About me

June 29th in 1998 was a special day in my parents‘ life because their second child was to be born on that day. When I was born, a nurse screamed and shocked my mother. Her little son didn’t have his left forearm. A short sentence in this paragraph but an important one in my life. . .

My parents were both in shock after this reaction and were only ready to embrace me after a few hours. But this first meeting seemed to change not only their lives but mine as well because from that moment on they loved me unconditionally and accepted me as I am.

Growing up as a baby with only one hand is difficult and different. But my parents quickly realized how capable a baby can be of learning and saw that I could do anything a baby with two hands could also do at my age. I think that this is an important key for a successful life with a handicap – finding one’s own creative ways without outside help. This finally supported their decision not to have a prosthesis for me, as I always refused.

As far as I can remember I never had any problems accepting my handicap and always saw it as part of my personality. I never had the urge to be like all other children, although I was aware early on that I was not considered as „normal“. My mother remembered a scene when I came home from kindergarten and asked her: „Mommy, when you go to heaven all people will be normal and healthy again, won’t they? But I want to stay the way I am, I don’t want a second hand“. My mother had tears in her eyes and only answered that every person goes to heaven as he wants to be.

This attitude has not changed until today and has spared me all my school days from teasing because I had always said that my handicap is absolutely no problem for me and I was always proud to be different from all the others. I often get asked if I ever wished I had two hands and I can really say that this has never been a wish of mine and that I appreciate this kind of individuality in today’s uniformity even more. It is not a handicap for me, but a challenge I can grow on and a good filter for real friendship and true love in my mind.

 

History:

From an early age, I always had a penchant for handcraft, be it building with Lego, handcrafts, working with wood, but also my later apprenticeship. The way I did the work with my approach seemed to amaze many teachers and classmates.

My interest in biology developed very early on and still accompanies me today. I have finished the district school and would have actually reached the required grade average for the grammar school. However, I had consciously decided to do an apprenticeship because I wanted to work as a craftsman at all costs. My passion for biology quickly led me to the laboratory apprenticeship and so I started to apply. Unfortunately, not many people other than my family believed in my plan, so even I wanted to give up at some point and choose the path of least resistance. But my parents motivated me to continue and supported me a lot during this time. Shortly afterward I had an apprenticeship at ETH Zurich. My former supervisor seemed to have seen something in me for which I am still very grateful to him today. He had not been wrong about me and so I finished 3 years later as the best in my class.

My apprenticeship was always exciting, also because I always had to learn my own working methods and was able to approach problems creatively. Today I am experienced in the basic work routine and have shifted the mental and physical challenge to strength training because a life once filled with challenges would simply be boring without new challenges.

I am currently studying biotechnology at the ZHAW and am also working as a laboratory assistant in a research institute. I don’t know exactly how I will continue in the future at the moment, I don’t have an exact plan. In the end, everything comes out differently than planned anyway. But it is precisely this uncertainty that makes life so exciting. . .