Beautiful People Profile: An "Ordinary, ExtraOrdinary" Young Man!

Santino Wong is a handsome 28-year-old man, carrying himself with ease and grace in his six-foot frame, and he most always wears a smile....except when it comes to Sports and his team isn't doing well, as below.


I don't recall at what precise time this "ordinary" young man became "extraordinary" in my eyes. But at some point, I know he caught my attention as being "extraordinary" in very "ordinary" circumstances.


Yes, I'm using the term Condi Rice coined for her memoir, "My Ordinary, Extraordinary Family and Me," because it so accurately describes Santino Wong. I've now come to know him as a young person who lives by grace and is gracious in all that he does in his interaction with others.


The grace that you feel emanating from Santino comes from his ever-ready smile, his light-heartedness and his winning sense of humor. That's the first sign that something is not very "ordinary" about him.

No one goes through life smiling, much less being gracious, even in moments of defeat. As a matter of fact, that's when Santino starts getting downright funny.


You see, I've seen Santino not win a sale, yet not become defeated. This was during the time I interacted with him in his Sales job at an Internet company in Pleasanton, California.

When others became desperate in wanting to meet their Sales quotas, I've seen Santino distance himself from "the game" of Sales and become even more PRESENT to himself. Ultimately, I've seen him come back from behind his quota to largely exceed it, because of this strategy.


Now that I've gotten to know him a little better, I believe this is the way Santino has learned to survive: through distancing himself from the "object" and becoming PRESENT in the fullness of who he is in Body and Spirit.

"I don't allow 98 percent of things to take the smile off my face," Santino says.

I speculate that when he goes from being "ordinary" to "extraordinary," Santino begins to live fully through the strength of Spirit within him.

This is the goal most of us striving for many years on the Spiritual Path aspire to achieve!

I don't think Santino is even conscious of the fact that his style changes, so I know he cannot explain this phenomenon to us.


All he says simply is that "I feel God is constantly with me in everything I
do."

He just becomes that special being!

Most of the time, if you're discerning, that's who and what he is in all ways.

Now that I know his story, I can say with ease that it is not a technique. It is his beingness.

This young man of grace and extraordinariness is a cancer survivor.

At age 19, Santino discovered a lump on one side of his neck, then a second on the other side. These turned out to be the symptoms of Hodgkin's Disease (Lymphoma).

Imagine the plight of this young man, next to the last, in a family of five
children to a single mom. He has a sister, Cindy, a brother, Timothy, then sister, Antonia, above him. Then there is his sister,Tiana, below him.


His family rallied around him with a love so fierce and so strong that it was greater than the chemotherapy and radiation treatments he had to endure.


His parents' families came together to help this young man ...fight...fight hard...to live! His mother, sisters, brother, aunts and uncles all were available for whatever he needed, whenever he needed it.

"I love my family to death and consider them the best in the world. Anything or anywhere I'm with the family is going to be great. We're all upbeat and positive, and we all keep each other balanced as family, as friends, and as people," Santino says.

He did tell me about the excruciating pain he experienced having marrow taken out of his bones. But now, he prefers to focus less on the pain he endured and more on the love he used to survive and thrive during this two-year odyssey.


His sister, Antonia, singularly undertook the task of writing a weekly newsletter, "Tino's World." This kept all the relatives
up-to-date on Santino's treatment and progress.

Aside from providing information about Santino, Antonia also included "a lot of fun stuff in there, so it wouldn't be such a drag," he says.

His entire family, Santino says, responded "like professionals."

Santino had to win. There was no question...no doubt.

"It was all forward motion, if you know what I mean. Game plans and strategies were written out, and we all tackled them together," Santino says.

By Grace, Santino won. By Graciousness, he now thrives!


In meeting Santino less than 10 years later, I'm truly awestuck by the resilience of this "ordinary, extraordinary" young man.

Where do you get the constitution to keep on going!?

Santino says that his illness made "me realize what was important and what wasn't," he says. "It taught me that being happy is being healthy. I don't let anything bring me down."

But I still am confounded! The reason is that Santino's illness and recovery was NOT the end of his or the family's trials!


Three days ago, on December 9, was the second anniversary of the death of his mother: Patricia Ann Alba. Yes, on that day in 2008, his mother died at age 59.

As I write this, I shake my head in wonder and awe.

Yes. I'm awestruck!

How do you...how can you ...move forward?

Forward march did Santino...and his three sisters and brother.

Truly the question is: Is it Faith, or, Is it Grace? Or, Is it ...Love?


I think it is all those things.

Santino says he grew up going to Catholic Church but now attends Christian churches.

Does it matter if he attends every week?

I never got around to asking that question ...it seems so irrelevant.


What I know about this "ordinary" young man is that he did not finish High School, yet he writes and speaks with the intellect of someone who went through at least four years' of college and interacts with the sophistication of a PhD in Psychology.

Yes. Santino dropped out of High School, started working at age 14 and began in Sales at age 16.

The fact that he's an awesome Sales person, exceeding quotas and results far above his college-educated peers, is just part of the story. The other part is that this "ordinary" young man has taken the "extraordinary" circumstances of life and survival in stride, without any trace of bitterness or self pity and has made it into a personal style of dignity and graciousness.

Yes. Santino grew up fighting for his life, as a child of Chinese and Mexican parents, in very dismal socio-economic circumstances in San Francisco.

Maybe, that's where he learned to get into his PRESENCE.

Maybe, that's where he learned that there is a part of himself that is greater than any "badder" boy or situation he encountered.


Maybe, that's when he began to look to one of his heroes, Bruce Lee, for strength.

Maybe, that's where he learned to rely on the Grace that supports us from within.

But what I know in truth is that today, Santino Wong, aka Adam Zapple on Facebook, is one hell of an "ordinary, extraordinary" guy!

He says that he overcomes any challenges with, "My faith in God and an awesome support system of family and friends."

Santino's goals in life are to be "Happy, Healthy and Successful" in Sales.

But there, he says, he has a strategy he's learned from his family, too:
"Hard Work."

Typically, when I ask people,"Who is God to you," few, regardless of education, religious or spiritual training, can respond with the directness, grace and clarity that Santino did:

"God is my creator and who I look to first for everything good or bad."

Yes, that's what this "ordinary, extraordinary" young man told me, without much fanfare, just eloquence.

This simply IS...the way it is with Santino Wong.

No fanfare. No fuss. No bother.

Just Grace...Just Graciousness....exuding from this...

ordinary, "very extraordinary," young man.

May God so Grace the rest of us in our lives!

Continue to walk in the light of Grace and Love, Santino Wong!


R.I.P. Patricia Ann Alba: It's such a pleasure to know of your wonderful family. You've left a great legacy in this "ordinary, extraordinary" young man!

Namaste',

Che'