The Final Fragment

“Believe in yourself!”, “Follow your heart!”, “Trust your gut!”. The modern world always preaches about self-discovery, self-realization and self- anything, really. But nobody explains how to find that fickle and unreachable 'self' everyone seems to treat like the ultimate answer to the greatest puzzle called life. Is it a journey you need, as they say, to take on yourself?

These musings torment Nina, a melancholic student at the Olha Kobylianska Arts Academy.

Answers run away from her, hiding behind all sorts of mundane troubles: how to hide a crush on that one perfect girl she shares a dorm room with, deal with an eccentric ex-friend and choose a major for her next year at college? And, most importantly, what does her submission for the upcoming academy’s art exhibition desperately lack?

But a mysterious incident at the exhibiton tears apart Nina’s safe and uneventful life, forcing her to confront everything she's been running away from…

Length: ~20k words, approximately 2 hours of reading

Experience a cozy coming-of-age tale filled with emotion and mystery

Dive into the painterly atmosphere of the arts academy drawn by Valentyna Olefirenko

Listen to your inner voice and choose what feels right

Find the last missing piece of Nina’s scattered sense of self