(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) "Each one of us has a summit to climb, and it will be shame not to achieve full potential during the short period, which is your lifetime."
Growing up during the war in Lebanon, Maxime Chaya made it a point to achieve his full potential beyond chaos. After winning a mountain bike race in Kenya, he was invited to climb Kilimanjaro through which he decided to climb the Seven Summits.
In 2006, he became the first Lebanese to climb Mount Everest. Chaya was at the Sharjah International Book Fair to showcase the first volume of his comic series, Maximum Max, available in English, French and Arabic, aimed to encourage the youth to read Arabic and find their own summit. The second volume of the series will be released in 2018. "Due to the region's instability, the youth's potential goes unnoticed. Even worse, they are sometimes directed towards negative things. I want to tell them that each one of us has an Everest in our life, you just have to find it and climb it," said Chaya, who found his own passion for mountaineering at 35.
Chaya also reached the three poles and rowed across the Indian Ocean with a team to achieve a world speed record. He lately crossed the Empty Quarter desert in Abu Dhabi.
He noted that besides gathering people together, sports makes people understand there are certain rules everyone has to adhere to. "When children get into a sports team, it takes them off the street and the negative temptations that may cross their minds when they have nothing they're passionate about."
Chaya urged the Arab youth to make their negative environment the drive to move forward and make a difference.
"Had I waited for things to hunky-dory, I'd still be waiting. We should never use our circumstances as an excuse to sit back."
His next adventure will be crossing the Saudi Arabian part of the Empty Quarter desert and running a Beirut marathon to raise funds for charity. His main ambition, he said, is to convince the youth climb their highest peak.
Sherouk Zakaria "Born and raised in UAE, Sherouk Zakaria is a Senior Correspondent at Khaleej Times. Joined since May 2016, she covers Dubai Municipality, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA), special events and humanitarian issues. Her choice of journalism as a career stems from her passion of telling people's stories and writing to inspire or make a difference. In her free time, she's an occasional theater and film actress. Sherouk received her BA in Mass Communications from the American University in Sharjah in 2013. Before joining Khaleej Times, she was a senior lifestyle/entertainment editor for a magazine in Dubai."
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