Today we’d like to introduce you to Syris King-Klem.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
On October 31st, 1996, at exactly 6am, I was born at home with the alarm clock announcing my arrival. I was born as the youngest of 5 children in central Virginia to deeply Christian parents. I was raised in a fundamentalist cult-like group called RAGM, which significantly influenced my childhood, and has in turn greatly impacted my entire life. While there were many tragic aspects of the environments I was born into, in time I’ve chosen to be deeply grateful for what I was given.
I was homeschooled until Jr year of high school, and after over five years of begging my parents to let me attend public school, I finally got my wish. However, I was quickly confronted with the reality that “the world” I was raised to fear was not the promised land I was sure it would be. The day of my high school graduation was the most depressing day of my life because that day, I realized all the effort I had spent the last two years doing everyone to fit in, including being in the top 10% of my class, being part of multiple honors societies, clubs, 4.0+ GPA, graduating as the second youngest Senior in my graduating class at just 17 yrs old, and with multiple college classes under my belt…it all seemed like dust in the wind.
Something key to my story was the fact my father didn’t let me play organized/competitive basketball even though I was a gifted player. My grandfather held multiple records in basketball in the State of Texas, and an uncle who played as well. One could say it’s in my DNA. Since I was homeschooled, I was given full freedom to self-educate, therefore throughout my school day, I would play for hours. However, my ultimate dream of playing in high school, then college, and beyond was once again snuffed out by my father’s fundamentalism. I was devastated. So, after putting all my energy into academic achievements since I wasn’t “allowed” to express my natural athleticism, I was able to attend college on a full-ride academic scholarships.
I also was a volunteer firefighter from the day after my 16th birthday (the first day I was eligible). Those thousands of hours of public service surely helped getting a full-ride scholarship. However, college didn’t last long for me. I did play one season of basketball, and after winning the championship and my father who didn’t come to the game, I realized much of my intense zeal to play competitively was to show my dad that I would do and succeed at whatever I wanted. However, just like graduating high school, I wasn’t playing because I loved the game or to grow as a person but to prove a point.
I was arrested for DUI however, I wasn’t booked and the cops just called my dad and he just picked me up after some long hours at the University of Virginia police station. Around that time I was drinking, doing recreational drugs, and struggling to keep up with all my different lifestyles.
I decided to quit firefighting, drop out of college, and join the Air Force. To 99% of the people in my life, that was a huge surprise. No one in my life, in family, my childhood, or fellow students had done so. The idea came from a firefighting captain I had a great deal of respect for who saw that I could be benefited by the structure it would provide me.
I joined in October of 2015 going to become a Combat Controller, which is a Special Ops job as a Combat Air Traffic Controller. I always thought I’d be a good Air Traffic Controller, and truly, I was naive to what I was getting myself into.
After joining, I spent the first few months training in the Spec Ops “Indoctrination”. Deep into the training, I ended up getting pneumonia and a heart arrhythmia due to the extreme nature of the training. I also drowned and had to be given resuscitation after blacking out in the water. These moments gave me a chance to self-reflect and really think about what I was doing, why I was there, and what I was trying to prove. I quickly realized being trained to kill others was the literal exact opposite of what I believed in and what I wanted to do in the world. Again, I choose to have only gratitude for the experience as it gave me much awareness about the true nature of life and my place in it.
I ended up staying in and decided not to end my military service even though I could have. I got a job as a mechanic and after a few months of training, I was sent to Germany as my first duty station. I lived in Europe for two years. This was an absolute dream. I traveled solo from Ireland to Morocco, Greece, Malta, and countless other countries. However, I once again started to get into trouble with recreational drugs while traveling to Portugal. I ended up overdosing and having my second Near Death Experience (NDE). What I experienced woke me up to the realization I had some deep issues lurking within my consciousness. I started going to therapy, and I met my first real mentor. This mentor helped me change my life, guiding me to go back to my childhood and piece together all the traumas, tragedies, and triumphs that made me “me”. I also found psilocybin mushrooms and began taking large and small amounts alone in nature. I would hike out into the Black Forest on a weekend and peel back the layers of my own self and peer into the great mystery that is life as a human.
I quickly began to realize that my military service was creating a huge strain on my life. Here I was “fighting for freedom” but I was anything but free. While I never fully embraced my military service, after major doses of mushrooms out in the famed Black Forest, I couldn’t help but realize I was meant for much more than being a cog in the machine; a machine I couldn’t morally stand to be a part of.
