CALGARY, CANADA
EXCHANGE x BRYSONE TILLER – KIANA LEDE
So, a lot has happened since February of this year, and there are just a few important things that I need to update and confirm to you (but mostly just to myself):
endoxist.com / for those of you who have been around since 2007 (and I know who you are and I do appreciate it!), you know that this online space started with a very different URL and an equally different online persona. That person was someone who I don’t recognize but still cherish, if that makes sense. Had I not been that guy, I would not have been able to morph to this guy. It all started after I read a newspaper article about a serial killer who kept a blog and that blog offered so much insight into his life. I wanted to have a way to have insight into my life, and “Jurr Dot / IYBC” was created in June of 2007. Since then, this blog has been many things – a fashion blog, a style blog, a travel diary and also an online journal. The one thing that has remained constant, though, has been my honesty and realness. Not one single post from the last seven years has been altered, none of the comments deleted, none of the photos altered. This space will forever be my own memory box of the person I was at 20 and onwards. Now, Endoxist.com is the proud home of my digital portfolio, showcasing my writing and this blog remains, as it always did and will continue to, as a space for me to chronicle my own personal journey – both challenges and accomplishments.
KOHLER CHARLES INC. / at the beginning of 2015, my wife-to-be and I finally launched our much conceptualized, heavily discussed and deeply researched online space. At the time, it was meant to be a floating portfolio of the freelance fashion styling we were doing. Literally every month since then, the direction of that webspace has changed as our vision becomes clearer. By the end of last year, along with all the fun of the wedding, we made a solid decision what we wanted KOHLER CHARLES INC to be: a digital content creation machine, featuring everything we love (and frankly are both well-versed at and good at capturing): fashion, travel and a luxury lifestyle. You know how people always say “you should be doing this with you life”? Well for us, it was always FASHION. At the grocery store, at my parents’ church, out for brunch, at our various jobs, during school, at airports, everyone in our circle and extended circle of friends has said to us literally a hundred times: “do you guys work for/in fashion/a fashion magazine?”. And when the response came back no from us, it was really us who were disappointed. So why not, if we enjoy it, are good at it, and everyone else wants us in that box anyway, why were we fighting this? That’s how we finally figured out the vision for our digital futures, and as soon as that was figured out, a lot of work lay ahead of us. From a total re-design and abandoning our original interface and server, to re-branding and re-invigorating the social media platforms. A ton of work and a fair amount of $$$ later, we were finally happy with where KC was at aesthetically and content-wise. And pause here.
real life / important to note here is that all this endoxist.com / kohlercharlesinc stuff has been super fun, very exciting and interesting, and opened many opportunities for me, but until today, it has been a hobby. In the real world, I was an immigrant to Canada from Pakistan, and went through my own struggles to find my unique place in the world, my country and my city of Calgary. I attended the University of Calgary, graduated with a Communication & Culture undergraduate (with honours!) and have held a number of corporate positions in both the private and public sector. I met my girlfriend at her work, where she hired me for a seasonal role. She finished her Human Resources bachelor’s and has been working in management-level roles for the past eight years. Together, we did a bit of traveling, but also fell madly in love and began to set up a life for ourselves. And I think, as of last October, we finished setting up that life. We purchased our very own townhouse in downtown Calgary, where we both held “good jobs” in the large office towers. We drove a black Mercedes Benz GLK, we completely renovated and furnished our house, we had dinner every Sunday with my parents. I asked Monika to marry me with a Cinderella proposal of stunning princess shoes and fireworks, and the ring that I am still proud of, and we had our wedding in Prague, literally picked out from our dreams. Our favourite hot yoga studio is a block from our townhouse, and we knew when to hit the Holts Christmas sale. Everything was at it should be, and as planned it. And we were so happy. Except…
The more we actualized what we had imagined for our digital careers, the more work, partnerships and collaborations started coming. And so now since we were finally hobby-ing what we always wanted to do, we had a critical, albeit simple, decision to make. And thus, we choose happiness. We choose hard work, uncertainty, and new challenges. And this is what prompted the #KCCreativeProject. We have given away our car, we have found renters for the home we loved so dearly and furnished so nicely, and today, I worked my last day at my “good job” in downtown Calgary. We have put some things into storage, donated most other things, and packed just two suitcases each, and next week, we board a plane to Europe. And thus everything that Monika and I worked so hard for in the past few years – our house, furnishings, the art, a car, our careers, a circle of friends – gets a giant reset. It is both exhilarating and terrifying. One thing is for sure, everything will be documented online, and you get to join us on the journey! Stay tuned.
