We met Kris Zahariev to talk about his book Lost on Purpose. This is a book, as well as a photo album, a travelogue and a diary with memories and a jump back in time when the journey which changed my life began. I had no plan, but I was together with two of my best friends among the most desolate corners of our homeland and the whole summer was ahead of us, Kristian Zahariev, known as Kris writes.

Kristian is twenty one. He studies film directing at the National Academy of Theater and Film Arts. He has been publishing vlogs in Youtube for over 5 years. He started with funny sketches, but his ideas changed with his age. Although his purpose is not to influence people, but only to make what he likes the most, in 2018 Kris Zahariev was among the Enlighteners of the Year thanks to his popular web series Lost on Purpose. The book Lost in Purpose also managed to send a strong message:

A father whose son is not born yet told me at the premiere of the book the following: Can you sign it. I will give this book to my son when he turns 15 so he can read it then.

But how did everything started? Three young people - Kris, Yasen and Stas decided to make a journey during their last summer as teenagers without no goals and plans in place and get lost on purpose:

One day I was travelling by train and watching the people around me in the compartment getting off and on the train and was thinking about the interesting stories they could tell me, Kris says. The train was passing near small railway stations whose names I had never heard before and I wondered how a journey across unknown villages without any tourist attractions, museums and famous personalities born in them would look like. Villages, where you cannot see much. What type of people live there and what their stories would sound like. Lost on Purpose was a project which was burning very hard inside of me.

So, Kris and his friends got lost during the summer two years ago. Where? We were lost in places people usually avoid. In Villages where only a dozen of elderly women and six cows live. A place where bread is brought on Wednesday and Friday only and where the phone signal is weak.

In their web series the three young Bulgarians tell not only about the places, but also about the people of Bulgaria as they are-hospitable, loving and sometimes suffering. They show a different Bulgaria people rarely hear about, which is not often in the news.

For me personally, as a director of the project, it was a great challenge to set off without any plan whatsoever, because anything could happen. That is why, I was looking for stories every day, but it turned out that the more I let myself go with the wind, the more interesting things happened, Kris says.

In his view, the biggest lesson from this journey is that things happenedthe right way if there is hope. And what is the message of the journey?

I don’t think I am preaching something. I am rather sharing personal experiences of a twenty one-year-old man. I am sending messages- that we must look for the beautiful things, be curious and believe in miracles.

Kris is determined to stay and work in Bulgaria when he graduates from the university. He has a lot of ideas in mind. That is why he is always carrying a notebook and he constantly writes new things in it.

This journey was another proof that the Bulgarians are very hospitable people and ready to take care of each other. Many people gave us shelter without knowing us at all and were ready to feed us. They helped us a lot. In other words, we carry the beauty in ourselves. We just have to try to find it and keep this beauty, because it is very specific. We should like ourselves the way we are and focus on the good features we carry.

People should think more about the decisions than the problems and should not believe the ones who say that Bulgaria isn’t worth it, because many good thing happen here, Kris says in conclusion.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov