D-Day for 2044
D-day!
21 -02- 21
Today is the day!
The official launch of 2044!!! 🥳🥳🥳
As of today the books can officially be shipped. Just a matter of days before it arrives on your doormat! It is a milestone in my life. Yesterday evening I celebrated the outcome of 2044 together with my brother Ruud. He gave me this picture of young Robert. I was 19 years young, hanging out of a train, somewhere in the Andes mountains of Peru, where I was travelling around for three months with two friends at that moment. 🗺
I had fled the life I knew. From the age of 14 I worked and from 16 I was a full-time cook in the catering industry. 🔪👨🍳 I didn’t feel like going to school anymore. I wasn’t happy at all. I was even depressed because my life had not taken the course I had hoped.
I wanted to study…
I wanted to be a diplomat.
And wanting to do something good for the world. 🌍I would have been very different at that age. And was disappointed in life. Unconsciously I was looking for like-minded people. But drowned myself in the alcohol, sex and parties…. 🕺
My brother reminded me yesterday how, as an adolescent, I often argued with people because I saw reality so differently than they did. Even then I didn’t believe that the world presented to us is correct. I did not believe blindly in science, or in what professors said. Or in the media. Like my friends did. 🌐
I had an extraordinary interest in awareness, in nature and spirituality. In the first year of my secondary school I read 150 books. I was, and still am, fond of reading… When I was 18 I took a book from my father’s bookcase. 1984 by George Orwell. 📖
I read it in one go. And saw my world view confirmed… A search ensued for several years… Soon to be far from home… Three months in Peru, a restaurant season on Vlieland, a year in Switzerland at a ski resort, half a year on Texel in the restaurant and a season in Amsterdam as a steward at Transavia … ✈
I didn’t find the like-minded people I was looking for. And returned, disillusioned, to Zwolle, the city where I come from. I brought my then wife from Amsterdam. And got to work. My literal thoughts then were:
“Apparently I’ve been wrong all this time. Life is just not about working and starting a family. Then I’ll just be successful.” 🕵️♂️
I was 21… I was successful. At 24, I started my first business. More followed. I also held management positions. A quick, somewhat stout guy in a suit. Lots of money, nice car, big network, own house, married. No kids, just miscarriages. You can’t have everything…
But I was not happy at all. I was even depressed because my life had not taken the course I had hoped for. I went to do a part-time HBO Personnel & Employment training and started working in the construction services industry. From intermediate to general manager with 80 employees in 8 years. 👤
And then came the wake up call at the end of 2007. I lost a job, a marriage and a house in six months… Through the pain and humiliation, my ego snapped and I awoke. (For the critical reader: By now I have a new ego 😋). From that moment on I realized that young Robert had not been wrong at all. The spiritual path of my youth continued.
Until today…
Not that I never worked again after that. I was still an interim director in education and a personnel manager in construction until my great love Monique and I left for Asia for two years in 2010. ⛩🎎🧧
That was one of the best decisions of my existence so far. A choice that leads to my present life… Last night I was lying in bed looking at the picture of young Robert. I asked him how he felt about us having a novel published now. That we now live in a transformation center in southern France and are happy with Monique and the boys. 👨👦👩👦🤾♂️
That we may inspire, help heal and educate so many people…. That we were allowed to publish 7 books and 3 documentaries. He could not have hoped then, 23 years ago, for a life as it looks now. He’s glad we didn’t become diplomats. But living in freedom…
He’s happy I’m happy. And not depressed for years. That my life has taken a course he didn’t even dream of… I gave him a hug. I gave myself a hug. Because he’s me and I’m him…
And today our first novel is out!
2044 is a fact! My world view poured into an exciting story. Where the book 1984 left off, 2044 continues… An homage to the great Orwell of my youth.
Today is national holiday in Bridgeman’s house 😄🥳🥰
Today is a day to be close to each other.
Thank you for your support, dear Facebook friend.
This is all thanks to you…
We’re strong together, you and I.
Together for a world in harmony!
For the good of all!
X Robert Bridgeman