Today I learned a very valuable lesson. So to start things off, I want to let you know that
pretty much for the past two, three years, I've been really focusing on improving my habits,
improving my lifestyle, and just improving myself in general. I started working out, eating healthy,
increasing my discipline, all these things, and I don't really like to tell people about
that part of my life. I don't really like to talk about it in public. Excuse me.
And it makes sense because I am, by the way, this video, I'm going to be practicing making eye contact
with the camera, and so I might lose focus a little bit. And so with this, with this mindset of not
telling people what my plans are, it really helped me because I realized that I didn't want to tell
people what I'm doing at the moment because then I might lose motivation to do it because then I'd
be relying on their positive feedback to do it. And once that feedback ends, I won't do it anymore.
Or even worse, if I tell them about a plan, like a goal that I plan on achieving before I've even
worked towards it, then I tell them and then I receive positive feedback. Well, then I've already
received the positive feedback from that goal, so then there's no point in actually achieving it.
So that's why I don't like to tell people what I'm doing. And today, I actually failed at that.
I was just sitting in my sports lit class and I was sitting in the back and I was just somehow
the topic of me not having my phone with me came up, which I've talked about that before in the
class just because people are like, oh, can you check something on your phone or something? I'm
like, oh, I don't have it. So my friend knew that I didn't bring my phone with me to school.
Those things I'm okay telling because those little habits have already become habits. So
it's not going to mess me up if I don't, if I tell people that. But I still avoid telling people
unless they like directly ask because people get really confused and they get shocked and
really surprised. And it's just, it starts a whole conversation and then they start interrogating you.
And it's just not something that I really want to deal with on a day-to-day basis. So I just
keep my mouth shut. But today was different. I, in my sports lit class, I've kind of hinted at
certain things that I do that are out of the ordinary. For example, I have told people straight
up that I'm taking a gap year. Now, again, I don't tell people directly. I only tell people if they
ask. So people say, I'm like, what college are you going to? And then I say, I'm taking a gap year.
And that's actually a lie. I'm not taking a gap year, but I tell them that because I don't want to
have to deal with the not criticism, but shock that comes with you telling people that you're
not going to college. Because in my town, going to college is the normal thing to do. And it is
extremely out of the ordinary if you don't go to college. And so that's why I like to just say,
I'm taking a gap year because it has a grain of truth. I like, I could be taking a gap year. Like,
I could decide in one year from now that I want to go to college and then I could go and then I'd
be telling the truth. And I'd still be telling the truth if I didn't go to college because
a gap year is where you decide if you want to go or not. But I am not going. Like right now,
I have the decision that I'm not going. Could change, but I honestly can't, I don't see it changing.
So that's one thing that I've said in the past. And then this one guy that I'm somewhat acquainted
with, I don't even know what that word means, but I just said it. I've seen around, I've seen this guy
around and we're familiar with each other. I could tell that over the months of us being in this
class together, he's taken up an interest in kind of what I'm doing and what my future plans are
and all this stuff because every single time the college situations gets brought up, he's always
just watching me and just looking at me, which it's fine. Like I do that too when I just watch
and pay attention to other people. But he, and then he's like, so what are you going to do?
Like he always like asks me, which is fine. Like that's curiosity. I'm curious also. And I find
myself asking people that as well. But this guy in particular, he keeps on like asking me. So
that is, I always kind of try to divert. Like I always try and divert the situation. Like I try to
talk about, like I just say, I'm working on entrepreneurship, which in the beginning of
this semester, I did not even speak on entrepreneurship, but now I'm starting to say
entrepreneurship. And then what I'm really doing is working on a YouTube channel. But instead,
I say I'm working on entrepreneurship. And then they're like, well, what kind of business are
you going to make? Like what are you going to do? And they like interrogate you on all that stuff.
And I always just say, well, that's why I'm taking the gap year. Like I kind of have made an art out
of this. Like I've made an art out of avoiding these interrogations because I've had so much
practice at it. I've had so much practice at people interrogating me. And I've had a lot of
practice like deferring the situation. If I don't even know what that word means, but I used it
again. And so today in particular, we're talking about how I wasn't using the phone.
And then people like heard that and they looked back. And at this point, I had caught like
three or four people, people's attention. Like originally it was just a conversation between
me and my friend. And then we caught like three or four different people's attention. And then
that is where the interrogation begins. That's where they say, oh, what do you do all day then?
Or like you just don't use your phone at all. Do you listen to music? Like the interrogation begins.
And usually I'm very kind of good at like getting rid of this conversation. But for some reason today,
I think that I was asleep. I was definitely asleep. Not like I was consciously asleep and I wasn't
really thinking properly. And so today I ended up just answering all the questions. And then they're
like, you know what? Like someone just said, here walk us through a day in your life. And so ever
and then everyone loved that question. So everyone's like, yeah, tell us, tell us a day in your life.
And so at that point, I was already in too deep. So I had to start talking. And at that point,
I kind of had the understanding that I didn't really want to like reveal too much. Or I didn't
really, the one thing that I really cared not to reveal was the fact that I'm a YouTuber. And the
thing is that I think it was yesterday or two days ago, I recorded an episode saying that I was
ashamed of being a YouTuber. And that moving forward, I should talk about how I am a YouTuber.
Which I still feel like I, it's a really tricky situation because on the one hand, I do think
that I have not fully accepted it into my identity, obviously, because I'm too ashamed or embarrassed
to talk about it to other people. But on the other hand, I know that I know the exact outcome that
will happen if I say, oh, I'm a YouTuber or oh, I work on recording videos after school.
If I say that, then the exact thing that will happen is they will go right away during the
class right in front of me, they would search up my YouTube channel, and then they would start
watching the videos. And it doesn't matter if it's positive feedback or negative feedback,
more than likely it'll be positive feedback because I surround myself with friends that are
not negative. The friends around me are not completely toxic. So they would probably support
the channel. But it's just the fact of all the attention. Maybe it's just,
like, my, maybe it's just the fact that right now I'm dealing with social anxiety and introvertedness.
Maybe it's that and I don't like being the center of attention or I don't know. It's a pretty
complicated area of, like, it's just a complicated topic. And so I basically walk through my entire
daily routine. And so I actually decided to be extremely, extremely exact and extremely detailed
with my daily routine because I don't know if I was just in a mood to entertain or if I just wanted
to stall and waste time so that I didn't have to get into the fact that towards the end of my day,
I record and I practice being a YouTuber. I don't know if it was either or. I know for sure that I
didn't consciously choose or consciously think of either or. But I was definitely explaining in
great detail and it was very entertaining to them. For example, I literally just started with saying,
like, extreme detail. Like, I said that, well, my day starts at 3.55 on most days because I have a
sunlight alarm. And when I wake up at three or my alarm starts at 3.30 and then it starts at a
dim red tone and then it gets brighter and brighter and changes colors to yellow towards
the end of the alarm cycle at four o'clock. And on most days, I wake up at 3.55 because I
naturally wake up to that specific light brightness of the alarm. But on other days that I go to bed
a couple minutes late, I wake up to the alarm at four o'clock. Like, that's the amount of detail I
went into and people were very entertained by it. And they were like, they very much liked it. And
then right after I explained that, I say, well, the first thing I do is I put my blankets in the
closet because and then they were very confused by that. And it's because they did not know that I
sleep on the floor. They didn't know I slept on the floor. And so, but I didn't tell them that I slept
on the floor. They were just very confused at the fact that I put my blankets in the closet. And so,
again, the interrogation began and they're like, wait, why do you do that? And then I had to come
up with some explanation that would satisfy their curiosity. And so I basically just said, well,
you make your bed every morning, right? And then they're like, yeah. And I'm like, well, that's what
I do. I make my bed and it's just easier just to throw my blankets in the closet, which is the
truth. But it's just, I think it's funny. And then that's like they, they really, and then after I
told them that I basically said, and then after I put my blankets in the closet, I do a handstand,
which is true, but it's just some random, it's just some random thing that they did not expect.
And they all just started laughing. And then because they knew it was four in the morning,
I'm in my room doing a handstand. And so that is like, that's one lesson I learned that's very
important. When you're in the middle of an interrogation like I was, I realized, and I didn't
realize this until literally like one minute before I started recording this video, because I was
trying to come up with an idea to record. Usually I, I just a pick an idea that I brainstormed
in the morning to record of today's like the daily video on, but all those ideas are written down
on my notebook and that notebook is upstairs in my room. And so I was thinking like, I don't,
I didn't really want to run upstairs just to see it find an idea to talk about and then come back
down. I just wanted to come up with an idea on the spot. And I came up with a great idea. And
it was the two lessons that I learned or no. Okay, so it was the one, it was the lesson that I
learned from today's encounter or today's interrogation. And it's the fact that instead of
completely diverting and not satisfying their curiosity, like all, like I said, all my life,
or at least for the past two years, ever since I started improving myself massively,
and I get interrogated, I always just try and divert the situation. And it works in the short term.
People just realize that I don't want to talk about it. But eventually it comes back up and it
comes back up and it comes back up. Like it comes back up every other day or every other week. It
doesn't matter when, but it will come back up if you divert in that method. Like usually I would
just say, I don't know what I'm going to do. But people know that that's a lie for some reason.
And they're not satisfied with that. And so they ask again the next time the topic gets brought up.
And what I realized today, after telling the stories in great detail and telling entertaining
stories, figure the lesson to learn is when you're getting interrogated, figure out the best way to
satisfy their curiosity and entertain them with very good stories without exposing too much of
the truth. You just have to satisfy them without giving them too much. Because when you satisfy
them, they won't ask again, because they'll be satisfied with the answer. So they'll realize,
oh, that's what he does. So now I know. And you don't give them too much to where you reveal your
real intentions or habits or plans or goals. So that is the lesson that I learned today. And
when I was writing down, that idea popped up into my head and I right away wrote it down. I wrote
down, don't tell people your habits, plans or goals, instead tell them entertaining connected
stories to divert. So for example, what I should have done today is instead of going into, okay,
let me rewind. So going back to the story I told how I wake up at 3.55 and then I go throw my
blankets in the closet and then I do a handstand. That should have been, that stuff is good to say.
The handstand part, the throw on the blankets in the closet, those are random, that's true stuff.
But it's like the unimportant things. So doing the handstand is unimportant,
but it's a random thing to throw in there that gets people entertained. They're not looking,
like people don't actually care about what you're doing. They don't actually care about that stuff.
But what they want from you is to be entertained. Like they just want to, they notice that you're
out of the ordinary. So you might hold some crazy stories that will entertain them. That's all they
want. They want a story. So give them what they want. And I'm really glad I came to this epiphany
because this is going to help me a lot in the future. And the thing is that it's not only going to
help me get out of interrogations, it's also going to help me practice my storytelling skills.
And that is a massive skill to have. That is an amazing skill to have. And so that will greatly
affect, positively affect my future. So I just wanted to tell you guys about that lesson that I
learned today.