Ever since I began posting videos to YouTube in October, I have been having fun with it. I enjoyed creating videos (I’m still working on thumbnails and hooks), commenting on other small channels, and making a friend or two on this journey until sometime in December while doing Vlogmas.
An old ‘friend’ of mine, someone I hadn’t heard from in about 10 years, sent me a text message. I won’t say his name or share the texts because he deserves privacy, and I don’t want people to hunt him down and harass him. He (I’ll call Dave) asked in a demanding way why I didn’t tell him about starting a YouTube channel and that I needed his approval. I was taken aback by the message. I just stared at the message, shocked and appalled at Dave’s audaciousness. Politely, I told him that he wasn’t my target audience and that, at my age, I didn’t need permission from anyone to begin a self-directed YouTube journey. I wanted my channel to grow organically, and he and the people I’m closest to would destroy the algorithm. He went on about how I haven’t contacted him in 10 years and blah, blah, blah. I left him on read, and it’s still sitting there.
I say this because they love you when you do what everyone else does. When you had enough of being like everyone else and decide to go your own way, people don’t like it. The vision you have for you is only for you and nobody else. As much as you want them to support you on your journey, they aren’t going to like it. I later learned from a mutual friend that Dave was secretly jealous of me because I was moving on with my life (jobs, apartments, kid, website, You/tube, and a top-secret project I’m currently working on). I told my friend, Shannon (not her real name) that he had nothing to be jealous of me about. He goes on nice vacations and hangs out with many of our old friends (more on why we don’t speak in another post), and my days of FOMO are long over. Dave moved on with his life, and I moved on with mine. I’m at a different stage of life than he is, and I now have to do activities involving my daughter. His jealousy of a single mother making moves in my life is almost laughable. Isn’t that supposed to be the other way around?
I hope Dave knows he can begin his own journey on YouTube. It’s not a competition; there’s plenty of money to go around in the content creator space. I have a website, YouTube channel, and social media, but that doesn’t mean he has to be jealous. Dave has content right before his face and doesn’t realize it. Shannon is supportive, and she may appear in a future video.
I did a video on this topic, which you can watch here.
That’s it for now. I’ll see you in another post!
