Me

this place of understanding. And I want to share it with others, because I am deeply convinced that everyone can do the same. If they are willing.
    Each and every one of us has to walk down his or her own spiritual path and go through his or her own karmic teachings to discover their best life possible. And for that I believe the first thing you have to do is to accept yourself and accept others. That is enough. You don’t have to say anything to anyone, but you also don’t have to live in the darkness. I hope that my life, and what I have written here, can serve as an example in some way. Even though my life is very particular, maybe a line or two will resonate for those who somehow feel different, whether it’s because of their religion, their immigration status, the simple fact of being a minority, or for living in a country where they cannot express themselves freely.
    So I choose to scream to the world: Be happy! Do good! Be afraid of change, but don’t let that fear take over! And if you feel that no one loves you or accepts you, then stop and think about what I’ve told you here; you’ll see that it’s much easier than you think.
    The great Irish poet Oscar Wilde once said: “A little sincerity is a dangerous thing; a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.” The word he uses is literally “fatal.” Wow, what a word. It makes me very sad to think that that was his experience with sincerity. I imagine he said it because he was afraid of being honest about his sexuality, especially because of the Victorian era in which he had to live. But today, in the twenty-first century, all I want is to be open and honest. It’s not easy—truth is relative and it takes time to reach it. One has to make a conscious effort, every day, to live life without fear and with total transparency. Even though I have gone through everything I went through to feel the way I do today, I hope that life will continue to bless me with moments in which I am dared to go even deeper to discover something new about myself. As Pablo Picasso said, it takes a long time to be young. He was right. It takes a long time to renounce the codes of society, your faith, the laws of your home, and the laws of your country. It takes a long time to throw out all those social codes that have limited who you are, based on what has been dictated to you.
    It can take you an entire lifetime until you can start from zero all over again, without preconceptions, without prejudices, and without fear. But when you get there, and accept who you are, you can start each day by seeing it as it is: a divine paradise where everyone can imagine what they want and turn it into reality. Every day begins like a blank chalkboard, on which each one of us can write the poem of our present and our dreams for the future.
    And just as I have so many people around me who constantly inspire me and feed my soul, I also have the good fortune of having a wonderful profession and a life through which I can influence other people. But I know that this privilege also comes with great responsibility. I have to be careful with what I say and do, as it is a position I accept with honor and respect.
    With this book, I am somehow abandoning a part of my privacy. Although there are some details and moments that I will never tell—not because they involve something dark or perverse, but because they are personal memories that I prefer to keep to myself—throughout these pages I have shown myself exactly as I am, without censorship. The truth is never easy to pin down, especially when it is a matter of personal truth, which is why I will always continue on with my search, on my spiritual path, for the rest of my days. It is this constant search that will always bring about intense emotions. It teaches me to challenge myself, question myself, and always push forward. But the most important thing, and what inspires me most, is that this book can help to inspire other people to face their fears and push forward in their lives as well. And that is the greatest gift of all.