My journey out of the Air Force was unconventional to say the least. After going to therapy and taking mushrooms as a form of healing (and never just “for fun”), I decided that I had to “so quickly and authentically evolve my consciousness that serving in the military just wasn’t as option.” That was my motto. I discovered what it is to be a “Conscientious Objector” which is “someone who is morally opposed to the use of violence to resolve conflict”. It took time, but eventually, I wrote a 33-page packet that went through the chain of command all the way to the Pentagon. It was read and approved, allowing me to end my service two years early but I had still served four years, three months, and 11 days…not that I was counting.
It was at this time that I realized the power of the written word to shift, create, and determine reality. And I also realized I had a gift for it as well. All those years of being given free reign as a child to educate myself, not having a TV or access to any modern media, and hours spent reading encyclopedias for fun all paid off.
I realized that as a child, I wrote hundreds of letters that my mom saved. Also, I realized that in high school in Senior year, my English teacher (who was teaching an English 111 college course at high school) wouldn’t always grade my papers. This helped me feel free to write without the idea of it being good or bad. Also, I kept journals my entire life, writing poetry, short stories, and more. So without realizing it, I was writing my whole life.
I now have written/edited over eight nonfiction books, two fiction books, screenplays for feature films, and have a co-authored book coming out with Hay House in 2024.
One could say all of my journeys was preparation for me to finally realize and grasp my true purpose. While writing is something I have been doing since my honorable separation from the Air Force, I now am predominantly modeling and acting. It seems I’ve lived lifetimes within this life, which has given me a deep breath of raw, real, and perfectly human experiences, all of which I am deeply grateful. However, I’ve had to heal and grieve much throughout the process. Yet by willing to dive deep under the surface, I’ve been able to find the treasures that awaited me. It can be a tough thing to feel it all. To let the rational mind and a deep primal need for control dissolve into the surrender of trusting that life is just as it’s meant to be. I’ve found, throughout all of my experiences, painful and those leading me to my purpose, all are perfect just as they are.
It can be dangerous to just say “everything is perfect” and not truly feel and know that as true. But now that I’ve transformed my life, time and time again, each transformation was leading me closer and deeper into my full embodiment of the human I strive to be today. It’s this embodiment I carry with me into modeling and acting. And for the books that I’m occasionally asked to support with, I come to it with endless curiosity, humility, and willingness to rediscover the magic of being alive.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’ve been a professional nonfiction book writer/editor/producer. I specialize in self-help, business, and spirituality genres. However, I only take on two books per year as this is not my main work.
I am a model and actor. While I have not yet auditioned for anything here in town (LA), I will be next year. In terms of modeling, I am not currently signed with an agency, however, I am considering signing with an agency to pick up more work as most of my gigs have come without an agent.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
Writing – In terms of publishing: You never know what will work or what will resonate with a publisher. To get a book deal with a major publisher, you have to make it clear that you’ll be able to sell the market the book. Publishers are pretty cutthroat and only publish books that will make them money aka you have to sell the shit out of the book. So, if you don’t have a platform or a way to heavily market the book, go the self-publishing route! You never know what will really land with readers and many self-published books have become bestsellers. Do that, and that will give you lots of experience growing your influence. Here are three writing tips: WRITING TIP #1: Don’t write as if someone else will read it (that’s what editing is for). So simply begin…just do it. WRITING TIP #2: What you write doesn’t have to be perfect the first (or even the second/third) time. Simply begin. WRITING TIP #3: Always have your reader, regardless if it’s copy, poetry, or a full-length feature film asking the question, “WHAT COMES NEXT?!”)
Modeling – You don’t need an agency or agent to begin. Get used to turn downs and “maybe another time” or “we’ll get back to you”. As soon as you possibly can, take these “rejections” and turn them into confidence boosters that are simply signals whoever says no just simply isn’t in alignment. Save your mental health and choose the path of least resistance while also putting in true and complete devotion into expressing yourself as authentically as possible. And if someone captures those moments on film or camera, fantastic. If you’re stressed about what’s not working, you won’t be in the magnanimous state needed to model and show the world what who you are and what you feel. All of this is also true for acting.
Acting – Commit to your stage or you’ll be stuck being someone else’s audience.
And if it’s a bigger stage than you’ve seen anyone else you know pursue, it’s going to require more courage, trust, and resilience than you expect.
It’s no small feat to do what’s never been done before.
While our culture glorifies individualism, know that every turndown, obstacle, and person who tells you ‘no’ is not separate from your success.
You are the only one who can summit the peaks of your life, and no one else can or will appreciate your own life as much as yourself. So don’t waste time looking for someone else to make the journey worth it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.syriselijah.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/syriselijah
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/syriselijah
