Bored Blog 25: What is Your Voice?

12/6/2021

Hope all is well with you. This might be a little long ha...ha.

How long has it been since you went to your local library? For me it's been...maybe...since the summer of 2017 or the winter of 2016? Oof. I think it's mostly due to whenever I want to go to the library, I get there and the doors are locked because it just so happens to be a Sunday.

Yesterday YouTube suggested some random YouTuber who was 23 years old when he reached 1 million dollars. I clicked it and now I keep getting recommendations of other people who reached 1 million dollars. With the amount of these stories out there they make becoming a millionaire look easy!

I watched the 23 year old one. He had a good story, went through a lot of struggle and was able to become rich. What he did was selling things online in bulk. And I think he did some investing as well. I applaud him for reaching his goal, but that's not what I want to do to become rich lol. It's highly likely the other Youtubers have similar stories of becoming rich. They sold things or did things that sound really boring. And that's kind of one of the secrets to becoming rich. It's usually doing some boring thing over and over, and then you get a lot of money for it.

Take selling asphalt. That sounds really boring to sell, but cities need asphalt so of course you're going to have customers for it. You're making a lot of money selling rubble. If doing something like selling asphalt is more your speed, then go for it. Ignore me and go for it.

Personally, I have an inner artist that wants to make things I enjoy and give it out to the world. It's a hard path (selling asphalt might be hard to start too), but it makes more sense to me.

So the now 24 year old millionaire YouTuber said he went to the library and read a lot of books. That's when I thought, "Today is Sunday...I'm going to make sure to go to the library tomorrow!" AND THAT'S WHAT I DID TODAY.

I went into that library for the first time in 4-5 years. I had no idea what book I was going to read, and I went straight to the biography section because I didn't want people to judge me if I went to the young adult section.

The library I went to is small and I was sad that there were actually a few people there. Most of them were on their laptops. As I walked through the biography section I thought, "What am I doing? I don't know famous people." I skimmed through the titles ignoring the majority of them that just said [Name]'s biography and found one title that caught my eye.

Yes, this is not a t-shirt! Currently I am selling t-shirts for my short film I'm Not Here at https://www.emelsaat.com/shop-1. So why don't I read this, yeah?

I read the first few pages around where the adults on their laptops were. The first sentence on the first page was "Fu%* you." Well, humph I didn't want to start a fight today. It was hard to say if Bobby Hundreds was trying too hard and will continue to try hard for the rest of his book, so I kept on reading to find out. But then I felt like it was just too dark where I was reading. I got up, was going to go to the second floor but they blocked that off because people are scared of dropping dead right now. SO, I marched on over to the kids section where there was plenty of light, colors and soft cushions. A lady who was working there warned me about it being noisy. It's a Monday at 12pm, no parents were going to bring their kids to the library for a while. I sat there on a cushion by the window and continued to read.

He talked about his childhood which I could somewhat relate to. And no, he didn't seem to be trying too hard to seem hip or anything. I wont bore you with the story too much. Though, if you know this dude or are into street wear, I'd suggest reading this book.

This may be very butchered, but he was talking about those being the black sheep, such as those skaters, Rock/indie music lovers, street-wearers and whatnot. With his t-shirts he wanted to make a community for these black sheep. He was explaining that his brand had a story behind it, a message behind it. The people that wear his stuff are wearing a message.

He then talks about you finding a voice. "If design isn't your thing, you can use whatever medium you work with to carry your voice...But you have to first home in on who you are. Once you've carved out your little corner, the next move is stepping out and inviting people in."

That's when I had to stop reading. I had to stop and reflect on what in the world I am doing with my projects. I thought about the groups I've been in while growing up. There weren't many, and I'm still looking for a group of people to call home. Usually if you can't find something you want that's when you make it yourself.

But what would my community be? Bobby Hundreds listed he is a middle child, Asian American, a skater, kind of a rebel and a few other things. I tried listing things and then thought, "I don't want to label myself as anything." Why are we labeling ourselves so much?

There was a dream I had a few nights ago. Someone asked me in the dream what I wanted or what I was doing, and I said, "The American dream."

Back to today, sitting in the child section of the library all alone, on a Monday afternoon, without a job, no boyfriend or husband, and still living at my parents' I thought, "Maybe that's just it. The American dream. Especially for our tiny homes. We want to bring back the American dream. For everyone."

My dad has said that numerous of times. He's such a positive guy, that his positive energy and the meaning in his words can brush past me. Somehow it really clicked today, of what he meant.

Thank's for reading this much. I wanted to tell you what happened today!

Like this post or comment below, what do you think your voice is? I'd love to see what it is.

Best,

Emel ^_^