Yes, I watch YouTube.

 

2/26/16

Yes, I watch YouTube, and yes, I still have the strength to punch you in the face.
Yes, I watch YouTube, and I go outside often, I take walks and I breathe fresh air and I see leaves on trees and I take only pictures and leave only footprints.

Yes, I watch YouTube, and I still have the ability to put down my phone and talk to people intelligently. Yes, I watch YouTube, and I don’t feel like I’m wasting my life. While you sit in front of the TV watching Simon Cowell criticize the same voices every Tuesday night, I am watching real people, doing real things, with their real lives.

Yes, I watch YouTube, and when you ask me who my inspiration is, and I say Tyler Oakley, you laugh in my face and say “what has he ever done?” But a man that is accepted for who he is, paid his own way through college at MSU, wrote a book that stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for 9 weeks, works with a suicide prevention organization, has his own documentary, lives his own life unapologetically and gets paid for it is a better role model for a high school student than Oprah Winfrey, who became pregnant at 14, than Miley Cyrus, who shows off her body and mistakes attention for fame, than Donald Trump, who purposely offends millions and then expects to be running our country. These are all people you spend your time paying attention to, criticizing, and then you say I am wasting my time?

Yes, I watch YouTube, and my 4.0 should shut your mouth before you even ask the question. YouTube does not make my grades drop. The people I watch do not encourage me to disregard my homework. AmazingPhil has a masters degree in English. KickthePJ has a degree in film. Those that have left school, like danisnotonfire and ConnorFranta make it clear that dropping out is not for everyone-they are perhaps some of the most vocal encouragers of my education.

Yes, I watch YouTube, and no, it doesn’t suck away my creativity. No, I am not just watching random people talking into a camera. No, it is not vulgar or crass or inappropriate.

Don’t you trust me? Don’t you understand that I enjoy this? Don’t you see that I can make this judgement?

Breathe. Open your ears. Hear me.