Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of Wealth and Fame. (Rolling stones Lyrics)

What is the definition of Wealth and of Fame. It can have different meanings to different people. What is your wealth and fame? Anyways something to think about!

As I pondered what my introduction would be, a million ideas and topics raced through my head. In life we don't have a second chance to make a first impression, like a first date, a job interview and many other 1st's.
So here I go with my first impression to all who are reading.
I am like most people in this world, I strive for good fortune, good health, happiness and a bit of adventure. Well that is the intention. I have had the good fortune to travel through work and pleasure to a few very interesting places in the world. I love flying (although my arms get a little tired on longer trips, haha). The world is full of mysteries that we cannot possibly know all about. Through the information age, we can educate ourselves a bit more. I love learning and consider myself a student of life. Knowledge that we acquire is ours forever. As I always tell my students, things can be taken away from us, car, house, money, etc, but our knowledge is with us forever (unless we are given a lobotomy, lol)
I do not consider myself any type of writer at all, I don't even like filling out forms, haha. I do feel that when I put my mind to it, I can write some interesting things, which I will endevour to do. I hope you will enjoy wait i have to say. So on to my introduction
Ok enough jocularity. Im sure you have probably figured out that I use humour as a way to hide my lack of seriousness (huh!). My name is Michael Drouillard. I was born and bred in Canadian EH, I grew up in southern Ontario, Canada, so I am a true Canuck. At the present time (2017) I am living in Panama, teaching English, entrenched in Steemit and married to wonderful Panamanian woman.

Me and my lovely Panamanian wife Ruth

My mother (God rest her soul) told me that I was born at a very young age, which I guess is true for a lot of people and used to tell me that I was special. (again that has multiple meanings, haha). Well I knew what she really meant, that throughout my life I would do many amazing and special things.
When I was young, school really was not a priority in my in mind. I loved sports every kind of sports, but as a true Canadian, I especially loved our national sport “Hockey”. I was born in the early 60's and until the 1967 expansion draft there were only 6 teams (the original 6, Montreal Canadians, Toronto Maple leafs, Detroit Red Wings, Boston Bruins, Chicago Black Hawks, and the New York Rangers). Also other than a handful of Americans, all the players were Canadians (hey it is our national sport EH). Ok enough hockey memories.

As I was saying earlier, I digress. I ate, slept and lived hockey. In my own opinion, I became fairly proficient, (I even played against Wayne Gretsky a few years before he started playing for Edmonton Oilers), enough to play semi-pro, until a major knew injury kiboshed my future dreams of going higher. Oh well that's life in the fast lane.
So I moved on, got married at 21, had 3 kids and went into the insurance and financial planning gig, where I learned a lot about bears and bulls and other wild animals.(mostly disgruntled investors, haha)
After I finished with that game, A friend and I started a very lucrative business in home energy renovation (which my partner still operates)
I must say that the insurance industry taught me integrity, honesty, and great marketing and sales training methods, which I have seen many other businesses mimic. This helped me tremendously in my future business ventures.

In 2014 my life seemed to be at a standstill, so I sold everything I owned in Canada and moved to “The Democratic Republic of Panama” (Panama), yes where the big ditch is, the notorious “Panama Papers” originated from and where General Manuel Noriega dictated in the 80's. I had been here for vacation for 2-3 years previously, and thought “what the hell. I became qualified to teach “ESL” English as a second language and thought “ The World is my Oyster” as Tony Montana would say.

There are more and more Canadians either moving to Panama full time or here for 5-6 months out of the year, At present it's estimated to be over 10,000. So here I am in Panama, (3 ½ years) teaching English (frustrating work but at such high wages $6 per hour, lol), and doing a weekly radio commentary in Panama City called“The Canadian Report”.

I am married to a wonderful Panamanian woman and venturing into the wonderful world of Steemit and the blockchain world, which I will say that I am a neophyte at. I have to say that I am more than excited to write and write and educate myself on as much as I can.
A good friend and his wife (Randy Hilarski, @hilarski, and Ana Hilarski, @anahilarski) (whom hosted me for 3 months when I first arrived in Panama) are truly ambassadors in the entire blockchain world and were very early entries in Steemit, have been telling me about all this for quite some time now. Being a stubborn Jackass as I can be, I kept shunning away, thinking that it will die (as I thought about computers and such when I was in high school), Haha, that was good forward thinking on my part.......NOT! (hey hindsight is 20/20, isn't it/)
Randy and Ana have taken advantage of this technology and seen the future and are profiting wonderfully.
As you can probably figure out by now, I will not be writing about this technology at the present time, (as I know diddly squat) but as I educate myself more, that could change. I am a person who questions everything (which drives my wife bonkers).The world is filled with information, and that is what I will hope to bring you and topics to think about. I will write about true things that have occurred in my life are happening in the world, things that are humorous, educational, satirical, controversial, and my view on the big blue planet that we live on (as my name says “my opinion matters”) but are subjects to ponder. The main topics of my writings will be personal experiences that I have experienced in my life that many people will relate to. I hope you will follow me and upvote my commentaries. You definitely won't be bored at what you read and will want to read the next story as some people wait in anticipation for the next episode of an HBO or Netflix series.

I look forward to knowing you all and sharing my views.
@myopinioncounts
Cheers and God bless.
Addendum: As I was getting ready to submit this introduction, I started to watch a very intriguing medical program on the Discovery channel, which affects almost every country in the world, and which prompted me to realize what my first article will be. For the last 12 weeks, I have suffered and battled some very serious health issues. Living in a third world country with potentially fatal illnesses and 3rd world medical care can only be understood by someone who has experienced them. I will lead you through a very convoluted medical system and will try to enlighten everyone with my journey, which all started with a bite from a tiny Culicade (mosquito). This will strike shock and awe in many, so please follow me in my recent experience. I'm sure your eyes and imagination will be stimulated.