Leya 99

Vera Calmer
Nov 12, 2023
Share

In the end of 1999 Leya joined her friend in exploring the online world of blogs and websites, sharing her own life journey in her blog Leya 99 as a philosophy student and clubdancer in the Dutch city Utrecht.

image by Verawaty

Leya 99 #12 | pursuing the real me

Vera Calmer
·
Jul 17
Leya 99 #12 | pursuing the real me

How can you truly know who you are? How can you know that what you are doing is truly what you will become? That is what many young students struggle about. In the eyes of my fellow students, I’m living the dream. This week we were discussing our plans for the Y2K celebrations, the new years eve when we go from 1999 to 2000. I will be i…

Read full story

Leya 99 #11 | this bearable passion

Vera Calmer
·
Jul 14
Leya 99 #11 | this bearable passion

Meant to be. We mostly think about love when it comes to these words, but this time it’s about a house. My new place. A studio that is rented by the lady I talked about and I am allowed to be her next tenant. I managed to move in immediately thanks to Jenny who took over my other room which my landlord happily agreed with. All I moved w…

Read full story
Leya 99 #10 | my freedom, my kind of wild

Leya 99 #10 | my freedom, my kind of wild

Vera Calmer
·
Jul 13
Read full story
Leya 99 #9 | bloody blurry me

Leya 99 #9 | bloody blurry me

Vera Calmer
·
Jul 9
Read full story

Leya 99 #8 | blurry and a shot of restlessness

Vera Calmer
·
Jul 7
Leya 99 #8 | blurry and a shot of restlessness

There’s so much going on right now. Keeping up with my studies, my dancing and taking care of my mom has somehow become a blur in my mind. I do manage to keep everything going, although in my head there’s a continuous panic questioning whether I spend enough attention on everything.

Read full story

Leya 99 #7 | a fantasy, my pleasure

Vera Calmer
·
Jul 4
Leya 99 #7 | a fantasy, my pleasure

So yes I’ve found my wigs and have worn the silver one already, together with an insane outfit that fits my image of a fantasy dragonfly. That’s how I call it, it could be the name of a new blog or even a website. What do you think? A portal on the internet taking you into another world, of which you wonder if it’s real. Whether it’s really happening. T…

Read full story

Leya 99 #6 | a rebel, an angel, a mystery

Vera Calmer
·
Jul 2
Leya 99 #6 | a rebel, an angel, a mystery

Apparently I’m already writing too fast. Stan has taught me how to post my blogs online and it’s easy. From now on I can do this myself and Stan is responsible for the design of the website. He asked me to take some pictures of myself he can use for the website. I was thinking about making some blurry photos of myself in wigs. They need to be blurry. I …

Read full story

Leya 99 #5 | a wandering butterfly

Vera Calmer
·
November 12, 2023
Leya 99 #5 | a wandering butterfly

My life has transformed into a weird paradox living the life as a student, reading serious philosophical literature and dancing in dance clubs. Let’s just say that this is the best way to be alive. Combining duty and pleasure. Even though I love to read and study, it’s not always fun to do. When I am in the club dancing, that’s when I c…

Read full story

Leya 99 #4 | great window

Vera Calmer
·
November 12, 2023
Leya 99 #4 | great window

14 november 1999 I am such a mess. It’s Saturday night and I can’t sleep, so I started my computer to write again. Stan won’t publish this article tomorrow. I am not sure if I will finish this post right away. Tonight I am wondering what I am doing here. I am all alone in this big house. For some reason the other students are at their parents' home and I…

Read full story

Leya 99 #3 | my kind of freedom

Vera Calmer
·
November 10, 2023
Leya 99 #3 | my kind of freedom

I hate to admit Stan was right. I like this internet thing and here I am again writing another article. It’s like I always have something to say, something to think about. I do. That’s why he suggested making a website for me. Stan is still responsible for the design. All I do is write, like it’s nothing, but he’s happy I do. It gives him the chance to …

Read full story

Leya 99 #2 | call millennium

Vera Calmer
·
September 26, 2023
Leya 99 #2 | call millennium

4 October 1999 There’s another reason my friend Stan insisted on me going online. It’s after our get together with a group after a party. We were dancing, or I was working and dancing, they were having a party and I was there, being me. I am not drinking alcohol and not doing drugs. That’s one of the rules I wanted to obey my parents with when I wanted to live the life of a go go dancer. I still live at home, but I do have sleep overs quite often at one of the dancers or other friends.

Read full story

Leya 99 #1 | it's the future

Vera Calmer
·
September 15, 2023
Leya 99 #1 | it's the future

2 October 1999 My years have arrived, that’s how I see it. Someone told me about the internet and I am trying now. My own website. I am not sure if I will be able to write all the time as I am a busy girl juggling between studying Philosophy and my job as a gogo dancer. A boy named Stan built this page for me and taught me how to post my own articles and pictures. It’s like my own newspaper, only on the world wide web. I am not sure what to think about it, but according to Stan it’s the future.

Read full story