Nowadays, there are many ways to communicate. You can use Snapchat, Facebook, Periscope, even the ancient art of e-mail to name a few. People can use 140 characters or show breakfast with a dozen hashtags and filters. Writing letters seems to be a lost art. They take time and thoughtfulness. When I write someone every other week, I can’t put every detail of my life. I have to be selective, not like social media, but in a different way.
Social media filters life, letters select life.
I got my first smartphone during my senior year of high school. I also began writing letters to friends I worked with at camp. It started off as a fun way to unwind from senior year and avoid picking a college. I love the surprise of getting a letter in the mail.
I graduated from high school and went back to camp. When I went off the college, I decided to write letters again. Same with sophomore and junior year. It got to the point where I would write 12-20 letters a week. That was hard work to keep track of what I said what and to whom. I was writing more or less the same events and thoughts every week. So why not blog? That way friends and family can keep track of me. So I stopped posting and liking on facebook and dove into building a blog
Which brings me back to when I was five. When all the kids said they wanted to be a police officer, president, or a princess, I wanted to be George Lucas. I still remember being on the edge of my seat for the entirety of Star Wars Episode One, my personal favorite. I spent hours pouring over the DVD extras and taking notes on how to do storytelling. I began writing adventure story after story about “Nate and Jake penguin”. That year and went and wrote stories that filled three composition notebooks. I also got a bulletin board so I can draw scenes. In fifth grade, I wore an American Graffiti shirt, George Lucas’s first hit. My dad did laundry so it would be clean every night. I wore that shirt until it wore out. After school, I would film scenes with neighborhood kids and try and edit home movies. I was so set on going to film school in southern California. In 2006, Lucas concluded (at that time) the Star Wars trilogy with Revenge of the Sith. I remember watching and staying at for the end many times. I couldn’t wait to make the next “Star Wars”.
Which explains why I’m majoring in business management at a small central Iowa school.
In middle school, I began watching CNBC. I saw the glitz and the glam of Wall and Broad. I got entranced with the markets and Jim Cramer. I lived and breathed the markets starting in the summer of 2007.
The banks collapsed the following year, which led me to soak myself into politics. And so for most of high school, I absorbed myself in business, markets, and politics. I watched all the cable news (CNN, MSNBC, and Fox), read the papers, and watched C-SPAN.
I did take a graphics/ video course during my freshmen year. I enjoyed the class, but never took another one. So when I was going through my fifty-one college visits, business seemed like a good choice. I could find work with a business degree. It intersected politics and finance at that time.
2012 not only coincided with my first summer of camp, it was also when the first Avengers movie came out. I went with some camp friends. It was the first movie since Phantom Menace I was on the edge of my seat for. It reignited what I did when nothing else mattered. So I set back on that young journey once again
Saying yes to the Disney College Program in 2016, I began writing and filming again. Making your own website wasn’t around when I grew up. Neither was Youtube. Now anybody can create, including me. I’m not sure where this renewed passion will take me, if anywhere. I do enjoy writing my thoughts, filming, and editing, and working on my book (hope to release it by the end of the year). That’s the funny thing about my past three years. The passions that I had as I child are coming full circle.
It seems I set up my next six months only for it all to out the window. What I see looking six months in reflection is something better than I could not have imagined myself. Whether it’s school, this blog, or running, I am excited for these next six months. And everyone after that.
About Nate:
Nate Johnson runs the blog and Youtube channel Above Average Nate. Nate loves to travel run and become a world-renowned writer. Nate’s desire to live an above average life; to challenge and improve himself is amazing to follow. Follow his adventures through the Disney College Program and through adult life on his vlog and his blog.
Blog: Above Average Nate
Youtube: Nate Johnson
Twitter: @AboveAvgNate
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