Journey to Limassol
Panayiotis Zingas was an overseer of nearby farms, and made sure that goats from one farm didn’t cause damage to another. As a gesture of good will, the sheperds and goat herders nearby would give one of their animals to Panayiotis.
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As a 10 year-old boy, Papou wanted to learn a trade, or go to school. His father, Panayiotis, on the other hand, needed someone to watch over his newly-earned goats. Young Nick was just old enough to handle such a task. But he didn’t.
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Papou wanted to learn a trade, or go to school. Most 10-year old boys today are forced to listen to the wishes of their parents, but not young Nick Zingas. Instead, he ran away… accompanied by two other young rebels, destined for the big city of Limassol.
"All of us, or none of us"
A blacksmith working in Cyprus. Papou's time as a blacksmith was shortlived, but in that time he learned enough to know how to break into his sister's safe, taking 5 schillings and hitting the road.
The Cypriot countryside.
“A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds”
— Francis Bacon, The Essays.
“Get out there, Cole!” Coach Nepi kicked me in the back as a way to hurry me onto the ice. I hopped the boards and hussled into the play. It was a tie game in the beginning of the third period. We had two guys in the box, which meant we were defending a 5-on-3 — normally a grade-A scoring opportunity for the opposing team.
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It was January, I was in 8th grade, and it was my first game since being named captain of the team. In years before, I had never been a true leader on any of my hockey teams — just a solid contributing member who worked hard and listened to his coach and his dad yelling obnoxiously from the stands.
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Now, though, I felt differently. Instead of scoring only when opportunities were created around me, I felt like I needed to do more — I wanted to carry the team. This made me want to look beyond the obvious plays, the ones that I’d drilled into my head over and over again — four times a week at practice since I was six years old
A photo of myself in 8th grade, already contemplating life
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As one of their forwards dribbled the puck on the wing, I made an ill-advised rush at him, surprising him and checking him into the boards. Immediately, I spun around and grabbed the puck. I looked up, and there were four other white jerseys ready to swarm me and retake possession. In this case, the obvious play was to send it down the ice, and clear the puck from the zone. Instead I flipped the puck up, over two of the opposing players heads, and skated through a hook to beat them to the puck. I got there right after their other defenseman, but I quickly lifted his stick, took the puck and kept skating. Still one man to beat. I put it through his stick, then brought it back to my forehand for a wristshot that I blindly flung towards the net. It’s in. A goal.
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As he did for as many hockey games as he could, my grandfather Nick Zingas sat huddled in a Grosse Pointe Bulldogs hockey jacket, sitting high up in the stands with a cup of coffee in his lap. I looked to him as I did a fist-pump and headed back to the bench to celebrate with my teammates.
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Sometimes it pays to be conservative. To clear the puck down the ice and live to play another shift. In my case, if I had waited 2 minutes, the 5 on 3 would have ended, and my teammates would be there to help me. Papou did not have the same option. The odds were stacked against him, and he realized at age 10 that things weren’t going to magically get better — no one was going to come out of the box.
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He didn’t need to be named “captain” to assert his confidence. On his own, he realized there weren’t others around him that he could rely on to make the “scoring opportunities” for him. He made his own opportunity.
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Capitalizing on a scoring chance, or an opportunity in life, is how I’ve made it this far. For me, mostly, others have lined up the shot for me, and all I’ve got to do is make one move to beat the goalie and put the puck in.
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But what happens when you’re constantly down two men, again and again faced with many obstacles in front of you, and your life depends on scoring a goal?