Sometimes Life’s GPS Forces You to Recalculate Your Direction

Photo byJavier Allegue BarrosonUnsplash

A little over ten years ago, I dabbled in content creation, making gaming videos and live streaming on Justin.tv (for you youngsters out there, this is the original name of Twitch), and just blogging and journaling on sites like Blogger, Tumblr, Facebook (am I the only one that remembers Facebook “Notes”) LiveJournal, among others. I never really knew what I wanted to do or why I was doing any of these things, it just felt like something to do.

Then, a few years later, a friend reached out to me because he wanted to get in on the reaction and discussion trends that were starting to gain a lot of steam on YouTube. Having some experience in making YouTube content, I figured, “Why not? I’ll give it a shot,” and thus A Reel and A Beer was born. We had, in my opinion, a great formula, some tipsy middle aged men sitting around reacting and discussing film and beer.

Yeah, creative, huh?

Below, you can see our first video and I warn you; the cringe is real.

And surprisingly, A Reel and A Beer took off for a bit garnering us some interviews on local radio and television and gaining a decent regional following and invitations to film at local breweries around the area. During the lifespan of the channel, I had to step away to take time to myself but Bo, Joseph, King and a few others took the channel even further having a few viral videos along the way.

To say that I am not proud to have been a part of the creation of that channel would be a flat-out life. That channel is what cemented my love for making content and would be what I always harken back to as the catalyst for anything I have done since.

Fast forward 5 1/2 years and here we are, someone who still hasn’t really found his footing since, but continues to try and find his voice and place on the internet and I feel like it’s led me to a point where I need to do a 100% pivot away from everything I have been doing and focus down on a specific love and passion.

So, with that said, this is my “pivot” as I will be moving away from anything sociopolitical related (Spending the last year working on this NewsBreak and other news related content platforms broke me), and focusing all my content across all platforms, on entertainment in general,, with an emphasis on music and gaming.

Trust me, I am not losing my drive, motivation and passion for social justice, mental health awareness, prison reform, etc. as I will continue to always “fight the good fight” and “being the voice of the voiceless.” But there is so much to fight for and so much negativity in the world, I want to use my reach and creativity to be something to bring people joy and maybe even give them a break from the bullshit that life brings along with it.

What does that mean for Newsbreak?

Now this is the question of the day right here.

While I will be spending a lot of time on Twitch, YouTube, and other platforms, Newsbreak will not be overlooked or forgotten. Moreso as a companion piece to everything else I will be doing.

So please, join me on this new journey as I not only rediscover my love and passion for creating entertaining and engaging content, but also make a complete and total fool of myself in the process.