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Book details
  • Genre:BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY
  • SubGenre:Personal Memoirs
  • Language:English
  • Pages:456
  • eBook ISBN:9798350927603
  • Paperback ISBN:9798350927597

75 YEARS IN SEVEN DAYS

A TRUE TALE OF LIFE, TRAVEL, and ADVENTURE ACROSS SIX CONTINENTS

by Donald A. Bergman View author's profile page

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Overview

Seventy-Five Years in Seven Days chronicles the author's journey from the cattle and corn fields of the family farm to an international school career that included eight fascinating countries on five continents. During more than forty years of living abroad, his journeys have taken him to many of the globe's iconic, remote, and distant destinations. His life story reads like a list of Hollywood movie genres including adventures, thrillers, dramas, tragedies, mysteries, crimes, and romances. His adventures and experiences include sailing the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, trekking in the Himalayas, sharing a Christmas pig feast with the Stone Age Dani Tribe in Papua, jungle hikes surrounded by lumbering prehistoric Komodo dragons, descending into Egyptian pyramids and the burial tombs of pharaohs, solo parachuting, landing on and being catapulted off aircraft carriers, learning how to use a poison dart blowpipe with Borneo's Iban Dayak headhunters, walking atop the Great Wall of China, and visiting the long neck Kayan women of Southeast Asia. He has been on safaris to Kenya, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe, experienced Chile's deadly 8.8 earthquake, spent a night in the Inca ruins atop Machu Picchu, was drenched by the mist of the Zambezi River plunging over Victoria Falls, had a private conversation with President George H. W. Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush, traversed the Australian outback, trekked across glaciers in New Zealand and the Patagonian ice field of South America, and coped with the tragic death of four students on school campuses or while participating in school activities.

Description

MEASURE LIFE BY COUNTING EXPERIENCES AND THE STORIES THEY CREATE INSTEAD OF COUNTING BIRTHDAYS: Determined not to abandon the dreams and aspirations of youth, to be buried beneath decades of routine, predictability, and boredom, the author viewed life through the novel lens of each decade being represented by the seven days of just one week. This unique perspective served as motivation to pursue dreams rather than letting life just "happen", was an antidote for deferring goals and aspirations until that illusive "someday", and a steadfast reminder of how quickly a week, and life, passes. The author packed each day of the week, each representing a decade, with as many experiences and adventures as possible, creating stories that, collectively, are the best measure of one's life. The result has been the equivalent of living several lifetimes regardless of how many birthdays one has celebrated.  In the words of Canadian author and motivational speaker Robin S. Sharma, "Don't live the same life 75 times and call it a life." Seventy-Five Years in Seven Days has nothing to do with drinking green tea, vegetable smoothies, wearing sun screen, vitamin supplements, meditation or mindfulness. It's about pursuing and living one's dreams and aspirations to ensure a rich, fulfilling, and happy life.

About the author

Don Bergman was raised on a dairy and crop farm in the Midwest. His youthful dream was to explore and discover what lie beyond cattle and corn fields. After serving in the US Navy during the Vietnam War, he earned a bachelor's degree in geography followed by master's and doctorate degrees in education. His career spanned four decades as a teacher, principal, and headmaster of schools in Australia, Egypt, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, the Philippines, Chile, and Lebanon. He has lived his childhood dream as an adventurer and explorer having visited more than fifty countries and many of the world's most iconic historical, cultural, scenic, and remote destinations.