Over the weekend, I had the pleasure of attending a YouTube-based convention held in Boston Massachusetts called “NerdCon,” hosted by popular YouTube personalities, John and Hank Green. For those of you less familiar with the YouTube scene, that’s the author of "The Fault in Our Stars" and his brother. Some of the other creators featured in events and on panels were Hannah Hart, of My Drunk Kitchen, Jon Cozart, the genius behind the After Ever After Disney Parody, and someone that I was most excited about, Michael Aranda of WhatImDoingRightNow.

Though Michael is slightly lesser known compared to some of the bigger name creators, he plays an important role in the production of the Green brothers' popular educational resource shows including SciShow and Crash Course as their sound designer. I don’t quite remember how, but somewhere along the way, I happened upon Michael’s daily vlog channel pretty early on, sometime in 2014. At the time, I was just turning 16 and in between my sophomore and junior year of high school. I had just moved, I didn’t yet know anyone in my neighborhood, and I filled up a lot of my time YouTube videos, so when I found his channel, I. Became. Obsessed. I’m talking binge watch every possible video blog, stalk the guy on social media like a crazy fan-girl obsessed. There was a time in my life where I vowed I would drop everything I knew and loved at home if it meant I could somehow move to Missoula Montana to work on Michael’s team. But even though I still love Michael Aranda and the content he produces, something has happened within the past four years, almost without notice.

This past Saturday, the first day of the convention, as I sat listening to a panel that Michael Aranda was on about John and Hank Green’s impact on their fan base, it hit me: somewhere along the line, I had actually developed concrete reasons for liking Michael Aranda and his channel.

Let me take a second to unpack what that means. When I was in high school and first found the YouTube channel, I formed my obsession on a basis that was roughly akin to “OH EM GEE HE’S SO FUNNY AND COOL I LOVE HIM NOW.” Though considerably over excitable, younger me was on to something. Even though my outward reasons for loving Michael’s work were shallow and superficial, subconsciously, that interest was rooted a little bit deeper; I stuck with Michael’s content for so long because a part of me saw inspiration within it. What Michael was doing, contributing content to a team based project, interacting daily with his friends and coworkers, and documenting it all along the way is exactly what I want to do. Though my talents fall more into graphics than sound design, and my life documentation is based more through photo than video, I am inspired and motivated by Michael’s work.

So maybe all of our obsessions when we were younger weren’t so silly after all. Obviously, there are some interests like my edgy old faux gothic fashion sense that I’d like to stay buried deep (oh so very deep) in the past, but I’ve come to realize that it is the people that I looked up to then that shaped who I am now, and who I’m on the way to becoming. Gone are the days where I would obsessively check for new tweets and video uploads, but now have come the days where I often look to Michael Aranda’s work when I need a pick-me-up, or motivation. I invite all of you to take some time in the near future to really think about why you appreciate the people that you do. Who knows, maybe you’ll even learn a little something about yourself.

If you're interested in checking out Michael Aranda's work for yourself, you can find him on YouTube at:

https://www.youtube.com/user/WhatImDoingRightNow

and

https://www.youtube.com/user/michaelaranda