WHAT'S UP PARTY-STEEMERS! MOST EPIC INTRO coming your way, no holding back! Hope you are ready...
Hi! My name is Louie Procopio, I'm a 32 year old American, born and raised in sunny LA California, I have 2 beautiful daughters, a beautful wife, I skip to spread joy, and became fluent in a second launguage when I was 25.
My fairytale-version of true love has unexpectedly taken me halfway around the world to beautiful Norway.
I never expected leave my home, but sometimes life just happens.
Today I am a marketing manager for a tech company here in Norway, but the journey to get where I am now, started a long time before I met my beautiful Norwegian wife in Hawaii. I'll get to that a little bit later ;)
Even though I was only 10 years old when he passed, I was lucky to have him for as long as I did. My dad is the reason I am who I am today, and he tought me the most important things in life.
Who am I?
He always said, "Love for free", and that's exaclty what I've always tried to do. There's probably a million different ways to say this, but all he meant was to love without expecting anything in return. (Imagine how much better the world would be if we all could do that? Impossible?, it doesn't stop me from doing my part at least)
He taught me to show respect for my elders and to love and appreciate everyone as equals, not as any sort of object or a means to get something. He taught me to "DO" not "TRY" and to always give my best.
To be honest, I can't say I always do/give my best, but that's just something we must work on everyday of our lives, in all aspects of life.
So I strive to be the best father, husband, son, brother, friend, global citizen, videographer, marketing manager, and STEEMIAN I can be. There's more to me than those, but those are the big ones I guess.
Louie the son
I love this woman so much, and I can only imagine how difficult it was for her to be left alone with 2 small children after losing her soulmate decades too early.
My mom and I have always been close, I've been a source of emotional support for her since my dad passed in 95, so she was the one person I was afraid of telling I was packing up and moving to a tiny country in northern Europe.
I mean, for the most part, Americans don't usually migrate. "Normally" it goes the other way around.
Long before we were married, my wife actually did move to LA so we could be together with the intention (and expectation) of living a wonderful life as a Californian. So even though I was engaged to a Norwegian, me moving away was never really a topic of conversation.
Because of the close relationship we have, it was devastating to her when she learned that my fiancé and I would be moving to Norway shortly after our wedding. I told her 6 months before the big move, and a seed of pain and confusion was planted in her mind the day I told her we were going to move.
Let me explain what I mean...
Fast forward 6 months the day before I leave, my wife already moved back to Norway a few weeks before me (to start working and get our new life set up), and it was 2am in the morning and my whole life was packed up in tons luggage bags and spread out in her living room. I was leaving for Norway in just a few hours.
My mom and I were both crying as we knew how difficult it was going to be. She was sharing with me stories about my dad, and telling me how much I remind her of him.
She started to cry harder and harder. Then suddenly she started to cry uncontrollably. I hadn't seen her cry this hard since my dad's funeral. A few seconds goes by, she abruptly stopped crying, looked up at all of my bags, and then didn't understand what was happening.
She had forgotten everything from the last 6 months
My mom had no idea who's bags were cluttering the living room, she couldn't remember the wedding, and Obama had just been voted in as the first black president, but that was also gone from her memory.
We thought she was having a stroke, but thankfully that was not the case.
In some very rare instances, stress induced memoryloss can kick in. It's a defense mechanism to help a person cope with pain. If the brain can't remember, then the heart can't feel.
So that's what happened. The seed planted by me, 6 months earlier, ended up being a sort of time-bomb. When the pain was too hard to take, she had completely forgotten everything that had happened from the moment I told her I was moving.
I'm very happy to say that she is a very healthy woman today, her memory and mental health returned to normal just a few hours after the episode, and being apart from eachother get's slightly easier with every year and visit that goes by.
Since moving to Norway in 2008 we've traveled back to LA at least once a year, and my mom and stepdad have managed 5 trips to little ol Norway!!! GO MOM and BOB!!!
My promise to my mother is to go home at least once year. And also to make her proud of me :)
Louie the husband
I'm a hopeless romantic! I have been since I was in preschool. Here's a real quote from my 5 year old self about to start at a new school...
Mom, if I keep changing schools all the time, how am I supposed to find my wife?
Yep, a hopeless romantic since preschool! I had 2 girlfriends before I met my wife. A highschool sweetheart of 2 years, and a college sweetheart of 2 years. Both of which I loved very much, and even more happy that I ended up with a broken heart x 2!
Because all that led to this!
Being the best husband I can be has been a trial and error process, filled with peaks and valleys, hugs and screams, I love you's and empty threats.
It's an uphill battle, but I know I have the resolve to keep on keeping on, no matter what.
My take on marriage/relationships is this.
