Even though I’ve been making videos for years now I never made one of these so I figured

eh why not.

On December 3rd, 1996 I was born in the state of Ohio.

which this weird looking state in the middle-ish of the united states, it’s pretty cool I guess.

Before I was born, I had a life expectancy of only 20% but luckily it worked out and

I’m here today.

My mom told me I was so big as a baby that right after I was born the nurse told her

that I looked like a sumo wrestler which is a bit racist but you know whatever I guess.

I should mention that my mom is Japanese and my dad is white, they we’re both english

teachers and ended up meeting each other in Japan after they were assigned to work on

a project together.

I know right so cute.

Anyways, in addition to my mom and dad when I was born I had an older brother, and sister.

But before my parents had us, they made a pact that one day when they had kids, they

would have them experience both of their home countries.

And that’s exactly what happened, after 4 years of living in Ohio my family and I

flew over to Japan to start a whole new life.

I had to learn Japanese, make new friends, and live in an entirely different country

that I didn’t know anything about.

Luckily, I caught on pretty fast though and it ended up being a great time.

The only problem I ever had was when I occasionally got bullied in school for being the white kid.

The school I went to didn’t have any other foreigners so naturally, some kids thought

it would be fun to pick on the weird pale kid.

From an early age I was forced to learn that despite what I looked like or what people

said about me, I was still going to be the same person so I stopped caring so much what

others thought.

I lived in Japan for about 3 years before moving back to Ohio.

But instead of moving back to where I was born we lived across the state a really

small town that didn’t have much going on.

The most exciting thing to do in the whole town was go to Walmart, and that says a lot.

Moving back to America was a bit difficult.

Not too bad or anything but I had to relearn English which I had completely forgotten because

by the time I moved back, I was speaking and even thinking in only Japanese.

Even though my teacher told my parents that I might have to stay back a grade, I caught

up pretty fast and luckily, didn’t have to.

I had a lot of fun as a kid, I ended up joining a small group of friends who were great, I

played baseball and soccer and had great time.

I did sometimes get made fun of for being the only Asian looking kid but that kinda

got old.

When I was in grade school, I wanted to be an actor.

Whenever I watched movies or tv shows with younger actors, I was super jealous and always

wanted to be just like them because I thought they were so cool.

I even started acting in all of the school plays that I could.

Around middle school I found this website called YouTube where I saw these hilarious

YouTubers called Ryan Higa and Kevin Wu, also known as nigahiga and KevJumba.

I thought that they were so funny and awesome, and I instantly wanted to make videos like them.

So one day I got a group a friends together and we filmed probably one of the worst videos

to ever ever be created but I had such a fun time.

I’m glad I never posted it on YouTube though, I was actually a couple years under YouTube’s

age requirement of being 13 which I know a lot of people don’t pay attention to but

at the time I thought that somehow they’d figure it out and put me in jail or something

I don’t know.

High school came along and I joined theater, speech, joined a bunch of clubs, became VP

of my class, played soccer, And got involved in the church that my dad was a pastor in.

Although I enjoyed a lot of what I did, after a couple years, I ended up dropping most of

it after realizing I was doing them just to please my parents.

Which is why I tried so hard to get good grades and do all the extracurriculars.

I think that this is one the reasons why to this day I feel so self conscious whenever

doing anything because I’m afraid of letting people down.

While all this was happening in high school I started posting occasional videos on my

youtube channels and they started getting some views and subscribers which I thought

was like the coolest thing ever.

This motivated me and I started having big hopes for my future.

I told myself that one day, I’m going to live in Los Angeles and pursue a career in

the entertainment industry.

Which was great and all but for someone living in a small town in Ohio, I didn’t know if

that was even remotely realistic but I didn't care.

I should also mention that sometime around here I started to date a girl, we’ll call her, Barbara.

It was your typical young high school relationship I guess, I fell head over heels for Barbara,

we had some good times.

However, we didn’t see eye to eye on a lot of things and looking back, it wasn’t a

healthy relationship.

I moved away to LA for college which was my dream come true.

But because of that, long distance didn’t work out, we lost feelings for each other,

and after a year together we broke up.

And for me at the time, it was hard, I wasn’t really ready for things to end and she started

seeing someone else right after which just made me feel terrible about myself.

To keep my mind off things I stayed busy with my college work where I studied film and tv

production.

Soon after I met some of the coolest I know and I don’t know what I would have done

without them.

They made me feel confident and happy which pushed me to make YouTube videos again even

though I had practically stopped.

From there I started to push myself to see where this whole online video thing could

take me.

Seeing other people who had made it their full-time job, inspired me to see if I could

do that myself.

Sadly, not everyone was for that as much as I was.

Like most parents, mine, don’t really understand the whole online world so well.

And to this day, they still don’t fully understand what I do.

They know that I make videos but it’s hard for them to grasp that it’s not just some

weird little hobby but that there is more to it.

And as much as it hurts me to say, on many occasions through the years, my mom has told

me that she thinks my videos are stupid.

She's told me that they’re a waste of my time and how she thinks there’s no value

in them.

It’s rough having one of the people you trust the most tell you how pointless they

think your passion is.

My dad is a little more carefree when it comes to my endeavors and my mom has gotten a bit

better over time.

What I’ve had to come to understand is that she would only say those things to me because

it was her way of trying to look out for me and her way of showing she was worried about

my future.

I love my parents, they’ve done so much for me and I will forever be grateful for

that.

I joke a lot in my videos about how I’m such a disappoint to them but honestly, I

think that’s just my way of coping with the fear that I’ll let them down somehow.

And that pretty much brings us up to speed to where I am today.

I’m only 20 so this draw my life is still a work in a progress.

I’m still working on videos, which is super dope.

Luckily for me, I have people like you all who watch them so thank you so much.

Thanks for helping me have a reason to smile each and every day knowing that there are

people out there who believe in me.

I’m not sure what my future looks like but who does right?

I’m still in college right now, not really sure if I'll finish though, there’s a lot

that I want to work on and pursue full-time but I can’t because it’s impossible to

do everything.

I’m looking forward to what’s to come and I can’t wait to take you all with me.

Listen I don’t think I’m someone to look up to at all or anything but if there’s

anything I want you to take from this, it’s that you can do whatever you want to do.

Don’t shut others out, but ultimately, do what you want to do, if it's what will make

you happy.

Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do something because YOU make that decision.

If you live your whole life trying to please others or worrying what people will think

of you, you’re not living.

Anyways, thanks so much again for watching, it means a lot to me.

Hope you have a great day.