Tremayne Daisey has had quite a journey finding his passion.

After a few ups and downs, Daisey found his way to the Journalism department at Indiana University Southeast. It all started in fifth grade when he took his first art class—and realized he liked art. Daisey continued taking art classes but had his first school change right before middle school. Switching was hard for him. He struggled with the strict presence the school gave off and had trouble finding his friends. Daisey struggled with his confidence and identity. This is when the arts proved helpful for him. He got into music, drawing, painting, and later poetry. The arts helped him open up, allowing him to find his confidence and who he is.

After high school, Daisey started college trying to find what was right for him. He first went to the University of Kentucky to study graphic design but didn’t know if it was truly what he wanted. His parents told him, “You’re really talented when it comes to writing.” With their advice in mind, he changed paths, and restarted as a first year at IUS.

Daisey says, along with academic goals, he has come to college to broaden his social connections and experience new things. He likes to take on communication through poetry. He says, “I write poetry about everything, honestly, no matter what I do. Sometimes I’m bad at expressing my words, but poetry just kind of flows out.” Daisey goes on to mention how many different forms of art help him center his emotions and empower him to communicate them.

Daisey’s goal is to work for VICE or i-D, a part of VICE that focuses on fashion. VICE is a magazine that talks about everything. They like to find different communities and niches all over the world to cover. Daisey loves that VICE dives into topics around the world that most magazines don’t. He wants to shine a light on these topics. He says, “There’s just a lot of things people don’t know about, I guess. So many different things, perspectives in the world and life.” He wants to “expose different things, open people’s minds.”

Daisey also wants to travel to places that many of his peers in Kentuckiana haven’t even dreamed of. The arts drive him to find opportunities to share knowledge with the world, as he is sure to do in the future.

Note:  This story resulted from a feature profile assignment in Journalism J-200 “Reporting, Writing, & Editing I,” a course redesigned by and taught by Lydia Lum.