About Me — Andrey Pilipets. Part I

The story of bookworm who turned passionate trainer & top athlete

Chapter I. A bullied bookworm

I was born in USSR in 1979. The Soviet Union, if you heard it this way. I learned to read books when I was 4. Books had great stories, people were kind and always did great things together. I loved reading books.

I started going to school at 6. I read the whole ABC book on my first day. I thought this was going to be boring. My boredom lasted until the next day.

My classmates started beating me up every day. Most boys in the class did. Why did they do it when people in books were so good? Was that because I studied well? Or because I was 1 year younger than most? It’s hard to tell.

Did I resist? It’s a challenge when you face more than 4 people. Sometimes I tried to resist hard and they hit me hard. I had two surgeries — to fix my broken nose and sew my broken jaw. I remember two times I had to stay in hospital for days after concussions. Every tooth in my mouth is a crown or has fillings.

School bullies are a phenomenon. They unite other classmates against you. I could play football or ice hockey on the street for half a day. There could be kids from my class around and we played along. The same kids could hold my hands at school until a bully got tired. Was that a crowd effect?

I saved my classmate from drowning one day

I remember I went to walk on the frozen pond with one of my classmates. Vadim was the biggest boy in the class. I was in the bottom 5 by size when I was 10 years old. Of course, he walked in front and the ice cracked under him. What happened next was interesting. The day before I watched a TV program. They showed practical tips on how to pull someone out of an ice crack. TVs were useful during my childhood days.

I still remember that I recalled what to do at once. I pulled him out of the ice crack. Back where we came from, the way they told on TV. I pulled out the boy much bigger than me. He was still in danger in his wet clothes. The temperature was around -10°C (14°F). We had to jog back about 2 km to his house.

No, we didn’t become friends with Vadim that day. He didn’t start defending me against bullies. Not that I expected that. No papers wrote about a boy who saved his classmate from drowning in ice-cold water. I never told this 30+ years old story to anyone before you. Don’t think he did, too.

My first six years at school were tough. Yet I need to thank my bullies. They hardened my body and mind. They taught me it’s wrong to fight people weaker than you. Did they manage to beat a lot of crap out of me?

Chapter II. A top student

My life made a sharp turn at the age of 12. They opened a new format school in our city. There was a math entrance exam. The test was a written one yet somehow I knew I passed it as I was heading back home. I still remember that feeling when I’d done the right thing the right way. The results came a few days later and I was right. Woohoo, I was in!

The new school was a real deal. Surprise, there were no bullies there. I could focus on my studies and books. There were sacrifices, of course. I gave up my studies at a chess school and plans to start regular exercise. I had to commute for 2 hours a day and we had tons of homework.

It’s interesting most of our teachers were of Jewish origin. They were intelligent people with great teaching abilities. It was a challenge to keep up with all subjects. Every teacher wanted to squeeze us out to the limit. It was the school’s way to find out what we’re good at during the first two years. Then we could choose one of 3 ways to specialize for the last two years of study.

Extra breathing space was great. I won several city-level and regional competitions in Literature, English and History. I dedicated my last school year to preparing for entrance exams. I had Plan A and Plan B for my university studies. Plan A looked attractive yet had a competition of 17 people per scholarship spot. There were 4 exams: Math, English, Essay and History. I managed to pass them all.

I was going to move from my home city to the regional centre. Why was I excited to do that?

I used to live in a small region by Russian standards. The area is 20% bigger than California and 5% smaller than Great Britain.

My home city boasts a full cycle of metallurgy works. They do things from mining coal to making. It produced the most cast iron in Europe 200 years ago.

The pollution level kept the city at Top-6 in the country. I looked at the multi-coloured sky and smelled the poisoned air. I was adamant I had to leave this place once I had a chance. I had plans to move my family out, too.

Bye-bye, multi-coloured smelly sky. Sorry for not missing you.

Out of my parents' house.

I left my parents’ house at the age of 16. I graduated from school and got into university to study International Business. The uni was located in a bigger city with over 1M population. It was a lot cleaner than my home city. My first two years were easy. The university studies were effortless compared to my last years at school. I kept winning competitions on different subjects. The uni gave me a little cash as a top student every month.

I had lots of free time. I started hitting the gym 3 days a week. I dated girls (I started as early as 14 years old but that’s not counted:). I had several odd jobs since I was 17. I tutored, interpreted, translated and delivered free TV program newspapers. My life was looking good.

UPDATE. Part II is out, you can read it here:

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