Warning in 2021: Please keep in mind that this letter was written in 2017. No sequel... 😉
Hello, I'm Daniel! A 25-year-old learning fanatic who graduated in civil engineering from KTU two years ago and writes the blog you are on now.
I don't consider myself very special: experienced, smart, beautiful, funny or otherwise gifted by nature. So I don't really like to write about myself.
However, I keep getting letters from various readers, 1 teachers, journalists or barely known people...
- Daniel, who are you?
- Why are you writing this blog?
- What do you want from him and your life?
- Have you always been who you are today?
- What's your shoe size...? 2
...So let me push myself today and tell a story.
I believe that this story can inspire you to overcome old fears and live differently from your habits. If you don't see the light in tomorrow - I can be the proof that with good effort it is possible to create it.
Because I wasn't really a proud person once. But now I realize that everything I've been through has brought me to this moment—writing for you, teaching, adventure, and growth.
In other words, there was a transformation that I did not expect.
I warn you right away: in this post I will tell you the most intimate details of my life. Much like writing these 33 confessions. All I ask is that you read this story to the end...
...And leave a comment below.
It doesn't matter what you write: you will share your story, comment on mine or answer the thoughts of other cloud dwellers. The most important thing for me is that you write something. Because with every word I know that I opened up for a reason. 🙂
Hello! I'm glad to meet you!
Here is my story.
Everything, as usual in our lives, started slowly. Imagine an eight-year-old child - here he is, hanging on the branch of an apple tree in the yard and devouring yet another science fiction book with his eyes. 3 Spring. The birds are singing their trills, and the child's mother is watering a flower bed somewhere in the yard.
A bee buzzing from somewhere lands on his eyebrow. He, unfortunately, not understanding what kind of insect it is, roughly scratches his face...
What follows is as expected. An instantly swollen eye, a flight from a tree branch to a bush, and a damn book.
...Ouch!
I was like that in my childhood. A pathologically shy bookworm who has no friends (except his brother) and usually constructs something in his room out of paper and a mountain of other materials.
Let's fast forward eight years.
I am a sixteen-year-old boy who already has two friends 4 and a million "acquaintances" I'm not-afraid-don't-want-to-communicate. I'm also that weirdo who goes to school without washing his head and spends the rest of the 18 hours a day maniacally immersed in internet games and pornography. 5
This kid hates all classes except art and physics. And the worst thing for him is the Lithuanian language, which he doesn't like simply because Hitler with his tits is sitting in the teacher's chair. Metaphorically, of course. The child has no idea that in four years he will regret that he did not learn anything in these lessons.
The scene is a few years later - I am receiving the "Alien of the Year" award at school. Both my friends also applied for this award! 😀
March of 2011. Two more years ahead.
A month before his nineteenth birthday, our little changed hero falls in love for the first time. Late, but hey, you have to sometime.
...And, probably as expected, this girl (named Gerda) is not at all attracted to me and offers to remain just friends. Confused and devastated, I accept the offer, and when I get home in the evening, I do what I do best - scour the internet for the answer to "How to get out of the friend zone".
I never found the answer then, but I stumbled upon endless pages, seminars, trainings and books about hooking up girls, psychology and self-development.
At the time, I had no idea what it would mean for me in the future.
I was just trying to deceive my first love, who remained indifferent to me.
But a month later...
The devil knows what way 6 our hero meets the second girl. Since then, April and May have become his favorite months.
I'm graduating in June and following the so-called "Do what your parents say" path: I'm majoring in civil engineering. I didn't write the second number because I didn't think of one.
For the rest of the summer, some kind of magic begins to work, maybe because of young love,
or maybe because of the endless self-help articles.
Not believing in my own changes, I forget the games, 7 I start to care about my appearance, and there is more and more room for challenges in my everyday life.
August 31st marks the end of my 100 days of summer after returning from a family vacation in Crete. I break up with my first girlfriend and enroll in civil engineering. The era of studentship begins.
January 2012. Fast forward half a year.
This month, for the first time, I think that studying is not what I like at all, and I would rather be writing or doing other creative things. However, I decided to change and continue what I was doing: I draw fantastic maps, learning how to communicate with girls and researching religion in Christian Alpha teachings. Little has changed over the years.
