Before I hit publish

The pledge I made to myself.

Photo by Womanizer Toys on Unsplash

I have been eagerly waiting to start my YouTube career, and Tuesday marks six months until my 13th birthday, a milestone I have been looking forward to for more than two years.

Just six months until my 13 birthday!

For more than two years, my dad has promised me that I would be able to start my YouTube channel when I turned 13. This promise has given me a lot of motivation to create and plan content, guiding me through countless hours of daydreaming about the kind of channel I want build.

Although I am very excited, I don’t expect to start immediately, even though I’ve been waiting and wanting this for years.

First, I will share three steps I must do before becoming a YouTuber. And at the end, I will share my promise to myself. ✌🏾

1. Collect info

I will have to explore and collect information on what to do because I don’t know all there is to being a YouTuber. For the record, all I know is I want to do this. So I will have to change some habits. Instead of watching mindless content about my favorite shows and space stuff, I need to pivot and watch videos on how to start a YouTube channel, how to make content and content ideas, just to say a few.

2. Schedule a balance

There is a lot in my life already, so I need to have a balance between school, extracurricular activities and chores.

To help you understand better, here is an example. There are 168 hours in a week. I go to school for 7 1/2 hours, but let’s say eight for the purposes of this discussion. So 8x5 is 40. That’s already only 128 hours left in the week, and on average, I spend 10 hours on homework per week — 118 hours left. Then we have chores, which are hard to calculate, but on average I spend 15 hours a week doing chores (cleaning, folding laundry, etc.).

After that, there’s 103 hours left. We can’t forget sleeping! I sleep around 56 hours a week, so that is 47 hours left in the week. I do confirmation at my church for about one hour a week (I go once a week), so 46 hours left. Then I have Girl Scouts for two hours (I also have this once a week).

I end up being left with 44 hours in a week. That may seem like a lot, but I did not add in hygiene, unexpected events, transportation, transitions, eating and sitting on the couch. As you can see, there is not a lot of time left in the day for YouTube.

A girl’s got decisions to make.

3. Know what I’m doing

Once I acquire the knowledge to create a channel, I need to know what I’m doing and plan it. With no schedule, they’re going to be the WORST videos anyone has ever seen.

Once I know what I’m doing and what to do, I will succeed.

Currently, I have some videos planned, some I have mentioned and others that I haven’t, but it won’t be long before you see them.

💸

Now that you see that I have work to do, here’s my promise.

The promise I’ve made to myself is that no matter what happens or who says what, I will never try to “compete” with other YouTubers. I will never post without a purpose. I’ll always have a meaning for every post.

Sure, I can still get a bit upset if there is a mean comment, but I shouldn’t dwell on it. I should live life knowing that my image and likeness is on the web and not be worried about who does what. That is probably why my dad has me waiting; so I could plan, schedule and be ready for the world.

There are still things I need to learn, lessons that only life can teach.

Some of them will come through YouTube. Through saying the wrong thing maybe. Or by not loving how I look. Or what people say about me — or what they don’t say at all.

Or maybe I view my worth in my channel instead of my life and who I am, what I’m about and where I’m going.

These are all reasons my dad had me wait until I was 13. Until I was more mature and ready to handle these high-level realities.

So what am I going to do about it?

How am I going to make sure that all of those challenges don’t overwhelm me and threaten to change who I am?

This is my pledge…

I am committed to preparing myself thoroughly and to quality creating content.

I look forward to sharing my experiences and insights with you on my future channel.