Photo by @ecotrain
Who are the most relevant people of our time to you?
Growing up in a small place in Croatia, then Serbia, I never really had someone I looked up to in real life. I guess as kids we learn everything from people we are surrounded with but I didn't have anyone who was my favorite, who I wanted to be like when I grow up or anything like that. Coming to my teen years, I had my favorite celebrities and I remember buying magazines, filling my room walls with posters but one big difference to nowadays is the non-existence of Social media or even Internet. Some of the celebrities that stood out to me back then were Jennifer Lopez (I really liked her music, her looks, music videos and dancing and I still think she is cool) and football player Ronaldinho (I was really into football as a teenager and he was my favorite and yes, I still like him even now).
In my early 20's I discovered YouTube 'beauty gurus' and vloggers. I followed so many of them and my favorite was FunForLuis because he traveled all around the world and made vlogs every single day for a couple of years, I think. As music was and always will be big part of my life, I always had artists I liked over the years and during this time of my life Bruno Mars and Beyonce were my favorite.
Now as a 30 year old, I still have some of my favorite 'online' people such as YouTubers Hitomi Mochizuki and Isabel Paige and when it comes to music I am so into K-pop for the past year even though some people might think I am too old for this genre now, I don't really care because it brings me a lot of happiness and joy. :) Of course, now I have a different perspective on things from my teenage self and I realize how bombarded we are with overly edited lifestyles and appearances online so I try to look for more authentic content to consume that leaves me in a good mood and brings something positive to my life.
As a teenager I think I used to look up and idolize some of the celebrities more than I probably should have. I wish I had someone to look up to in real life during that sensitive period of my (and probably everyone else's) life. I am honestly so happy I am not a teenager in this time and age where there's so much online influence and it's really hard to get away from it. I think I am that type of person who is always looking for inspiration somewhere else rather than within myself and I always needed someone to look up to so this is something I am struggling with even now, as an adult.
Thinking about people I have met, there were definitely some who left a big mark even though our interactions were short and I always feel like these people were sent my way to teach me or show me something I am supposed to learn from them. They always left me feeling a lot more open up to the thing I feared of or didn't think were possible. I know a lot of this doesn't make sense as I am not telling stories in detail, but I hope you don't mind me keeping it to myself. Even though I am not in touch with most of these people anymore, the lessons they taught me and memories of them will always be relevant to me.