If the grass is greener on the other side, then you need to water your lawn!
My wife and I have good days and bad day, amazing days and horrible days. But as bad as it could ever be, I just know that there's always more I can do to make it better.
I think that's the key to any relationship. Don't worry about what your partner can do to fix things, worry about what you can do to fix things!
So anyway, here's the really quick version about how we met. People say I should write a book about it. Instead, why don't I STEEM about it, with pics :)
My fairytale true love story
In 2006 I was supposed to go to Hawaii with my, at the time girlfriend(the college sweetheart), but to make a long story a little less long, I was not allowed to go by her parents becasue I couldn't pay for anything on the vacation(her parents already paid for the flight).
That ruling was quite fair. I had very little money after payday during those years, so leaving work for a week, and borrowing money to vacay would have been pretty irresponsible.
(At that age(21) I was plenty irresponsible)
So instead I was able to keep the ticket to my name, and I had a year to use it. The plan was to go with my girlfriend the next year.
Well this was the year my heart was broken for the last time! :D
She broke up with me. We went our seperate ways, and for six months I was just waiting for her to change her mind and accept me back into her life. I was pathetically heartbroken.
After about 6 months of waiting, I randomly met an old classmate at a nightclub, and we ended up going out on a few dates. I really liked her! I wrote a song on my guitar about her, wrote her poems on MYSPACE (hahaha, myspace), and eventually after about a month of dating, I asked her to be my girlfriend.
Now it's april 2007, still no answer from the potential 3rd girlfriend, and I still need to use that ticket to Hawaii or else the free flight goes up in smoke.
So this girl, potential 3rd girlfriend, decided to not give me an answer about making it official, and I told her that I was eagerly awaiting an answer when I got home.
I was only going to Hawaii to surf and sleep, so she wouldn't have to worry about me hooking up with other girls or anything like that. We'll still talk everyday, and I'll only be gone for a week.
She assured me it was not an issue, and I was officially still a single guy.
HAWAII!!!
After a couple days with some quality rest and relaxation in Hawaii, I started to think about how short and emotionless my conversations were with this girl were. One word answers or not answering my texts/calls over the course of the trip was starting to put a damper on my mood. I did my best to not think about it.
I mean I was having an awesome time!!!
Ok, now comes the fairytale part. Sorry, it's long. I get pretty excited about telling this story!
2 days before Rob and I had to go home to LA, we got on the bus to go to the north shore of the island. We had a great day, then got on the bus again to go back to the hostel.
Amazingly, and meant to be, we ended up on the wrong bus going in the opposite direction of our hostel. And who happened to be on that bus? My future wife(with died black hair)! She was with a group of travelers and they had recognized us from the hostel.
So she asked us where we were going, we said the hostel, they said no you're not, so we ended up all hanging out on the next beach up the road.
The thing I remember most about Jannicke (the wifey) was that she was such a free spirit. Respectful of others, but a real freebird! She was definitely caught by my radar, even though I wasn't looking.
That first day hanging out with her was cool, but I wasn't "on the market" so I never entertained the possibilty of pursuing her.
I later found out, this is exactly the reason SHE entertained the possibility of pursuing me! Haha! So typical, right? Played hard to get without even trying and it worked!
GUYS! Playing it cool is the way to go! Don't show your desperation! Haha.
The next day a small group of us at the hostel decided to eat an early breakfast, then the boys were going to teach the girls how to surf!
Before teaching the girls to surf, Rob and I got in a quick surf session first. He was a few minutes slower waxing his board, and this little detail is going to be the defining moment of the day.
Let me give you a quick backstory on what had happened this trip so far. Everyday I was going to bed at 10pm, so I could wake up at 5am to surf and relax the rest of the day. Rob wasn't a surfer, and he was single, so his priorities were much different than mine. ;)
He was trying to hook up with EVERYONE, and Jannicke was just one of the many.
Ok back to this day...
I was a few minutes faster waxing my board, which means I started surfing before him and also finished before him. As I'm paddling back to shore I lose the promise ring I had given to my ex-girlfriend(which she obviously gave back to me).
Losing the promise ring at that exact moment was something I didn't think much of at the time, but it has astronomical meaning today.
I had it on my pinky finger since we broke up 7 months earlier, and even though I was "over her" I just didn't feel I was ready to take it off yet.
Well, the universe had other plans for me.
So I lost a ring I've been pathetically holding onto for 7 heartbreaking months on my way back to shore, and I'm getting prepared to ask the brazilian backpacker, Fernanda, if she's ready to learn to surf.
