Name: Vasco Bessa

Social Media Handle/Username: @vascobe2sa on Instagram and Twitter

Introduce Yourself/Tell About Yourself: Well, let’s start this. Hi, I’m Vasco, a 15 year old boy born in Portugal. Resident in Oporto, North of Portugal. Overthinker and mature, I am an art enthusiast in its various forms, particularly music and paint but I’ll talk about it later in this interview. I think a lot about life, in fact, I think a lot about everything around me, that makes me have no teacher in anything, makes me be my own teacher in almost every craft of life. Not all of them, I got my inspirations of course, but I’d say I am who I am because of my thinking process and because of my awareness about what is life and what it really means.

What Inspires You Every day? : Art. I am art. Nature is art. God is art. We, as mortal beings, are art. That inspires me in everything I do in life, from talking with people to conquer what I desire. Art is so vast and so subjective, it’s the exact reflex of life. Every human invention has influence in art and at the same time every art piece, from trees to poetry, has influence in the human being. That being said, we are the reflection, the mirror of each other so everytime I am lacking creativity, patience or any other principle of life I look up to my mirror, all the other variants of art, and immediately find it. Talking about finding inspiration in other people, I do have some idols but the ones I look up to the most are Kanye West, Miyamoto Musashi, Kannon and a dear friend of mine, Luísa Pessoa.

What is some words of wisdom you live by?: “the most beautiful thoughts are always besides the darkest” this quote resumes pretty much my life and motivates me to wake up every morning no matter the way I am feeling. You know, although I am a young man I done went through a lot of dark roads and deep valleys in life and if there’s one thing I’ve learnt from this is that the brightest thoughts arise when the light is lacking. I could be here complaining about what I’ve went through but, looking in the mirror, darkness made me what I am. Darkness didn’t make dark, darkness made me become my own light. That’s what distinguishes brilliant minds from the others: the way you portray the darkness.

What is your ultimate goal in life? : My ultimate goal in life is inspiring someone in a positive way. Making the difference in someone’s life. You know, if I ever reach that, I can say that I made it, that I made life worth it. I know someday I’ll inspire someone, I know.

How have you been during the pandemic and how has it affected you? : Well, another example of “the most beautiful thoughts are always besides the darkest”. I got to thank God for these pandemic times. They made me learn a lot about life itself, about society, about myself. I have faced some hard times during the pandemic because I am naturally an Overthinker but with the lockdown, my thinking process was disturbed. To think you analyze and most of the times I didn’t stop to analyze what I was thinking. That being said, I wasn’t thinking, I was throwing observations to the air instead of turning them into polished philosophies.

What is a message you would like to give others? : Trying is failing, there is no “ifs”, “woulds”, “coulds”, “shoulds”… It just is and we just are.

What else would you like to tell others about you or your life?: This is more a reminder to myself, some sort of a letter to read when I’m feeling low. You are a genius and life’s beautiful, life’s the ultimate gift. The good and bad are part of life, and that’s what makes it beautiful. You have to live life on life terms, not in yours.