Who is Ramiro Balentina?

Early youth

My name is Ramiro Aureliano Balentina (R.A.B.) I was born on the 10th of August in 1974. I was the second child in a household of four brothers. Like many families in Curaçao, I grew up without a father. My mother was a single mother who was taking care of four boys on here own while working in the hospital as a nurse.

As a child, I was smart and a bright student with a preference for math. I was very good at all kinds of sports but with a love for baseball. When I was five years old, my mother allowed me to go to baseball practice with my oldest brother. He passed away in 2017 due to an accident.

Growing up I had dreams and wishes like any other young boy. I was dreaming about becoming an accountant and move to the United States to play professional baseball.

After primary school I went to the secondary school. At the age of seventeen I started puberty like any other child. Due to personal circumstances and a home situation which was far from ideal, it did not go well at school anymore. I had failed the fourth grade twice and had to drop out of school. Because of that I had to go to a lower level school. I felt that people suddenly started to treating me differently. Now I know I was feeling ashamed of the situation because suddenly it seemed like I was not good enough for a lot of people. Because of all those feelings, I never tried my best at those other schools. It felt like it wasn't worth it anymore. Eventually I dropped out of school completely.

During the same period, it turned out that I had a talent for baseball. My baseball coach told me that the scouts would come to Curaçao for a tryout with me.

THAT DAY I DID NOT GO TO THE TRYOUT.

It took me more than thirthy years to realize why I didn't go that day. Today I know it was FEAR. The fear of not succeeding was the emotion which held me back of pursuing my baseball dream. Today I know that FEAR is our greatest enemy. Eventually they signed somebody else, who made a good career in baseball.

With these two things happening simultaneously, my two dreams had fallen apart.

Going to the Netherlands

I was disappointed in myself, I was angry at everything and everyone and went against all the rules. I got involved with the wrong things and from then on it went downhill for me. I did not go to school anymore, I didn't like baseball anymore and eventually I moved to The Netherlands.

In The Netherlands I met my father hoping this would steer me in a positive direction, but all it did was leaving a negative impression on me. The man they say is my father was having a good life in Netherlands but he did not do anything for me, my brothers or my mother. When I myself became a father, later on in life, I couldn't understand why people can do something like that.

I tried to change my life, but some people mistreated me and gave me the feeling that I was not good enough to be a part of their family. What happened in the Netherlands was a repetition of what had happened in Curaçao.

I went back to doing the wrong things again, at this moment I had been through a lot of thing for many years. I hadn't played baseball for years, not even watched it.

Finally I came in contact with the judiciary system and received a prison sentence. In prison, I got my first real diploma.

During that period I went to watch a baseball game for the first time in all these years. That day I met a lot of friends which I knew from baseball before. They asked me why I didn't play anymore because I have that talent.

Because of all the things that happend in the past years, and all the problems I had been through I did not have self-confidence. I believed I could not play baseball at the highest level anymore after all these years.

I let the opportunity pass again, and didn't go.

Years later I started playing softball with some friends, then a coach asked me to come to a baseball practice. After thinking for a long time I finally decided to go. This was the year 2010, the year that I held a wooden bat for the first time ever in my hand.

Training went well and I was allowed to participate in the new season. In my first season back in baseball I won two individual prizes in the team.

Then I really knew I had a talent for baseball and I realized how much I missed baseball in my life.

Finding my way back to baseball

The following year, in 2011, I received an invitation to play during the World Port Tournament in Rotterdam for Team Curacao. The last time I came in action for my country was in 1995, during the PanAmerican games in Argentina. Playing at the WPT in 2011 was one of the most beautiful things that happend to me for years in my life. For me it was an honor to play for my country again.

That same year I was also invited to come and play for the Dutch Team. Unfortunatelly it remained by one training. After that day I thought about quitting baseball again. I felt so disappointed and this was not what I deserved. A few years later I heard that some players had told the coach about my past and my time in prison.

Even though it was a set back, this time I didn't quit.

