The preceding page is nothing more than an actual excerpt of my life growing up. Time after time my mother would get the same comments from my teachers when she would visit to ask for my progress. She would never chastise me though. She would always ask me to be more…diplomatic. My grades were not bad at all. I was an A student, except the C’s I would get in religious studies…

It was always “he is a fine boy, BUT”… But, I just liked to draw. For me it was just a way to get away to alternative worlds. In my worlds I was the sole ruler and I could do whatever I wanted. I would come up with maps of non-existing worlds and then I would have non-existing civilizations clashing over a non-existing prize. They were all stick figures. The bad would be drawn in red and then the good guys I would draw in blue.

Then years passed, and the fire inside me to pursue what made me happy intensified. So I crossed the Atlantic and made it into this big melting pot that is called America. I remember when I took ART 001, and they brought in some alumni to talk about the industry. One of the guys said: “if you are one of those kids, who were drawing in their textbooks’ margins growing up, the you are at the right place”. Right there, right that moment I knew in my heart, that there is nothing else I would love to do.

However cliché it may sound, this is what I always wanted to do. I knew it since that first day when I was given a blue crayon and asked to draw my family. The only time I strayed, it was in 1986 when Top Gun came out. I wanted to be a fighter pilot then, my other option being an insurance salesman. But I soon came back to the right path.

This is not the first time in my short life, so far, that writing something (anything), means that some self-searching is required. Time and time again, I am asked to look into myself, and find out who I am, why I am here, where I am going, and what do I want in life; from life? Sometimes it only gets harder, and I question a lot of things. But there is one thing that remains constant: my craving for creativity and art.

All these thoughts have turned art and writing (for me) into a quest of soul searching; every single time. Life is a journey. In Ithaca and The Alchemist, Kavafis and Coelho respectively talk about the importance of the journey. Every journey has a beginning and an end. The destination no matter what, we will reach and the end will come inevitably. But how that end comes is the most important thing. We travel with time to become who we are. Art has been a true companion in my journey, and I have started this journey before I can remember.

Constantino Kouyialis