Where to look for support on life corners? How do you deal with traumas from the past, get out of your addictions, and overcome occupational burnout? The answer to these and many another questions can be found in the book “We Have a Fight in the Blood” by Sgt. Sgt. Tomasz Roszatowski, a veteran of the mission in Afghanistan, and the music of Dominika “Donia” Grabowski.
St. Sgt. Tomasz Rozniatowski (right) and musician Dominik “Doniu” Grabowski.
Six years ago, you created the song "We're in the blood." You published a book under the same title today. What do you want to tell your readers?
Tomasz Rozniatowski: We give the readers a very individual publication. It's a communicative of people who come from 2 different worlds. People who have different personalities, different characters and another life experiences. But despite these differences, we all have “our own private Afghanistan”. The experiences that specify us to any degree and find our lives. Our message is simple: despite all the difficulties you can bounce from the bottom and get out of any trouble.
Dominik “Doniu” Grabowski: And I will admit that I entered this task due to the fact that I have a debt of gratitude to Tomek. I erstwhile promised myself that I would aid others on my own terms, that is, despite sincere intentions, not to participate in dozens of charity concerts and not to respond to calls from all those who send messages with requests via social networks, but to support individual who wants to aid himself. Tomek has an idea, wants to develop, work, is involved, active. Meets in SportsHe's open to people, passionate. I like that. And I truly regret that we have waited so long to implement this project.
For both of us, this book is simply a form of settlement with the past, so we close a certain period of time in our lives and we kind out any issues.
But I look at this book differently. This proves that civilians and military men can work together. It is besides a signal that creative people, in the army or in businesses, where teams are built, are highly needed: they give different optics, they can integrate the team, they introduce different solutions to current problems. Through creativity innovation and improvement are created.
St. Sgt. Tomasz Rozniatowski (right) and musician Dominik “Doniu” Grabowski.
Did I realize that Tomek was the initiator of this book?
Thomas: Almost 3 years ago, erstwhile we were doing our song “We have a fight in the blood” before the fight gala, I told Dominik that we looked like 2 veterans – a veteran of the mission and a veteran of the scene – and that it sounded like the beginning of a cool story. A fewer weeks later, this loose remark turned into an idea: let's compose a book.
In the book, you return to traumatic memories. Tom, you're talking, among another things, about the hard childhood, the death of your parents and the mission in Afghanistan, where you've brushed up on death. You're talking about the accident that caused you to lose your arm, the problems with alcohol addiction. Dominic, you, in turn, are talking about the tragic car accident that occurred on the way to 1 of the concerts. You're talking about professional burnout, wellness problems, drug abuse. I wonder if this honest conversation with the reader has cost you much?
Tom: A lot. Working on the book was like a time machine, due to the fact that I moved to very hard moments in my life and to very painful memories. Sometimes the emotional charge of these experiences was so large that I had to pause, digest, catch my breath. I won't hide that it was a very costly time travel for me. possibly it's any form of therapy and pain management. I put my feelings on paper to deal with them. I besides know that what I've been through goes to people. Everyone has any “private Afghanistan”, any hard memories, traumas from the past. With me it's failure of loved ones and failure of hand, for others it's a car accident, death of individual close to you. It is crucial to build a affirmative message on these experiences.
Donia: Writing about emotions is never easy. Especially erstwhile you go back to moments that pursuit a man even after years. I haven't dealt with everything yet, so it wasn't precisely comfortable. But that's what we're talking about. We came out of the comfort region and we show people our experiences to benefit from them in their own way. I can't compare my life experiences with Tomek's experiences, but so many people can find themselves in them.
A gathering of the author of Tomasz Roszatowski, veteran, and “Donia”, rapper, promoting the book “We have a fight in our blood”.
You tell stories they correspond to each other. In both cases it is an accident, wellness problems, addictions, and yet besides rehabilitation by sport. Lots of similarities.
Tom: In the book we alternately share different stories that go together. This is simply a deliberate stylistic procedure, not artificial creation of events for publication. Even in Hollywood, they couldn't come up with a better thought due to the fact that life writes the best scripts. Even though we have a fewer years apart, we have very akin experiences, so we look at the planet and enjoy akin things.
