I started a YouTube Channel

For the last two months, I have been actively uploading videos to my YouTube Channel. Yes, I now have a YouTube Channel. To be honest, it all sounds like a dream to me. I feel like I will wake up and none of it will have happened. But it is true. Here is the link: Kirra’s World.

I am not the only one who doesn’t believe it. I have a friend who told me that he would have never expected that from me.

The truth is, showing my face and finally letting out this side of me is harder than it looks.

When I started this blog, I was so afraid of people knowing it is me, that I used a pseudo name. I ended up loving the name and keeping it but that is beyond the point. In fact, in my earlier articles, I actually hid my face, like in this one here.

You may also notice that I never use any real names. While that is a nice way to maintain my friends’ privacy, at first it was just another way of hiding who I was.

And the mother of them all, I never publicly acknowledged that I had a blog, not even to my friends, for nearly 4 years. I started the blog in 2017 and only shared it publicly in April 2021.

So the fact that now I have a vlog, that shows not just my name but my face, shows a lot of growth on my part and I am thankful for it.

However, having a vlog is not a simple thing. There are many things that come with it, and many new challenges.

My first challenge was turning the camera to myself. I know this doesn’t sound as tough but believe me, it really is. In all my travels, I was used to taking a lot of pictures of things and few times taking a selfie or asking a stranger to take a picture of me.

But for a vlog, you need to have your face in the video to connect with your followers.

The next challenge was looking at the camera. When I started, I was filming everything on my phone. I did not own a camera. Since my phone has a pretty nice camera, I never saw the need to budget for an actual camera.

Trouble is, when shooting with the front camera, you tend to look at your face and not the camera itself, and that’s how I am conditioned. To this day, this is still a challenge if I am shooting with my phone.

Another challenge is knowing what and when to film. The number of times I have been like “Oh I should have filmed that!” are uncountable. And so are the number of unused videos that fill my storage. It is hard to find a balance when starting out, but I am learning each time.

There are many other challenges but I will only write about two more because this is only one post.

Finding a balance between what people want to watch and what you want to film. I faced this challenge with the blog and now is reoccurring on the vlog. Honestly, I have not figured this out yet.

Lastly, keeping both the vlog and blog updated. Obviously, I have failed here. In the two months, I have had the Youtube Channel, I have only published 1 post here. Editing videos take time, as does writing articles. I also have a full-time job on weekdays and I travel on weekends. So yeah, time is a very scarce resource for me.

Another reason is that I have not yet defined what should go to the blog and what goes to the vlog. Do I repeat each one? Do I put some experiences in writing and others in a video? I am yet to figure it out, but I will.

So yes, I have started a Youtube Channel, but no, I still have no freaking idea what I am doing half the time. But it’s about the journey, not the destination and I am enjoying every part of it.

Subscribe to join me on the journey, as I travel the world. https://www.youtube.com/c/kirrasworld

I also decided to get myself a camera. I bought a GoPro 8. It is perfect for me. It is small, needs no massive adjustments while shooting and is waterproof. I am hoping to publish better videos now. But a camera does not a good vlogger make. It is also a learning curve of its own. But I love challenges.

I had to have the camera shipped from the US which cost me an arm and a leg, so please go watch my videos so that it is worth it. I got it with the help of my friend Samuel, his number is +254 725 629836.

If you are in Kenya and need something shipped, speak to this guy, he will sort you out. Anything that you can only get in other countries/continents, he will get for you. He can also ship to EA, he shipped mine to Kigali.

If you have any advice for me please hit me up here. Or if you have anything else you wanna tell me.

See you in the next article. In the meantime head over to this article about how I travelled solo across Europe for three weeks.

Or check out my latest video: