I am currently re-discovering the feeling of finding a new hobby and pursuit … and it is one of the best feelings in the world. I am now pursuing making videos through YouTube as an auxiliary medium that harmonises with the inordinate amounts of reading and writing I have been doing in public.
I find myself staying up later and waking up earlier so I can do more research and more work around building a sustainable YouTube channel. Just yesterday, I recalled starting to edit a video I shot at around 7pm and before I knew it, 10pm rolled around in what felt like the space of five minutes. I gave myself a break to grab some water and then jumped back into to work on imagining what my introduction should be before I called it quits around 1am. This has been so unlike, not just because my normal bed time is 10pm, but also because I often try to stop work when it gets dark.
I honestly feel like a kid all alone at Disneyland. There are so many cool parts of the experience, and here I am dedicating all of my efforts in try to cover as much ground as quick as I can. The fact that I have found the language and clarity with which to explain how a YouTube channel aligns with my greater vision for what I want to do is icing on the cake. I feel inherently motivated to put in all of my effort because I know that doing so will elevate the the experience of my other endeavours.
In years’ past, I would be hard-pressed to say that I had found any pursuits that I would consider a hobby outside of gaming. All my time was heavily skewed towards my education and career whereas now, I feel it has shifted heavily towards indulging my hobbies to compensate. I feel in equal parts lucky and privileged to have discovered so many new hobbies and pursuits in this calendar year: reading, writing, running, and now making videos. If I were to look back on 2020, these discoveries would be what I would have the most gratitude for, they are things that I know I will sustain decades into the future.