progressing. My uneducated parents unknowingly planted the first seed of empowerment in me --- EDUCATION. Education is a broad concept that people often mix up. I will touch on this later. I was soon a star student and overcame my obstacle of succeeding in school quite easily.
My life got a lot harder as I started high school. I was bullied a lot. I was very sensitive and unable to cope. I was unable to go to school without having trouble breathing or getting depressed. Age 13 was a terrible and pivotal time in my life. There was the bullying followed by epileptic seizures. Then there were the anti depressants I had to take. I was given permission to miss a year of school by the doctor, but I decided to stay. I felt that stopping school would have been beginning of the end. I fought with depression for almost a decade. I am glad this happened because it brought about my creativity.
I was not bullied for long because a gang member that I helped with his homework warned the bully to stay away from me or he'd break his arm. I had other bullying incidents, but this one that affected me so much had been taken care of. I recently met this bully and saw a pitiful man, which truly saddened me. It seems bullying was the only way he could fill the void in his life.
Bullying is perhaps the greatest impediment to happiness and success, breaking us down during our formative years. I strongly encourage all of you to join an anti - bullying campaign in your area in order to help empower children to deal with bullies and empower the bullies to better understand their life and seek help. I will get into this in depth in the future. After all, this is the greatest problem to youth and to adults currently, affecting the increase in suicide rates and depression.
I will write a much bigger bio on my upcoming website and when I publish my short stories. Suffice it to say that even after all these setbacks, I never lost focus on my goal. Not for one minute. Not even through panic attacks and tearful confessions. During my darkest moments, there was always that light at the end of the tunnel that made my current moment worth living. I now understand that it was all a learning experience leading to now.
All my successes I attribute to turblent times and growth experiences. My political career would not have been possible had I not learned how to be eloquent in my creative years. My leadership skills in special interest groups were possible because I had acquired the education to be able to empower myself. My being one vote away from being a member of the Canadian parliament was no fluke, but rather a question of will. And although I lost the runoff to the eventual winner, I took that as a sign that better days were ahead. After all, how many had gone as far as I had?
My proudest moments are less glorious. They are filled with gratitude from people I've helped. From dirty soup kitchens to heading support groups in upper class neighbourhoods, the smiles of gratitude and a human smile of grace under pressure are my biggest reward. My biggest achievement to date is helping myself get out of dire straits and empowering others to do so.
Thank you for reading and I hope to have you at my website when it is up.
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