Story #2: The Winner

When I first met him, my impression was only: he’s tall. I mean like, he’s tall, REALLY tall, over 2 meters. 

For Indonesian, it was, yeah, extremely tall.

However, he’s not just slender; he’s quite muscular so everybody could tell that he did sport regularly.

Then, it was revealed that he was a long distance and marathon swimmer. He won a golden medal at the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008 for open water swimming, 10 km.

So, Olympic winner? That’s amazing, according to me, a person who cannot swim for more than 50 meters. But it doesn’t stop there. His story is more than that.

As a curious human being, I googled his name. I found a website of him and they said that ‘In 2001 he was diagnosed with cancer (leukaemia)

and at one point he wasn’t expected to survive. After being in the hospital for half a year for chemotherapy, surgery, and stem cell transplantation, he had the luck to recover and became a professional swimmer again.’

I knew a friend that had cancer. I could say that she looked sad and withered. It made me think that cancer is a severe disease that affects not only your body but also your mind. No way to escape.

But then there he is, a cancer-survivor, winning Olympic Games, and still living in happiness.

“It was like national celebration when he won,” said one of my guests when I asked her about him.

 “He really struggled to win that competition and all people in the country were really proud of him,” added another guest. 

Then, I was sure; I had met a wonderful person