Like most young people, I used to like trying things. Although I was never a big adventurer, I loved challenges and explored the possibilities in life. What I wanted in life constantly changing, or you can say, it was never consistent. Back then, I was writing articles for newspapers (it was in Mandarin), doing fashion illustrations for magazines, and at the same time holding a full-time job as a graphic designer. Unfortunately, I found myself tend to stay within my comfort zone these days. I am not the aggressive younger self I used to be. I tread carefully, often worry about how I fit in in the community, in the society, because people can easily get offended due to cultural differences.

Embarrassed to admit, I may have started my YouTube channel 5 years late. I have been talking about it for years, before filming video became so accessible to everyone. Finally, dipping my feet into this YouTube pool, and I am excited! It is not because I am so egotistical to think my life is worth everyone's time, but the excitement from doing and learning are extremely fulfilling. I am taking baby steps, slowly stripping away my fears and the layers of cages I put myself in. So many things in making YouTube videos are new to me. For example, I am horrified by my voice-over in the videos. I swear I don't talk like that in real life but do I? Listening to myself talking, over and over, is one of the weirdest things to me. I can't get used to my own voice, and it's hard to admit how bad I am in that department; there's no way around it. Maybe it's the worst voice over you have ever encountered, but at least I am trying, and admitting my own flaw will allow me to grow.

Something I love in creating YouTube videos is the part where I get to choose and add music that flows with my mood and my feeling. Since words are not my strength, I am glad I could utilize the music in my expression. To do it properly, I knew I had to subscribe to services like Epidemic Sound, Artlist, or Storyblocks. Those companies provide licensed music and sound effect for content creators to use without violating artists' copyright. After comparing them, I decided to go with Storyblocks because they had this quick chat to figure out my questions. I like that with Storyblocks, I can use the audio on multiple YouTube channels, and this is great since I may upload my drawings to the other channel I have soon. In addition to that, if my channel continues to grow, I have the option to subscribe to their Unlimited All Access. With that, you also get to use their video footage, after effect templates, and their stock images. They have recently released their online editor called Maker, where you can create promotional content from templates that include text and animation.

After uploading my last video to YouTube using music from Storyblocks, I ran into an issue I didn't expect. My video was flagged to have copyright issues with the audio. You need to add your YouTube Channel ID to your account to avoid being flagged from my understanding. Although I did do that before my upload, half of the music I use was flagged. Luckily, it wasn't too challenging to fix that. You can either dispute the claim on YouTube, or you can do that on Storyblocks. In my case, they fixed it within a day. Now, my second video using Storyblocks was published smoothly without copyright issues.

On top of adding music and practicing my voice over, I have also created a banner for my channel and added my uploads to my home page, so it's not empty when you first visit my channel. To avoid the video being too lengthy and boring, I sped up some of the footage where the editing was simpler.

Starting something new is challenging and lonely. Like publishing these YouTube videos, they are 10 to 20 minutes long, but they took me hours of preparation and editing. I am so glad to receive great feedback and tips from some unexpected friends. There pointers for me to work on and improve before publishing more videos. For now, I appreciate you checking out my video, and that means a lot to me. Thanks!