But after 70+ dates with different girls 8 and more than 300 new acquaintances 9 I'm starting to realize that girls are people too. Ha... It may be funny to you, but it was news to me.
Half a year later, everything changes again.
Already a sophomore, our hero spends all his free time reading and personally trying out tips from pages such as Zen Habits or Art of Manliness. Challenges and learning become part of his life.
In September of that year, I met the second girl of my life, but I quickly broke up with her and we just became the best friends we are to this day. This doesn't just happen in movies.
In October, I drop girl-hanging studies from my learning repertoire.
That month I realized that I no longer needed it - I was no longer afraid of girls, and there was nothing more to discover in this area. Of course, there was room for improvement, but what I had was enough. 10
...And in November I create a new blog and call it Debesyla.
This is what he looked like in the beginning. Is it nicer now?
February 2013. Four more months ahead.
A blog and a being named Debesyla are starting to take on their color. Although I didn't write much in the first months, and I didn't have a topic... In February, that changed - Debesyla found its first motto and mission.
"From now on, live as light as a cloud!"
Somewhere around this point in our history, I start looking for similar blogs. I can find countless English ones (including Zen Habits, which inspired the theme)... However, there are not so many Lithuanian ones. At that time it was already written "Super Gentis", but it was only an exclusivity.
I'm starting to realize: anyone can write rubbish, but few can present tested, scientifically or at least personally verified knowledge.
But this does not deter from the mission. Although the quality path is much more difficult than copying texts and quotes and pasting them on photos with cars and tits.
The months are slowly passing by, and Debesyla it's slower, it's growing faster. Writing skills also change. Can compare progress from the first article 11 until the latest. Debesyla is gradually becoming famous in Lithuania.
Let's fast forward to today.
Debesyla became a part of me. Once upon a time, a child had a tiny hobby of reading books while hanging in a tree. But everything grew to a page, an encyclopedia or a magazine, 12 connecting thousands of Lithuanians who want to grow. Clouds.
And here...
I watched it a few weeks ago Gintaras Varna's performance "Biography". It was one of the best performances I've ever seen, with a damn good question that sticks in my mind for a long time:
"If you could change your life, would you know what to change in it?" Would you like?"
...The further I think, the more I am convinced that it is not - I would not know what to change in my life.
Although my life has not been amazing, it has brought me to this point. Every decision I've made has led to me writing you this letter. And I create this blog, I create my life, I try to help you.
I believe that if you are reading this text, you are probably not much different from me. Yes, your life is different, but you are also part of the Cloud. You learn, you grow, you have goals for the future, challenges for the present... You want to create your own life and live without difficulties.
You are part of the Cloud. Just as I am.
And although my story stops here, it does not end. Our lives have brought us to this common point! Now we can look to the future with more confidence. Because the past was the past, and the future brings only good things that just need to be grabbed.
What now?
And now... Well, first of all, thank you for reading this story. I put my whole soul into it and tried not to embellish even a bit. At the same time, I tried to inspire you to grow - I hope I succeeded.
All I ask of you now is to leave a comment below.
It doesn't matter what. It won't take you a second. 13 And with each feedback, I will be able to know that I opened up for a reason.
And now, I pass the word to you, little cloud! 🤟
Yes, you are not the only one.↩
Well, okay, no one asked the last question. But my size is 43.↩
Probably an episode of Rats of Steel, The Foundation or Black Guard.↩
One of them is the programming guru Henrik, whose charisma I have always envied, and the second is Ernest, who somewhat resembles Eric from the South Park cartoon.↩
/b/ is his home.↩
Yes, I still have no idea what you saw in me, Laimona. But you were and still are amazing.↩
It's easier than the scary articles describe. You just have to live in such a way that you don't want to run to the games. Love helps a lot. (Also applies to alcoholics and other drug addicts.)↩
Yes, I counted.↩
This number is just a guess.↩
I now realize that these are studies of dubious value at all. "Women are people too" is a surprisingly apt phrase - just relax and don't need those gimmicks here!↩
Which I didn't fix specifically.↩
It doesn't matter what you call it.↩
Although if you want to share your story - please!↩
I am very glad that I found it in time. This is certainly the case in my life as well. Thank you for reading.
And already in 2023
Indeed. And a lot has changed… 🙂