Intro

Going to people with my massage table to give massages, especially for a first time, can be a bit extra new, adventurous, intimate. 

In the spring of 2026, I was contemplating ‘how could people get to know me even better.  The good and the bad.’  So I become less of a stranger visiting.

The idea of ​​an autobiography slowly began to surface.  When I finally started writing, it went fast.

A second reason why I started this autobiography:  Somewhere in the story you will see I followed coaching classes.  In one of them we discussed my life story and they advised me to write an autobiography about it.  

.

This is my life as I experience and remember it.  Many people came into my life and many I will mention (without name).   

I have tried to incorporate as many stories that I enjoyed, that have impacted me, that were directional to my life path, that made me grow, that made me angry etc.  Many interesting stories that I have forgotten didn’t made it to the current webpage.  If you remember a funny story etc. that I could ad here, please remind me via email.

In my weakest moments, there were sometimes ‘other kind of people’ who tried to influence me, but didn’t know who I was, as also I forgot 1 period.  When the force came back, these voices silenced.

I hope you enjoy my life (story), as I do (the difficult parts a bit less..)

.

Oostende, Belgium, the queen of coastal cities, 1980

My name is Miguel Milo Depuydt. I was born on the coast, in 1980, in Oostende, Belgium. 

14 months after me, my sister was born.  She would become a friendly, intellectual and ambitious lady.  She studied at the University of Ghent, the University of Leuven and the London School of Economics what gave her several Master degrees.   She has worked for international organisations. 

 I love—among other things—the sun, the sea, and sports. I lived in a neighbourhood with great childhood friends, and we ‘operated’ from ‘our little square,’ a park, our ‘meeting ground.’  We often went to the beach and the see, specific to ‘De 3 Gapers’.

A sudden move, a bit inland, brought an end to all of this. The pleasant, familiar surroundings of sun, sea, and beach were suddenly completely in the past, and I had to adapt to a very different environment. For the rest of my secondary education, I enjoyed playing sports in my after-school hours.  At the end of high school, I probably would have gotten in a difficult situation considering how o proceed in life, if not there was my sport teacher who was telling me about the professionalism and green beauty of the Leuven University sport department.  Eventually I decided to start Master in Sport Sciences.   Then I moved to Leuven. A wonderful experience. It was also a very educational experience in terms of personal development.

My blood line

My father: My father is a kind-hearted man. He is a rather quiet person, so this side of him didn’t always show. He came from the ‘Heuvelland’ (small hill) region. My father has a keen interest in knowledge and wisdom—specifically regarding human health, growth, development, and evolution.  Financial wisdom was part of this, too. He spent his entire career working for the tax authorities.

My mother: My mother is a kind-hearted woman. She is raised in Ostend. My mother possesses an almost superhuman dedication to her family and especially her children.  It often seemed as though she was ready with the answer or the item we needed before we even asked for help. My sister and I nicknamed her ‘Divine Providence’.   She worked as a school teacher throughout her career.

My father’s father: He ran a farm with his wife. He primarily raised and traded livestock. His strong social skills and entrepreneurial spirit served him very well in this regard. When we were young—very young—we would spend two weeks of our summer holidays at the farm when my parents went away on a trip. Those were truly adventurous times. Going out to the pub with grandpa was quite an experience, too.

My father’s mother: She ran the farm alongside her husband. She was a hard-working woman—working even harder than my father’s father. She was deeply Christian, and her life was steeped in Christian values.

My mother’s father: I remember him as a man of great integrity. He lived in Ostend with his wife. A true gentleman of deep character. He worked for Customs. He was an avid billiards player.

My mother’s mother: She worked as an executive secretary. As she was also keenly interested in the evolution of money and investing, I remember very lively conversations between my father and my mother’s mother.

I I had a wonderful time in Ostend. My friends from the neighborhood and I ‘operated’ out of the centrally located park, where we felt like the masters of the area.

When my parents decided to move about 50 km inland in 1995, it was a deeply unpleasant situation. I had to adapt to a new environment and to people who weren’t from a coastal city—and, in truth, that adjustment never really happened.  Maybe this pushed me even more into sport.

The decision 1997

In my final year of secondary school, I was fortunate enough to have a sport teacher who, for his master education, had made the journey from western West Flanders to the more eastern Leuven —in the central-eastern part of the country—to study at the nation’s oldest Catholic university Leuven, KUL.

He spoke highly of the intensive curriculum of theory and practical classes, much of which took place on the sports grounds and in the lecture halls bordering the Heverlee Woods.

It was solely because of his inspiring description of this study program that I started looking into it and ultimately decided to attend this university. It was one of the best choices of my life.

The kite professor, 1999

In Leuven, I met Belgian and international students. Several became lifelong friends. 

My student residence was close to the sport fields and close to some Aula’s where professors gave us theory classes.  The residence was at the beginning of Heverlee woods.  Beautiful there.  There I learned several international students and some became friends for life.  1 guy came to Leuven, couldn’t speak a word of Netherlands.  The first year he didn’t went to University but studied Netherlands, in combination with basic work to provide for him self.

The second year he started University.  He finished his year I think Magna Cum Laude.  After that he became a professor a professor and teached at University of Leuven.  But this wasn’t enough and besides that he developed a successful business.  If I remember good it was because of my intense love for windsurfing he started windsurfing, and during my ‘medical time out’ my preaching of a new water sport, he started that to.   I found a photo from the year 2000.  The kite professor is standing.

S, the Bulgarian connection, 1999

Especially 1 other guy, who also lived at my dorm, became also a good friend.  He also had a similar challenging start of his Belgian study career just like the kite professor.  We started together a very important stadium in our live (study) and lived several years close to each other.  We knew good times, bad times, went to travel together, this creates a bond.  You will also find him on a picture, on the back of a motorbike.