Quick (not-so) little appreciation post (Patreon)

Hey guys -

Sitting here right now going through and deleting some stuff off of the computer and YouTube (just community posts don't worry lmao), and I was just kind of reflecting on things and looking back at just how things have progressed and stuff.

I've always got this within me and I know some may think its a bit parasocial / unnecessary or whatever lmao and I know I'm always expected to keep it "all business", but I just really wanted to say that I appreciate every last one of you an enormous amount.

I've shared more about me on stream and over the course of pretty much all videos on here collectively, but just humour me for a sec haha.

Before I became a YouTuber and did "this", I'd always really felt like I was just walking on a path I hadn't really chosen for myself. I'd worked really hard in high school from almost failing to getting the best grades for "my future" as I could, and I got into a really good university and picked up a degree in International Relations / International Security and went on to start my Masters at one of the best universities in Australia. 

I'm certainly aware that this "good looking" background is a privilege and I cherish it for what it was and certainly am glad to have had the opportunities I did, but I honestly turned 24 and felt like I had literally no idea who I was on this earth, what I was doing, where I was going and why. This is basically just the human condition and coming of age in a nutshell, but I'd kind of always felt like I was just doing everything to please my family and doing nothing for me.

My favourite things growing up were games, movies, and also just learning in general. I'd really enjoyed staying home and playing on the Playstation 2 (my god I miss that console though lmao) and playing Medieval Total War or Age of Empires III on the computer. As I grew older, I loved learning languages as well which i found out through uni, and that's what brought me to Japanese and Korean. I fell so hard for their histories (because I'm a fkn history nerd...man I love that stuff) and the popular culture aspect was unlike anything I'd ever seen before.

Mid-way through my Master's degree, I kind of had this flashbang moment where I decided "WOW I don't want to do any of this at ALL lmao" and I just decided to move back to my home state with Haerin (my partner) and maybe just live out life earning money at my full time job as a sales consultant for a telecommunications company (I loved the people I work with, but I'm too honest to sell people shit they don't need lmao so I sucked at it big time).

I was at that job throughout university and decided maybe on making management, and then the pandemic happened.

The pandemic was kind of weird for me, to be honest. It was smooth sailing at work because I was being paid and we had hardly any customers in store, but I felt more empty than ever haha. Like one of those times where you just have way too much to think about. I hated my job so badly, and I basically only worked to fund my hobbies, eat, and put a roof over my head. I became pretty down just in general and wound up pretty depressed.

(holy shit this is turning into a whole novel but if you're still reading, thank you - point coming haha)

One day though, I'd listened to CLC's 'Me' and watched a few reactions to it. I was really into watching reactions at that time because I had no one around me in my day to day who enjoyed the stuff I did, and while I was watching a video, something kind of hit me. 

"I wonder if I did that, would I have people to talk to as well?"

Don't get me wrong, the people in my life were/are great people, but the closest thing I had to a friend with common interests was my friend Jun who collected sneakers and listened to K-Pop for the Chinese members in some groups (he's Chinese) haha.

So I sat down, filmed on my iPhone XR in my tiny little one bedroom apartment, and just "sent it" as we say in Australia. My first reaction was absolute total awkward bootycheeks but it started this channel and something went crazy inside me.

One thing I've always loved is talking about what I love (sometimes too much) and I'm basically a non-stop yapper if / once you get me going. And with YouTube, whilst I'd never thought about it until early June in 2020, I finally had the opportunity to vibe as hard as I could, to talk about what I wanted without judgement, and could even discover new things with people and friends I'd made all around the world.

This is where you come in (the point! FINALLY!)

I don't know if many of you are aware, so I'll say it pretty loud and clear right here, but reactors make pennies most of the time off of YouTube. If you edit something decently well and copyright doesn't hit you (i.e, it's either just real slick editing or "fair use"), then you can monetise some stuff, but for things like music and stuff, and even most content, you just can't do anything.

I'd never once thought about going full time, because I basically believed I'd be mocked by my day to day peers (which I was anyway LMAO rip), and also because I thought it'd be incredibly unsustainable, which it really is in reality.

So one day, I wasn't hitting my targets at work because I sucked ass and hated it, and so I decided that I'd make a Patreon just to try it out because I'd seen other people do it, and there was a lot I wanted to talk about but YouTube and copyright just do not enable you to do so. So I put it up here, and we had some real basic tiers. And honestly, I was dumfounded.

Wtihin like 6 months of making a Patreon, it just so turned out that my job started laying people off because of expenses and my store got cut, and I not only had no choice but to pursue this, but I actually HAD THE ABILITY to do so, because so many of you had chosen to support me over here in the beginning.

Now this was way back in 2021, but since then, a lot of you are still here, even more have come and gone, and some of you are brand new. And to anyone reading this post, I just really sincerely want to say thank you for choosing to support me, from the bottom of my heart.

I don't consider Patreon as any type of charity or whatever as I know I work hard to put out content, edit, and of course to just continue when things get tough. But there are literally tens of thousands of people out there doing the same thing as me, and yet, you're choosing to support me, which I'm honestly beyond grateful for and am just really touched by.

Thank you. 🫵

I've been really vulnerable here a lot, sometimes to my own detriment. But it's thanks to you, that I was able to pursue something that I love and have found even more things to love, and I just want to keep reminding you that it means a lot to me.

I loved learning languages like I said, and here, I get to use them all the time. I get to be surrounded by my languages that I continue to learn, and I get to continue to watch / review and react to some of our collective favourite pieces of media and we get to share that stuff, which I think is awesome.

Reviews are nice, and I know I talk a shit-ton, but the backbone of this entire thing I do here, is just sharing these experiences of mine with someone else. Have you ever wished you could just erase your memory of something so you can go back and do it all over again? I do! And here, I feel like you can do that, and not only can I experience things my way, but through talking with you all, I can experience things your way too. It's a really amazing thing honestly.

I know I'm not the best reactor out there or the funniest or whatever either, but I feel at least that we've got one of the best communities at least, and that's a reflection of something at least.

I also know that reactors aren't heralded as the best or most creative people ever, and sometimes I loathed myself for that. I was acutely aware that there's a lot that I want to do on the creative side beyond reactions, and we'll get there one day too I'm sure! But I just wanted to say that whether it's music, anime, dramas, movies or games, thank you for sharing your passions with me and supporting my own as well. Nothing allows me to be myself in every way possible more than this "job".

It may seem just like $5 or more whatever to some, but it's what enables me to continue down this path with you guys. Also, it doesn't even matter whether you've been here forever or if you joined before this post or after...or even for one piece of content and then dipped. The motives don't matter to me, but just...thank you!

Even those who can't support financially - just the fact that people are here and want to talk with me when no one else used to want to I think is just incredible. So thanks for that.

You guys have been with me through a lot, and also helped encourage me to evolve myself a lot and I'm super grateful to you for that. I really hope for every single person that I can give that back to you somehow to some extent through the videos, and also that regardless of how long you're here, that it can be a cool memory or at the very least, a fun time.

This is long winded, but what did you expect?

Lok lore + appreciation is a deadly mix as far as yaps are concerned, but I hope you know that you're appreciated by this guy and that your kindness reaches me all the time regardless of whether you feel that way or not.

2024 is our year of growth and it's only going to get better I feel, so for whatever you're aiming for, no matter how big or small it is, I hope you guys can achieve and reach what you want to!

TL;DR "thanks lol"

Big love!

~ Lok