You see, it was never talked about, but we all sort of figured Rob was going to ask Jannicke, because that's who he "wanted" the most! :P
BUT, in the last second, without even thinking about it, and without being able to explain how or why, IN THE LAST SECOND BEFORE I ASKED FERNANDA IF SHE WAS READY TO SURF,
I ENDED UP ASKING JANNICKE?!?!?!
I found out later, everyone was surprised about that, but the least worried was Rob. Fernanda was beautiful and Rob was willing to take anyone who was willing to give! (Fernanda nave gave. Hahaha) Rob was just happy to have a wingman now!
So me and my future wife set out into the water. I was going to teach her how to surf.
We ended up talking about EVERYTHING! We both wanted 3 kids(now we think 2 might be enough, but that's a different story), we both had very similiar views about life - religion - family and just about everything else there is to have an opinion of. It's funny because the conversation was more her answering me then me saying, OMG ME TOO!!! (For everything)
So needless to say, I fell in love. Love at second sight. I mean I knew she was a bombshell from day 1(the day before), but now I couldn't help myself!
Everytime I pushed her into a wave, she'd surf off into the morning sun, and I'd just stand there saying to myself,
What the fuck!?!?!? THIS girl is my soulmate!! I'm in love!
I seriously contemplated not doing anything, but I'm a firm believer of "things happen for a reason".
My "little more than a friend, less than a girlfriend" back home was ignoring me, I gave her all the chances in the world to say yes to my offer, and here in fornt of me is this PERFECT girl who I just can't NOT tell her how I feel.
So at that moment, or the moment when she paddled back out to me, I said to her these exact words.
Jannicke, one day we're gonna get married, and you are gonna have my babies!
We both laughed, she knew I was just flirting with her, but she said...
NOPE! That's not good enough. You need to get down on a knee and do it the right way. I want a ring! And I dont want some ring made from weed either!
(The day before this day, the day we met, it was april 20th. You know 420?)
So I said ok. By the end of the day, before the sun goes down, I will propose to you, down on one knee. Deal!
After surfing and asking some nice Japanese guys to take our picture, who we then took their picture with our camera, just to remember the moment even more...
We decided to rent a Jeep and drive to Pipeline Beach. A world famous beach known for massive pipewaves. I had no intention of surfing, we just wanted to watch the pros!
On the way to the Pipeline Beach, we stopped at the market to get some sandwiches, snacks, and drinks. And what do I see on the way into the store???
One of these!
I bought a ring for 50 cents, and of all the crazy big plastic diamond rainbow colorful rings to come out, a fake gold wedding band is what I got!
We had a really fun day at Pipeline, but the sun was starting to reach the horizon, and that ring was still in my pocket. The waves are big, and the crowd watching the surfers is bigger.
My heart is literally pumping out of my chest, I handed my point-and-shoot to Rob, and told him to just keep taking pictures.
I walked Jannicke out to the shorline and then this happened...
So after I fake proposed for the second time that day, something very real ended up happening.
The whole beach starts clapping! We got tons of congratulations from everyone and even one lady came running up to us with tears in her eyes telling us how moved she was. She was there on her 10th wedding anniversary.
So, we had to shake hands with the 80 people on the beach that were watching the surfers...
BUT WE ALSO HAD TO KISS!!!!
That kiss really did something for the both of us, and even though I was leaving the next day to go back to Cali, I was determined to see her again!
The next day she drove me to the airport in the Jeep I rented under my name. Talk about trusting a stranger! She couln't have driven very far, she's on an island, but still... Thats real stranger trust right there!
The rest of the fairytale (the short version)
Jannicke was in the middle of backpacking around the world, she was traveling all by herself, and lucky me, her next stop was in California!!!
The universe is truely on my side!!!
She used to be a foreign exchange student back in the early 2000's so she was visiting an old boyfriend in Northern California. That's still quite a ways away from me in Southern California, so I would have to work really hard to try to get her to come down to LA for a weekend, only to fly back to Lake Tahoe before she continues on her world journey.
I would have been happy with an afternoon, let alone a whole weekend!
We skyped everyday, and I kept exploring the possibilities.
About half way through her stay in California, still with no official plan to come to LA, I get a phone call from her... (It's actually the universe trying to tell me, "I got you Louie! I got you!")
So I answer the phone, and she says...
Can I come stay with you for the rest of my trip? Johnny's girlfriend is getting jealous, and I don't want to cause trouble for them.
OMG! MY PRAYERS WERE ANSWERED!
I called my mom, who is always sitting on tons of free "sky miles" because she travels for work, told her Jannicke can come to LA now, but can you PLEASE use some points to buy the flight so she doesn't have to blow the little backpacker budget she has?
And of coarse, the loving mother she is, uses her points and calls me back to say the ticket is ordered.
Literally 10 minutes after I first got the call from Jannicke I called her back and told her to get to the nearest airport, I'll see you in LA!!!
