If you asked me in sixth grade or even ninth grade if I would ever be doing YouTube, my answer would be a simple, "The heck? No, never."

So I guess I ended up surprising myself when I published my first YouTube channel, Mirakell (get it, cause my name is Kelly and Mirakell kind of sounds like Miracle), in April of 2017. I never thought I would find myself committing about a year to developing the first project I made.

The way it started out was really funny. In fact, one summer morning, I was just sitting at my desk browsing through my laptop when I saw the GarageBand application. I casually pressed on it, not expecting anything to come out of it. Before long, I realized I could sing multiple tunes into it and I began harmonizing. After that, I plugged my headphones in to give myself a more enhanced version of my voice and began singing Disney songs into it.

To put my situation into perspective, I went into GarageBand in the morning but I ended up tinkering with it until 10 PM with the occasional break for eating. Seeing how I went crazy that day gave me an inkling of hope that this might be a hobby that I could see myself committing to.

For the next few weeks, with the responsibilities of school weighing on my shoulders as well, I slowly but surely made progress in completing the first video. I remember using the YouTube video as motivation for me to finish my homework and finish studying. Because my equipment was still rudimentary at the time, the quality wasn't the best. At the time, because it was so new to me, it seemed like an innovation and I guess in some way it was a milestone for my personal growth.

There were many times when I would feel overwhelmed when the tracks I spent hours fixing would be deleted accidentally. Other times, I felt drained and tired from working nonstop but never once did I want to abandon the project. I constantly reminded myself that when everything came together, I would be able to see how far I've come.

By the time I finished the video, it had already been April and we were coming close to the end of the school year.

When I released the video on YouTube, I remember watching it about 50 times or so before showing it to anyone else. After my friends gave me warm encouragement, I felt brave enough to share it with the public. I posted it on Facebook and received an influx of kind responses. Even though now I may look back at the video and find so many mistakes with it, the motivation and warmth from the responses were enough to keep me going, even today.