Andros Pelecanos

Andros Pelecanos

I learned about living life to the fullest from my family. From a very young age life was always an adventure. My parents did not have the advantage of a good education and a stable family home and as such we lived an extremely modest existence. I’m not saying we missed out on anything though; on the contrary, because we had very little money we had to find our own entertainment and spent much of our time with our extended family either playing games, music or travelling to where there was work.

At the age of five my family and I, Andros Pelecanos, moved to Antigua, a small island in the Caribbean. My mother was employed at the time by a wealthy family to look after their property there, and as a young child I spent my time on the beach and exploring the local countryside.

It was during these early years that I met an amazing man who would recognise the potential in me. He was an extraordinary person in that he lived alone in a house he constructed himself, and spent his time educating himself about his immediate and wider surroundings. Moreover, he was a gifted teacher and to this I owe my talent for mathematics and much of my views about the wider world.

Through his tutelage and guidance I grew up appreciating the beauty in nature and people. Not only that, but he taught me that everything is tied together and can be explained using mathematics – from the tiniest life forms to the greater social interactions of cities and entire economies.

From these humble beginnings, I set off to the USA at the naïve age of 15, to one of the most prestigious learning establishments in the world. It was an extremely nervous Andros Pelenecos that presented himself to the dean of Harvard to enrol as very young but highly capable student. From this moment on I grew up quickly. Away from the sheltered island life that I had known for most of my life, I set out to grab my new found opportunities with both hands and make the very most of them as was possible.

Five years passed and the devotion to my studies had paid off. My talent had been spotted and I was taken into the research program of a world leading pharmaceutical company. It was just two months into this amazing opportunity when my world came crashing down. The event that changed my life forever left me partially paralysed in a strange hospital with no recollection of how I had ended up there. It later transpired that I had been involved in a jet ski accident and had suffered a severe impact that would see me restricted to my bed for the over 2 months.

This single event demonstrated to me how fragile life can be and that the gift I had been given would be better served to help people less fortunate than myself. I slowly recovered from my injuries and vowed to myself that the life of Andros Pelecanos would be devoted to improving the lives of others.

So here I am now having just finished one of the toughest challenges of my life – cycling across the USA to raise money for children in Africa. It is a far cry from the corporate life I set upon, but there is no doubt that it was the right choice. I remain ever thankful to the lessons that my parents taught me to help me out in life – to live life to the fullest.

I was thinking to perhaps start an Andros Pelecanos foundation to help bring logic and mathematics to eager students who lack access and support to the proper facilities. Sometimes education can be the most powerful form of charity.

Many onlookers I think can easily forget that lack of education can perhaps be the biggest challenge to world peace. Providing education is the right path towards sustainability and human dignity.

In the end however, I’ve decided to put the Andros Pelecanos foundation on the backburner for now to focus on more immediate causes that both fulfil my need for morale peace and can have a more sudden, short term impact.