What is a Journeyman?

The word ‘journeyman’ comes from the French word journee, meaning the period of one day. A journeyman is a trader or crafter who has completed an apprenticeship. A journeyman was a craftsman who had fully learned his trade and earned money but was not yet a master. To become a master, a journeyman had to submit a master work piece to a guild for judgment. If the work were deemed worthy, the journeyman would be admitted to the guild as a master.

In parts of Europe, as in later medieval Germany, spending time as a journeyman (Geselle), moving from one town to another to gain experience of different workshops, was an important part of the training of an aspirant master. In a similar fashion why I call myself a journeyman cyclist is that I take this trip as a going on an apprenticeship to life. Moving from places to places..I hope I’ll be able to “level up” through my journey and pick up valuable experiences and skills along the way.