Education: Philological Gymnasium in Belgrade - classical studies; Faculty of Philosophy within the University of Belgrade - Department of Sociology - third year of undergraduate studies
The beginnings of my interest in art started as early as the second grade of elementary school. That's when I wrote my first poem dedicated to spring. However, my teacher didn't appreciate the poem and promptly tore it up and threw it in the trash. From that incident until the first year of high school, I kept my poetry and short stories carefully hidden. Under the influence of my literature teacher, I eventually decided to submit some of them to the "Borislav Pekić" competition in 2018. To my (then) great surprise, I won the first prize. For me, reading and writing have always been a way to better understand myself and the world around me, but from a safe distance. After this competition, instead of encouragement, fear grew within me. Fear that if I dared to submit my poems elsewhere, it would be revealed that even "Pekić" was a mistake, just sheer luck - a coincidence. At one point, I dared to submit a poem for publication in the student magazine "Kamen." It was published, but I convinced myself that they surely didn't have a plethora of candidates since they had only recently opened.
I turned to exploring the world through a scientific lens - hence my interest in sociology. Science is (seemingly) much more precise. It follows a strict protocol and sequence of steps. For similar reasons, I also turned to debating. At my first tournament, "Fire 5 Five" in 2023, I won first prize, and at "Monopoly" in the same year, I made it to the semifinals. With good argument formulation and logical consistency, the assessment of your work depends much less on the personal preferences of the listener. The sound, rhythm, and power of a good verse lie in emotion - in sincerity, in exposing vulnerabilities. I found a way to fulfill the emotional part of my being through volunteering and activism.
Some of the organizations I volunteered for and/or participated in their projects include ECODEV, "Walking by the Earth," EYP (European Youth Parliament), BELDOCS, the Magazine of Sociology Students "Svetonazor," Shelter in Belgrade, as well as being the leader of the project "Let Mermaids Win," which was awarded the "Make a Difference" recognition for 2021 and offered funding from the UN. In addition to writing, I'm also involved in visual arts and a combination of visual arts. I attended the drawing school "Šumatovačka," where I met, today, lifelong friends who tirelessly encourage me to continue with art. At the insistence of my best friend Viktor Cvejić, a student at the Academy of Fine Arts, I submitted to the art festival "Biennale of Youth" with three digital collages dedicated to "youth systemic insecurity." The collages were exhibited at the Pavilion "Cvijeta Zuzorić" in 2023. That same year, my first original film, exploring life with chronic health issues, was screened at the "Zvezda" cinema as part of the series of Film Festivals organized by the "Society of Associated Responsibility."
In my free time, I do "everything young people love" - procrastinate studying for exams, despair over constantly rising prices, lament that the consumer basket is currently 100,000 monthly, and the average salary is 80,000, try to enroll in a master's program even though I love Serbia, go to KST every other weekend then to an afterparty at Dva Jelena or Tri Šešira, miserably fall in love and argue with my parents. Among hobbies that most people don't have, I play RPG indie video games. In my humble opinion, it's the most underestimated form of art. My goal is to one day create my own video game.
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