So there's a much much longer version of this story, but I'll keep it as short as possible.
We had 10 amazing days together...
but like all fairytales, our's was coming to an end.
We had agreed that we would always love each other, that we were true soulmates, and that we'd keep in touch through Facebook, Skype and email.
We just didn't see how it could work. Neither of us was in the position to make any huge life changes, so we chalked it up to being the most amazing summer fling ever imaginable.
This was one of the hardest days of my life...
Jannicke traveled to Costa Rica and Peru, and we talked as much as possible on Skype. Every time she walked passed an internet cafe, she stopped in and we talked.
Then the universe calls again!
About 3 weeks after she left LA, and about a month before her travels were over, Jannicke called me and I'll never forget this day.
I was pumping gas when I got a phone call. Jannicke says...
Hi. Can I come back and stay with you?
#GOOSEBUMPS!!!
She was willing to drop a week in Brazil, and 3 weeks in Africa, empty her savings account, all to come back to me for the rest of her trip!
I was about to get 3 more weeks with someone who I NEVER thought I would see again! At least not in person. I just had to wait a few more days, then she could leave from Brazil.
I said of course! I jumped for joy! I was the happiest guy in the world, NO THE UNIVERSE, and on my way to work that day I ran out of gas on the freeway! Hahaha!
I had paid to fill my tank, but in all the excitement I forgot to fill up! LOL.
So basically we had an amazing 3 weeks together, and at the end of it we both decided that this was something we needed to make a reality.
We knew we were too important to let distance get between us, so we would have to have a long distance relationship for a year before she could move to LA.
We spent hours and hours a day on Skype. I would watch her sleep during the afternoons, and she would watch me sleep during her mornings.
To make the year go by faster I took a 2 month hiatus from work and visited Jannicke in Norway. (I ended up losing my job. I was only allowed to go for 3 weeks, then a week before I left I decided 3 weeks was too short and extended my trip by 5 more weeks. No job for me when I got back!)
So that's the story of how I met my wife, got the luck of the universe thrown at me 40 times in a row, and now I live Norway.
My promise to my wife is to always #LOVEFORFREE
I've been here for 8 years now, and worked my way up from a car detailer, to an offshore oilrig worker, to marketing manager of a very successful tech company.
There's still so much more to the story, I feel I only introduced half of myself, but I'm far over 4,000 words in, so I think I'll leave you with this...
If you want more of the love story, or any other story for that matter, just ask and I'll tell! I love telling stories(especially about myself)
And here is a very condenced version of the rest of me...
Louie the daddy
My kids call me daddy and I love it!
I've been speaking English to my girls since they were born, and it makes traveling home a breeze. They adore my friends and family in LA and thanks to only English with them, they are able to have full relationships with my LA fam, and they don't feel left out or confused by a language barrier. So that's aweome!
Those two are my everything, and there's nothing in this world I wouldn't do for them.
I see myself in them, and that's a feeling only a parent can describe. They make me laugh, and I'm so proud of them both.
Smart, thoughtful, caring, beautiful little girls!
My promise to my daughters is to teach them by example, how it feels to be loved and respected by another man. I know one day they will be making their own decisions, and so it's up to the wifey and I to set them up for success.
Louie the brother
It was definitly hard to leave my little sister behind, but she's a strong woman! I love her with all my heart.
She's a beautiful person, inside and out. I was very proud to be able to walk her down the grass isle that day.
My promise to my sister is to always be there for her. If she needs me, I'm always just a call away
Louie the friend
Even though we can go 6 months to a year without seeing eachother, It always feels like I never left! I love you guys with all my heart!
My promise to my friends is to always remember and cherish what we had, and to not be jealous of what we lost. For everytime I'm back in LA or you guys are in Norway, it's like nothing's ever changed.
Louie the global citizen
I just try to spread that inner joy with as many as possible. Last year I accidentally started #THEskippingmovement, and gained some national and global coverage from it. I found out skipping is really effective at making you happy. Other people also get happy when they see someone else skipping. Try it!
And the real challenge comes when you ask someone to skip with you!
Feel free to check this out if you want to learn more: The Skipping Movement video
My promise to the world is to make a positive impact, in every way, everyday!
Heres a REALLY quick intro for everything else ;)
Louie the oil-rigger
Louie the traveler
Louie the sports junkie
Louie the car enthusiast
Louie the event speaker
Louie the marketing manager
I'll be posting about digital marketing every now and then :)
Louie the STEEMIAN!!!
Well, that's me STEEMIT! I'm an offical community member and I want to thank all of those who have read this MOST EPIC INTRO clocking in at EXACLTY five thousand five hundred thirty five words! Was that too long????