After that more and more beautiful things started to come my way. It was a beginning of a long and eventful road full of obstacles and barriers to cross. It was a time full with ups and downs and this was a time where I learned some important life lessons.

Due to my fear that things would go wrong again and a lack of self-confidence I was not ready yet to deal with all those things. But I had no other choice then to deal with myself and work out some personal issues I had been dealing with for the last 20 years.

One of the most important things was rebuilding my self-confidence and learn to trust people again. I feel like this was the time GOD started to prepare me for everything that was coming my way.

One of the best teams in The Netherlands asked me to come in for an interview. In that interview the head coach told me that he saw me playing as a catcher. He observed me and saw in me that what I did was making the pitchers better. Because of those skills I could be a great help to the team to become champions. That conversation and appreciation was something that gave my self-confidence a BOOST.

As the head coach had foreseen we became champions that year. I gained a lot of respect because the team aknowledged that I was the silent force and mentor of the team. This boosted my self-confidence like never before.

I was also asked to help out with a new project that started in The Netherlands to help young people to stay on track through sports. "Alleen jij bepaalt wie je bent" (only you decide who you are) was a project which fitted right in with my path in life.

The road back to Curaçao

In 2013 Team Curacao reached out to me to play again for them during another World Port Tournament. I accepted this opportunity right away, full of self-confidence.

I played a good tournament and I was asked if I wanted to come to Curaçao to play there. They needed a catcher like me to come and play with them to become champions. This was another BOOST for my self-confidence and I started to see a bright future ahead.

Due to an injury I could not finish the season with my team in the Netherlands. At the end of the season that gave me the chance to go to Curaçao. I had to come down immediately. I had to play six games to be allowed to play in the playoffs with my new team. I came to Curaçao and with my new team we became champions right away. The two years that followed we also became champions. I had now 3 years in a row of championship to celebrate. A personal victory.

In 2014, the ministry of justice of the Netherlands with whom I worked for "alleen jij bepaalt wie je bent", asked me to start the project in Curacao. The project is founded to prevent young people from slipping into crime and keep them on the right track with the help of guidance and sports. When they asked me to start up the project, they told me that they had observed me during my baseball games in The Netherlands. During those observations they saw that I was a leader. Until that moment, I, myself was not aware of this. With the help of some people I decided in september 2014 to start the project "Ami Mi Mes I Mi Logronan".

The idea of my own project appealed to me. It gave me the opportunity to help and guide young people in not making the same mistakes as me, and do the things that I had done.

It turned out that I became a rolemodel and a leader, not only on the field but also off the field. The project "Ami Mi Mes I Mi Logronan" became an absolute success. We helped a lot of a young people who normally never would have had a chance on a succesfull life.

During these first months in Curaçao I met my wife and she gave me the peace I needed in my life. She believed in me and supported me in everything I did, and still do.

From that moment on, only beautiful things happened to me. I started working together with my wife in our construction company as an accountant, this year it will be the tenth year that we work together. Nowadays I work as operational manager in the company which is a very divers job.

The emergence of Rise Above Barriers

Today, with the help of GOD, I have overcome all the barriers that stood in my way to succes. I am now confident that I can keep developing the talents GOD gave me. One of the greatest barrier I had to overcome was FEAR. Today I know that fear is one of the greatest enemies of the way to succes in life. GOD places the best things in life on the other side of fear. Fear no longer affects my life, since I realized this I gained a lot of self-confidence. I proved to GOD that I changed my life and he started blessing me with a lot a beautiful things in return.

Today, I am a role model for younger and older people. I have grown as a person. I have become mentally strong, so strong that I have now dared to step out of my comfort zone.

Because of my life journey, and all the barriers I have faced, I came up with the idea to set up my own foundation. I want to share my experience, knowledge and guidance with young people who need it. I want to share it with young people, like me when I was young, who do not get a fair chance in life or are excluded.

"Never say never because BARRIERS like FEAR are often just an illusion"