Call of the Wild
Hi Mike,
Here an article about 2003. Keep in touch. I will let you know when all is done. 200 chapters. At least I will have a nice bankroll when making it to at least the david letterman show. LOL. That provide a nice bankroll. How nice illusion could be. You just have to pick the right one and make fun of everybody else who think that their life is the only truth there is.
I am getting lost myself. Wonderfull isn't.
Be well,
Stuart
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High jumper Stuart Wild is training and hopes to make the U.S. Olympic team.
ANNETTE M. DROWLETTE/STAFF
Call of the Wild
High jumper aspires for American dream
Web posted Wednesday, July 30, 2003
By Rob Mueller | Staff Writer
He walks into the lobby at Health Central holding a gym bag in his hands and a story in his heart.
He is lean, 6-foot-5, with a chiseled European face, steel blue eyes and scraggly blonde hair, and he stands out in the crowd of sweaty middle-age businessmen pedaling away on LifeCycles for a lunchtime workout.
He looks like a world-class athlete because that's what he is, an accomplished Dutch-born high jumper chasing an American dream.
He came to the United States nine months ago to marry an American girl, a Medical College of Georgia student he met in Holland, and also to train with the hopes of making the U.S. Olympic Track and Field team.
But there is more to Stuart Wild than meets the eye.
"I am not normal, nor do I wish to be normal," Wild said as he straddles a weight bench before an early afternoon training session. "If you strive to use your full potential as a human being, you can't be normal."
For the 37-year-old Wild, normalcy has never really been an option.
Born in Holland and the son of a rape victim, he was given up for adoption.He spent the first year of his life in an Amsterdam children's hospital.
Adopted as an infant by a young Dutch couple, he was given the name Paul Broekhuizen, a name he says never felt like his own.
The self-proclaimed "black sheep" of the family, he was rejected by his adoptive father, tortured throughout his young life by his own conception, driven to the verge of suicide one day when he was only 19.
In a way, Paul Broekhuizen died that day.
Seventeen years later, he changed his name and changed his life.
Stuart Wild was born, and life has never been better.
"Many people don't dare allow themselves to change, but I knew I had to change everything," Wild said. "I have gone through what you would call a transformation. I always knew who I am inside. As a person, if you are not happy, you must be willing to be a transformation to grow and to find your happiness."
For Wild, this transformation and his ongoing pursuit of happiness, goes beyond competing, winning or claiming a spot on the U.S. Track and Field team.
High jumping, Wild says, is only part of his story.
He became a Christian four weeks ago because, "I don't know why, it just happened, and I am happy because of it."
He works as a dishwasher at a local restaurant and "I do my very best and take as much pride washing dishes as I would any big bucks job."
He is a card-counting expert who makes extra cash playing high-stakes poker on the Internet because, "I like doing things that others are afraid to do."
And he will marry Leanne Buckner in August because, "I love her a lot and helped make her aware of how beautiful a person she is. I feel blessed because of her."
Above all, his sport, he says, is only one small part of the person he has become.
"I don't really care about how high I jump; I only care about enjoying the moment I am in," Wild said."You don't need to beat anybody else, for if you focus on beating everybody else, you have already beaten yourself. This is what I feel I can give to people.
"So many people are focused on being a champion or making the big bucks in their jobs, or whatever, and once they become a champion, they realize they have nothing. I would like to help people to see what I have seen."
Which is why Wild looks down the road and sees himself not as am athlete, but as something more. Something kind of like a "spiritual adviser, coach, and motivational speaker," he says.
"You don't see many like Stuart around the gym," said Harry Mercer, a certified strength and conditioning coach who works with Wild. "When you have a certain, strong spiritual outlook on life, like Stuart does, you can free yourself from certain restrictions you have, and I think that certainly helps him with his jumping."
As for his quest to revive his high jumping career at 37, that is only a small part of his American dream.
Wild hopes to volunteer his services to local high school track teams that not only hope to develop young athletes, but also young spirits.
"I feel with my transformation as a person, that I can work as a motivational speaker and work as coach to really help people," he said. I had kind of a rough childhood, and now I am at this point in my life where I am happy. I think I can help others to see what I have seen."
Mercer believes Wild can do just about anything he sets his mind to do, including making his Olympic dream come true.
"He's got the genetics to begin with - the bones and muscle and connective tissue - but he has an enormous attitude on life that makes a big difference," Mercer said. "He's one of these people who can almost defy gravity, because he has the mental attitude and courage to completely let go and through himself up at the bar. There's no fear."
Facing the fear of clearing a 7-foot-4 high bar, Wild says, is much like fearing, and ultimately clearing, life's many hurdles.
"Being able to step into change and trusting without knowing the outcome is the only formula that makes a successful person, feeling special without the need to be in the spotlights," reads the signature to one of Wild's recent e-mails. "That jump is a final jump we need to make, all of us."
About Stuart Wild
Who/what: A native of Holland, Wild is a high jumper who now lives and trains in Augusta. Wild and his fiancee, MCG student Leanne Buckner, will marry in three weeks, making him a U.S. citizen. He hopes to compete in the national events and qualify for the U.S. Olympic Track and Field team. The 37-year-old Wild, who said he overcame a difficult childhood, hopes to draw from his past experience to help others as a motivational speaker, as well as to volunteer with area schools as a track coach. He also hopes to raise money for local homeless shelters by selling T-shirts with inspirational and motivational messages.
When/Where: Wild trains daily at Health Central and practices his jumps at Paine College.
Why: "I feel with my transformation as a person, that I can work as a motivational speaker and work as coach to really help people," Wild said. "I had kind of a rough childhood, and now I am at this point in my life where I am happy. I think I can help others to see what I have seen."
On the Web:
http://www.tapstuartwild.com (Archive copy).
