17 August 1997, it was 6 AM and a small kid decided that he was ready to explore this giant world. That small kid got the name Lars Vergote, named after one of Swedish best football players ever: Henrik Larsson. Thus far my relationship with any Scandinavian country, because everytime when I go on a holiday people think that I'm either Scandinavian or Russian.. I got to admit, I don't mind to drink some Wodka, but hey who doesn't?
I grew up in Wingene, it's a village in West Flanders, and yes it's true what they say about Wingene: there are more pigs than people in our village! I grew up with my parents and 2 brothers: Bram (11 years older) and Pieter (14 years older). I went to Centrumschool (way better than Sint Elooi or Wildenburg, Wingene kids will understand the hate) and I also played football at our local team: KVC Wingene. The first ten years of my life I was obsessed with football, and I don't want to brag about myself but I was really good at it. I scored each season around 150-180 goals and Club Brugge wanted me! But then, on a warm October day in 2007 my life changed forever.
Try to find me ;)
I was playing football at the playground when I got stuck with my foot in a subsidence. I wasn't looking to my feet and wanted to keep running so my kneecap made a 360. Before I knew, I was lying in the hospital having a knee operation. Conclussion after 4 months of rehabilitation: 1/10 of my kneecap is dead and I will never be able to play football again. When I heard this, my life collapsed because football was (and still is) a huge part of my life. A few years ago we tried to fix my kneecap again because the operation that I had wasn't performed well. So we went to the sports doctor of Club Brugge (my father works there) and he tried to flow some blood in my kneecap again by placing 5 aluminium pipes in it, but the harm has already been done.
I'm not that kind of person who sits back and doesn't do a thing about it, so I started swimming at the Tieltse Zeeduivels. For the first time after my operation I finally was able to enjoy sports again. I even became third on the Flemish championship 200m crawl! But the amount of school work and intensive training schedule (training at 5:30 am before going to school) decided that I had to stop doing something that I liked, again.
And life after that wasn't easy. Bad grades during my first year of secondary school, no motivation to do sports again which leaded to becoming fat, getting bullied, having difficulties making friends in secondary school,.. Secondary school wasn't really what I expected it to be. During my second year I was in a new class and made new friends, but the bullying never stopped. It was only during my final year that I decided to do something about.I realised for the first time that life is what YOU make of it. So I grew myself a beard (I always wanted to have one), changed my hairstyle and outfit and started jogging. For the first time in 6 years I was who I am, not a puppet of what society wanted me to be. And I got to say, it was the best decision of my life!
So to all the kids out there, who are struggling in secondary school: be yourself, do what you want and what you think is best for you. Secondary school is only a phase in your life, don't let those kids decide who you are!
To end this blog post, I want to share some lyrics of an amazing song (Sum41 - Fat Lip). It's kinda my life motto: " I don't want to waste my time, become another casualty of society".
See you in a few weeks!
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