The first time I knew I wanted to make the sea my career I was 18 years old. It’s 2013 and I want to join the French Navy. Am bilingual; My father, who died in 2022, is English. I have solid navigation skills, the army seems willing to welcome me with open arms.
After a second screening interview, I was asked if I had any medical limitations. I have suffered from Crohn’s disease, an inflammatory bowel disease, for over three years. The idea of hiding it crosses my mind, but I refuse to start this professional project with a lie. My application was not accepted. The pain in my stomach has become an obstacle to my plans. Despite everything, I decide that my life will find balance between sailing and the ocean.
I was born on June 7, 1996 in Malestroit in Morbihan, then I grew up in Saint-Gatien-des-Bois, in Calvados, never far from the sea. It takes time to appreciate the world of sailing. Because it is hard and many times the conditions are harsh. When it’s cold, when it’s raining, when it takes two hours of preparation to sail, you need the desire. In a world where we want everything, immediately, sailing is a sport that cannot be practiced without a marked taste for effort. And it rarely comes out of nowhere.
I was 7 years old and my brother was 5 when my father, an experienced sailor, bought an Aquila, an 8.3-meter monohull. As a family we discovered navigation, we crossed the Channel, we went from port to port, we fished. We escaped, they are great memories. I joined the Trouville-sur-Mer yacht club, then Dives-sur-Mer, in Calvados. Until I was 16 I sailed every Saturday with friends. If a session is canceled due to lack of wind, I am devastated. Another week of waiting for the next class seems like an eternity.
Although I skipped fourth grade, academically I am an average student. It’s hard for me to get involved in topics that don’t really interest me. I spend a lot of time drawing ships and looking out the window.
“Huge abdominal pain”
The disease manifests itself in an insidious manner. I’m 15 years old, it’s 2011, I’m in high school. I have stomach pains, a kind of gastroenteritis, I don’t tell anyone. I tell myself this will pass. Then I have less appetite, I lose weight and I am increasingly tired. One morning the pain gets worse, I go to the bathroom, the toilet is red with blood. I finally tell my parents.
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