Cerebral Palsy Living Independent, Part 2, Growing Up And Choice In Life
I move from home when I start high school in another city. Maybe I was around 17 years old. So for a year, I lived on the week, 2 hours away by car, from my birth family. Residing with a family but I had to do food, laundry and everything else you have to do when you live yourself.
My growing up was special, what I think. I have calculated that 17 people lived with us between what I was the age of 7 years to 15 years. Then I have only counted those who lived more than 6 months. For four years we had 6 Indians living at home with us. Had famous musicians living and in principle were all living artists. So maybe it’s not that strange that I’m an artist.
With all these people, different norms were created. So I have learned a lot of different systems how people can live a life. So coaching is one of my specialties.
In addition, I was always in motion and lived regularly with different types of people. I have registered at 300 addresses and my sports career meant that I was constantly in hotels and training camps in my native country, Sweden and abroad.
My first apartment was probably not until I was 24 years old. Then went to the author’s school. Before I was 2 years old in an elite sports college. This was 1992. Did not come to Paralympics then, but only 4 years later, Atlanta 1996. After that, my life begins. I had no idea how to live a life. I seriously thought that anyone who did not train to the Olympics had a meaningless life.
1996 after Paralympic, my company started to work seriously. I speak to people. They told me you are not wise believing you can feed yourself to talk, but they were wrong. The public speaking industry is now (2017) one of the largest businesses in Sweden, not knowing much about other countries. But in 1992, when I opened my company, there were few who lived in public speaking.
The public speaking profession is a lonely job, just like pianists or other around traveling professions. You have your show and you will end up alone in a hotel room somewhere. Many times, you do not know the city you are in. My relationships with women were not my best subject. I was so busy by my athletes and I did not see all the women who fell in front of my legs, literally.
My present wife, Gai and her two daughters. With Barbro my first wife who was visiting a number of years ago
Beginning in the 2000s, I realized that I should engage more in this subject and soon after I meet my first wife. Had lots of strange untouched relationships before, but with her life became more stable. We were both public speakers and yet we have contact regularly. My current wife calls her big sister. Without my first wife, I had been a lost soul on the planet Earth. 2009, when I moved to Thailand, we divorced. I needed to take care of my cramps and pain in the body in the heat and in her life, there were grandchildren and other things that made her stay in Sweden. I do not have my own children, but both wives, or how to express myself, have grandchildren.
This story of my life is not especially about Cerebral Palsy living independently, but more about how a life can look, but I have a CP injury. I want to highlight that I lived a fairly common life from the perspective of life issues everyone poses.
How to move from home the first time by yourself, school, profession, get family and more. Of course, I’m a bit extreme, professional career.
My first job was elite athletics, world record holder in the long jump, for my injury class. Then public speaking, coach and now artist musician.
Has also worked with other things, for example, a research assistant for a number of years on the subject Cerebral Palsy.
I only meet one person who sailed across the Atlantic since I did it in 1988 and I meet a lot of people.
Most people do not move to another continent or another country. I know no CP-injured who have moved permanently from Europe to Asia, but there are surely more than me who changed continent. I can say that it’s a big change that takes many years. Since I moved 2009, to Thailand, my life is totally different. I am much happier and live my passion, in a different way than I could ever have done in Europe.