19/09/2020
TL;DR I am so glad to share with every one here what I have been working on for the past few months. This year actually marks the 10th year of my YouTube channel which I created way back as a young adult with an ambitious dream of becoming a superstar. Yes, you read it right. Obviously, I didn’t end up where I wanted to be. However, I am really blessed with very loving family and friends and I learned to be contented of where I am now and what I have. I think I have matured enough to just embrace life as it is and not ask for too much.
In the past years, I would create videos because I wanted people to appreciate me. I was hyperactive on social media. I’m the ultimate FOMO persona. As dull and funny as this may sound, but I’ve had this huge, irrational need for other people’s validation and attention too. I was oversensitive and sometimes combative because I felt misunderstood. Some of my closest friends would know. And this is the harsh realisation that I finally accepted.
I have attempted many times before and tried to be someone else. I initially created Rave Dave as my “alter-ego”. A mask that would cover up my frustrations in life. But I did not succeed. It was very immature and distasteful.
In 2018, I changed all my content to just purely travel vlogs. It felt very exciting to be back doing the craft that I love: video content creation. I just find it radically invigorating when I record videos and edit them. I also didn’t have any advance and pro editing tools or went to a formal training about video production but damn, I was really good at it (in my own opinion). I was actually thinking of pursuing it as a career but I thought it wasn’t going to be practical and long term for me. So I just created and recorded videos every time I travel and generated content whenever I don’t feel very lazy. Not a lot of my friends would know but I also have this intense fascination with cameras and sometimes become very impulsive in buying some, then ended up not using it.
At some point, it became very stressful. Especially that I am just my own team. I’m the vlogger/director/photographer/editor/producer (lol). That and the baseless expectation of getting high traction in viewership are recipes for disaster. And even though I invested a lot for new cameras, I lacked discipline and was highly inefficient. And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that I was also juggling my time for my actual day job. I was spreading myself too thin. There were days that I got off track, felt depressed, and lost the drive to produce more. And eventually went full stop for a long period of time.
Fast forward to the present, I am reviving Rave Dave with a different and sustainable vision. A simple channel that showcases a bit of my life, a glimpse of my travel and escapades, interests and things that I am very passionate about. I also intend to create these videos to hone my skills in content creation, videography and editing. It will be a meaningful learning experience for me. It will also serve as a personal journal and something that I would cherish and share with my children and grandchildren. Woah , I will stop myself here before it gets too dramatic. Lols.
I may not be able to create content that may be relevant or entertaining to a lot of people, but someday I will get there. One step at a time.
If you have reached this part of my lengthy post, thank you for taking time to read. I wasn’t planning to bore anyone with the details and put so much hype around it but I’m happy and proud of doing it.
Although, I will not be able to gain absolute fame or recognition from all these (which I no longer yearn for) but I’m just glad that I still have an opportunity to do the stuff that gives me a sense of purpose and keeps me alive.
xoxo