Donia: We deliberately adopted specified a plan of the book, due to the fact that on the 1 hand it gave us the joy to make it, and on the another hand we have the impression that this way we will not tire the reader (Laughter). The concept adopted by us is rather universal, due to the fact that everyone is increasing up, entering the labour market, achieving smaller or larger successes, and besides experiencing hard experiences or downtimes. In life, there is not only a tendency to rise, and we want to make this clear. The ability to fall down and emergence after a fall accompanies us from our earliest years to our later old age.
Up, down and back. It's a subtitle of the book and at the same time the title of your fresh single that promotes it. What made you yet emergence after all kinds of failures?
Donia: The key minute in almost all man's life is to start a family. In my case, it worked like a lotion. My wife suggested to me that I should ask the doctors for aid and take therapy. It was a turning point for me. We are talking not about a moment, but about a process that in my case lasted respective years. From a different perspective, I looked at my artistic activities, my work, the environment in which I function. I took care of self-development, education, business. I was besides very helped by sports.
Tom: I entered the swamp slow but effectively. I've been drinking more and more, and I've been completely neglected and confused. The awakening came in 2012, erstwhile during Gortat squad vs Polish Army I was injured. I survived more than just a physical fall. I was at the bottom, addicted to alcohol, weighing 117 kg! My problems were like a snowball that was rolling around sweeping everything along the way. Mariusz Korner, besides a veteran of the mission, reached out to me. Among another things, he talked me into therapy at the Military Medical Institute in Warsaw. It helped. I started taking care of my diet, my movement, and I utilized doctors and psychologists. I went back to sports, and it just went crazy. I promised myself then that I would never miss a chance in my life again, and that all slip-up would inactive be a success.
You focus quite a few attention in the book on sports, but at the same time you say that your goal was not that everyone would wear moving shoes and run a half marathon after reading. Dominic, however, you not only made half marathons but besides marathons and participated in triathlons.
Donia: We wanted to show that sports change a lot. all time I read publications that my wife or her medical community give me, I find that the best prevention is movement, a healthy diet and awareness of what happens to our body erstwhile we practice sports. It doesn't should be running, it could be swimming, nordic walking, cycling. Just don't sit at the table and choice up the whisky glass (Laughter).
I know sports isn't a cure for all evil, but it's definitely a cure for quite a few pains that bother us today. I don't want to moralize and get everyone to walrus or run, but I think all activity is important. For me and Tomek, the athletics was an absolute game changer. There are many akin stories. For example, my daughter's godmother had knee problems and threatened to operate. The head of a busy department of a large tv station, with quite a few overweight, moved to a tiny town during the pandemic and started... walking. She changed her lifestyle, slowed down, took care of herself, discovered fresh possibilities. In time, a trocht came to walk. The weight has fallen, and she's a happy 50-year-old today.
There'd be no time if I wanted to name all the disciplines that Tom took. After the accident, you learned to dive, you were in Spitsbergen, you participated in an global bike rally, you besides competed in the European Championships at Para Taekwondo. You played football, volleyball. You've represented our country twice during Invictus Games Veterans Games. And in 2024 you qualified for the Paris Olympics.
Thomas: athletics taught me discipline, motivation and patience. He always gave me the feeling that despite disability, you can be efficient. I faced the next challenges with large joy, curiosity, I was not afraid of anything. From a fat girl I was a fewer years ago, I became an athlete, a player who took part in a qualifying tournament for the Olympic Games. Mom told me to make my dreams come actual before she died, and that's what I'm doing.
Where do you get your motivation today?
Donia: usually men face increasingly fresh challenges and harder to accomplish goals. They run marathons, race on mountains, cross the bottom of the large Salt Lake in the United States. But not me. It's not my way, due to the fact that I want to be in form for years, not for summer. I want to stay in good intellectual condition as long as possible and at the age of 60 besides run respective kilometres and be active on a good level.
I'm motivated by projects like the 1 we're talking about. I do it for pleasure, it takes me distant from everyday life and current work. It gives me satisfaction and joy, due to the fact that I feel that this book can origin many good things. We may be able to organize workshops for young people, we may be seeing people who have problems with addictions. There's a lot going on. The book was premiered a fewer days ago, the e-book besides late came out, we are collecting funds for the audiobook release.
Thomas: present I am most motivated by my five-year-old boy Gustav. I hope 1 day we can play sports together, and it'll give him the same satisfaction as me. I have quite a few ideas about sports challenges. There's 1 thing I'm certain I'll never quit, due to the fact that I know how much I owe her.
The book “We have a fight in our blood” can be bought at https://walkamywechrom.pl.
