My Lifelong Passion by Kaiden

My Lifelong Passion by Kaiden - February 2024 Scholarship Essay

The year was 2010, the first time in my life I roamed the internet on my own and discovered YouTube - a platform that would be relevant in my life forever. Ever since watching my first video from a content creator named “NintendoCaprisun”, I fell in love with YouTube; and everything about it. From the thumbnail creation, to the editing process, to the scripting, and the ideas, YouTube captivated my life and time ever since I was younger. This, was the beginning of the journey to selecting my college major.
Currently, my declared major in college is in digital media innovation. But there are many pivotal points in my life that led me to my burning passion for digital media. An important part of my life leading to my love for digital media was learning my distastefulness to many other occupations. As a kid, I completely blocked out the thought of doing anything else with my life besides the digital media landscape. I saw my teachers and disliked the idea of teaching, I saw my family with blue and white collar jobs and dismissed the career opportunities, and I saw my friends wishing they were doctors or lawyers, which never sparked my interest. The only light at the end of the tunnel for me was an online world. Nevertheless, I worked my first few jobs leading up to college to acquire some money before I faced the world on my own. I worked in different fast food establishments, babysat, and refereed for USTA official tennis tournaments. Once again, finding no desire for anything else besides one career; digital media.
After observing what I did not like, my personal experiences came from social media. YouTube played a huge role in my life, but it did not stop at consuming the content. When I was 13 years old, I started uploading my first content to the platform. Everything about social media at the time fascinated me; the fact people could feed and clothe themselves from playing games and entertaining their audience was phenomenal to me. My curiosity and interest only multiplied exponentially from there, as in the following years I managed to teach myself different editing softwares and photoshop. With the lessons I have learned the past few years, I managed to advance my prior skills, leading to my knowledge with basic coding, audio editing, social media management, photography, videography, script writing, email marketing, and other skills related to content creation.
One aspect of all my experiences that fueled my desire more than anything - the people around me. A quote by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche states, “that which does not kill us makes us stronger.” There were many close people in my life that saw no future for my passion. My parents believe in a traditional style and stable career, while my friends did not understand the concept of turning digital media into a career. But I did. That was all the validation I needed, because as long as I supported myself, I knew anything was possible. This distinct mentality and discipline eventually brought me success, with one of my YouTube videos amassing over 100,000 views, and thousands of followers. Not only did that conceptually validate my aspirations, but the loyalty and support my fanbase brought is what drove me the most these past few years. Through my followers and the people that doubted me along the way, I turned my dreams into a reality by getting accepted into university, where I can pursue my passion even further.
It’s almost been a year attending my college, Texas State University, and I have grown and learned much more than I imagined. Through my years of experience with trial and error, everything led me to the major I have today - digital media innovation.