Childhood & School

Birth

Erik Zakhia was born in Beirut on the 8th of May 1991, at 5h55 pm. He spent the first three years of his life in Amchit, his hometown, before moving to Beirut in September 1994, when he started going to school.

Citizenships

Lebanese, Italian, French, Colombian (all by birth right)

Languages

French (mother tongue), Italian (mother tongue), English (fluent, creative tongue), Lebanese Arabic (fluent/intermediate), Spanish (notions), Dutch (beginner)

Education (school):

– Grand Lycée Franco-Libanais de Beyrouth: 1994 – 2009

Erik Zakhia did his entire schooling at the Grand Lycée Franco-Libanais de Beyrouth, from 1994 to 2009, when he obtained his French Baccalaureate, with a “très bien” mention (Final grade: 17.3/20) choosing the Scientific option with a specialty in mathematics. He obtained the 2nd best grade of his class (over 30 students).

Activities: 1 year of judo, 2 years of athletics, 3 years of soccer, 1 year of theater, ping pong

Erik Zakhia got high grades in both scientific and literary fields, obtaining excellent results in French literature studies and essays, philosophy, mathematics, physics, geology and history; he was generally very well appreciated by all his professors as he most of the time made an effort to participate in the discussions in class, and to answer the questions no one else knew to answer. He also was known for his athletics skills (speed and endurance) and his ping pong skills.

Writing contest: Erik participated into a creative writing contest in 2008-2009 in between all the French schools of Lebanon, winning the 2nd prize of the entire contest. The theme of the short story to write was “Et si j’étais un autre?” The picture below was taken during the award ceremony of the contest.

– Extracurriculars

Christian faith: Erik Zakhia grew up in the maronite-catholic Christian faith, receiving his baptism as a child, and doing his first communion around age 10. For two years, after school, he studied the basics of catechism, and of how to be a good, kind, respectful, fair and forgiving person.

Marathons: Erik Zakhia participated every year (for three or four years in a row) to the Beirut marathon of 10 km.

Other skills Erik Zakhia learnt outside from school are skiing (he learnt to ski on the slopes of Laqlouq and Faraya in his childhood, and later perfected his skills), and open sea swimming.

Erik Zakhia was also passionate by constructions: small scale rock and mud constructions in the garden, wooden constructions (kapla), lego, etc.

His entire life was rhythmed by plants. Since an early age, under the influence of his great grandfather, his grandfather, his great uncle, and his mother, Erik Zakhia developed a passion for plants and botanic. When other children and teenagers at school wished to go out, or to play video games or playstation, Erik preferred the company of plants. In his childhood, and later in his teenagerhood, he learnt to plant all sorts of trees and fruits trees, by seeds and by slips, keeping a small plant nursery. Later on, Erik planted the hundreds of trees and shrubs he had grown by himself into the soil, and now, one decade and a half afterwards, these trees have become tall and majestic, and have started to bear fruits, in the “Fantasy Garden of Ylliriel”.

And when Erik returned from school, in Beirut, with no possibility to plant or take care of a garden, he read. Hundreds of books, novels, and comics. He developed a passion for reading since age 7 or 8, and read all the youth classics, as well as most of the classics of the French, British, American, and Italian literature. Erik Zakhia however did not limit his interest to classics, and he soon discovered his favorite genres were historical novels, and later on, high fantasy novels. Erik obtained his high grades at school, and later at university, with relatively few hours of study. The rest of his free time was dedicated to reading.

And since an early age, Erik Zakhia knew that one day, he would write a book, or several ones. How exactly, and about what, he didn’t know yet.

Other hobbies of Erik included following cars races (formula 1), and soccer games (Italy / Fiorentina), and playing strategy boardgames (chess, stratego, risk, monopoly…) and strategy historical video games (age of empires, anno…). However these hobbies were secondary respect to planting and reading.