intro

let's begin

friends,

a few months ago i parted ways with my job and a traditional career path. i'm taking the time to pursue my dreams of traveling the world, to chase my curiosity, to be free, and to try figure out what i was brought on this earth to do.

time has flown by during this time, as it does. and yet the journey has been harder than i could have ever imagined. i always thought this journey would be intensely liberating and yet i've also found myself struggling with purposelessness, doubt, and anxiety. i have these beautiful, beautiful moments of clarity, followed by moments of overwhelming doubt. the highs are very high, and the lows are very low.

a few weeks ago i was sitting in the back of a campervan in australia. we were making our way up the eastern coast, and parked in front of a beach for sunset. lying on our makeshift bed with the trunk open and surfboard to one side, i listened to the sound of the waves as the evening sun slowly moved across the pages of the book in my hand. i wasn’t really reading, not really. mostly, i looked up at the sky and thought about nothing. we had spent two weeks on the road and yet that one evening doing nothing was the one memory i’ll never forget. why is it that the simplest moments end up being the ones we remember most?

i’ve always felt like successful people write about their lives after it’s all said and done – processed and watered down years later with the wisdom of age and hindsight. i want to do things differently. i want to share my story as i'm living it, with all the uncertainty and wild exhilaration of the here and now. i’ve always found reassurance in reading about the experiences of other 20-somethings, in knowing that we are all feeling lost at times and struggling to deal with uncertainty in our lives. however different our lives and personalities may be, this rollercoaster of life takes all of us along for a ride. every day i'm realizing how much there is left to learn.

künstlerroaming will tell my story – the story of a 25 year old following his dreams and navigating his way through the uncertainty of life. i want to be vulnerable about the ups and downs of my journey; to capture the beauty of the simplest, most mundane moments; and to detail the doubts, fears, and tears in between. i'll write about the lessons i’ve learned, and the lessons i didn’t want to learn but had to anyway. i'll share my thoughts on happiness, identity, and other things i spend too much time thinking about.

the German word künstlerroman comes from künstler (artist) and‎ roman (novel). it is an artist’s novel, an artist’s coming-of-age story.

this is mine – told through my images and my words.

with love,
kora