Music has always been my lifeline, my escape, my truth.
It meant so much to me back when I graduated high school - or rather, when I was supposed to. The truth is, I never showed up. I never collected the diploma, never stood in line with my classmates to mark the end of that chapter. While they celebrated, I was in a basement rehearsal room, writing a song called Strong - a song that I will finally release soon. When you hear it, you'll know exactly what was going through my mind that day.
A Different Path
Most students went home that day, some traveling far away to their families. But somehow, I didn’t feel like I belonged there. It’s incredible to think about now, looking back more than 40 years later. Still, I did great afterward in a different way - through coding. I was lucky that I learned to program in assembly as a kid, and I can confidently say that skill alone shaped a huge part of my life. Later, I earned certifications from Stockholm University in computer science, mastering math-crunching like it was second nature. That was one of the reasons why the Swedish military took an interest in me.
Success and Excess
I lived most of my life alone. I wrote a million songs. Life was never easy for me. I was sent more than 3,000 miles away from home to attend school in Europe when I was very young. I was ripped away from my friends, from my roots. Looking back, sometimes I wish I had just stayed and lived a simple life. But fate had different plans.
By the 90s, I was earning more than many top CEOs. And I partied just as hard. Sometimes I woke up in mental hospitals - not because I was mentally ill, but because of the extreme consequences of substance abuse. I saw it all, lived it all, and in the end, I found my wife. Since then, I have never partied like that again.
Lessons Learned
Do I have regrets? No. But I did learn one thing: never give a second chance to those who did you wrong. I learned that early on, and it kept me on a path where nobody could touch me. Nobody can truly say they know me. Maybe one or two people have an idea, but the rest? They have no clue.
A Life on the Move
As I mentioned, I worked in the Swedish military, and they gave me a cover job at a civilian IT company. That life took me all over - Luleå, Uppsala, Stockholm, Kalmar, Malmö, and places I barely remember. I lived in hotels as if they were home. My expenses were pre-paid, and somehow, I always managed to convince the bartenders to send bottles up to my room to knock me out after long and stressful coding sessions. I was so efficient that they let me do whatever I wanted. I have many stories - things most people will never experience. But I lived them all.
Looking Back
And now, here I am, sitting with a brain damaged from a recent stroke, reflecting on the life I’ve lived. Despite everything, I have a beautiful daughter. In the end, I really can’t ask for more.
Greenland had no job opportunities for me - those levels in coding didn’t even exist, and they still don’t, as most IT work is outsourced to Danish companies. All of us who were sent to Denmark were misled by a school system run by Denmark. We were shuffled from school to school without any real purpose other than to graduate, only to end up working as ‘slaves’ for the administration back home. Banks and the government made it nearly impossible to start a business.
So, instead, I traveled the world and learned a lot along the way. I have coded across most of Europe and North America and was even hired by major players when the Internet arrived in Denmark - almost two years after Sweden. At the time, there were the usual millionaires scrambling to claim the biggest share, some of them quite famous in Denmark. I won’t mention names, but a few of them still owe me a significant amount of money.