ZackScott

They do work. I put more than 40 hours into my YouTube channel a week. I work on it 7 days a week. It's been that consistent for over three years, and I've been doing YouTube videos since 2006. Anyone like me has poured hours of love and labor into their craft. Everyone I know who has reached any level of fame on YouTube is dedicated to their work. We record, edit, and upload our videos. We network, communicate with our viewers, and have meetings. We learn new skills, keep up with technology, and learn how to operate computers. YouTubers do it all.

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Look, I know what your definition of work is. I spent five years at a university to get my Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering while also working at a call center. I have been employed full-time as an engineer for years. It took a lot to pull that off, but I'm proud. It was all hard work.

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YouTube is harder.

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So why are YouTubers so famous? Because they work.

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I am a heterosexual. I've known that as far back as I remember. I believe that is how I naturally am (as in I was born that way). I just took some online Kinsey-based tests (although there is no official Kinsey test), and they both said I'd score a 0 on the Kinsey scale. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinsey_scale

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This is a topic I've thought about a lot because gay rights and gay marriage were not talked about as much when I was a kid, but I've got to witness these issues grow more prevalent as I've gotten older. I can't relate when someone has negative feelings about someone else's sexuality. But I do know that if I were gay, there would be a certain percent of my viewers who would think less of me. That's sad, and I hope that our society can adapt to not judge people based on that. But who knows how long that will be. Sometimes just even talking about sex and sexuality makes people uncomfortable, even though most humans feel sexual desire. And yet, many forms of expressing that desire is frowned upon by many people.

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I did very well in school. Straight As for most of it, then a B average in college. I actually liked school. To me, school was three phases:

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1. Elementary and Jr High
Straight As. My mom would give me one video game for every 9 weeks that I got straight As. This is how I picked up so many games for the NES and SNES. I also went to a gifted program once per week. In 6th grade, I won the award for #1 student in science. How did I do it? I decided it'd be hilarious to ask the science teacher a random, off-topic science question every day, and I did it with a straight face. I could tell it really frustrated her, but I also had the best grades. I was an early troll.

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2. High School
A lot of kids don't like high school, but I LOVED it. I had straight As until 12th grade. I was taking AP classes, and I signed up for AP European History because my friends did. I loved the teacher, but I hated the subject matter. I made a C. I still graduated 9th out of a class size of 600+. I traveled to other venues to do competitive testing. I discovered my love for programming in high school, and I placed first in various programming tests around the state, bringing the award home to my school. I was #1 in the school-wide math/logic test out of 2000+ students.

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I really developed a lot of my creativity and humor in high school. I was a bit of a class comic, and I also released two comedy rap album and sold it around school. I was active in various clubs, I ran our NHS website, I rapped in our talent show, and overall I just had a lot of fun. I also played lots of Quake and GTA in the computer lab with my classmates.

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3. College
I made a B average and got a degree in computer engineering. I did well, but I had to retake a few classes. I wasn't as gung-ho about school (especially courses that didn't interest me) because I had to work and live life as an adult. I also got even more involved with comedy, videos, music, gaming, and websites.

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I guess to answer your question, my marks were great, then they fell to above average. But they were not as important to me as discovering who I was. No one today cares about what my grades were. No one cares that I didn't pass my AP European History test in high school or that I had to retake Electromagnetic Fields in college. My advice is to make the best marks you can because they helps you get to the next level. But keep in mind they won't define who you are. Use your time in school to develop your personality, career, life, hobbies, and skills, and have fun doing it.

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There's a saying that goes something like: "You never know what someone else could be going through."

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When I see what appears to be negativity, I try to figure out if it's coming from a critic, a troll, or a hater. Critics want to change things for the better. Trolls want to entertain by winding people up. Haters are entirely different. Haters insult, harass, demean, anger, and/or bully others. Often, both the haters and their targets are already experiencing a lot of difficulty in their lives.

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When I'm a target of critics and trolls, knowing their motives helps me keep a level head. When I'm a target of genuine hate, sometimes I do get angry. As a coping mechanism, I try to turn that anger into amusement. After all, it's odd that just being me can attract such an exaggerated emotion such as hatred. There's definitely some irony to those situations.

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But most importantly, I try take a step back and relax. My life is pretty good. I'm a fairly positive person. I'm not sure what someone would have to go through to become a hater. But I'm thankful I'm not in their shoes.

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I'm also thankful that the majority of my viewers are genuinely good, positive people! Thank you guys! :)

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