YouTube, where were you then .....?

I am a prolific watcher of this entertainment medium, following quite a number of creative souls who film themselves in a variety of pursuits, such as .... well, for me .... it kind of started with vanlife. I became obsessed with this topic early on and consumed as many vanlife (or van-building) YouTube channels as I could find. Some of those early channels have since morphed into other ventures since vanlife can only last so long before becoming saturated and redundant .... like, how many ways can you visit a national park in a van (yada, yada, yada) .... But those channels led us to building our own beloved van so we can all say they served their purpose well. 

Now I watch topics like traveling, decorating, home-building, and even ones that tell me what I should be buying at Costco this month. There's this rugged little gal living alone in Sweden who is remodeling her remote rustic cabin. Or a couple in Portugal who are rebuilding an old water mill into a home. (Did you know -- in Portugal, kitchen cabinetry might be built out of bricks? I mean ..... Who does that?) There's the guy who, on weekends, just cleans up badly overgrown yards of neglected or abandoned homes. He, by the way, has over 500K subscribers which has me wondering why he bothers with a fulltime job during the week. I follow the progress of people building their own off-grid homes, from northern Idaho to Virginia. Or those intrepids who live aboard sailboats, navigating the world. Or the single gal from Holland who travels the globe ALONE on a motorcycle and is currently in Iraq. 

IRAQ! 

What's intriguing is the money potential. The gal in Irag has 2.5 million subscribers which is some serious income, WELL into the six figures and maybe more. Not that this is easy work by any means. When they're not filming, they're editing and uploading and scrambling to come up with more ideas (aka "content") of what to film next. 

Which causes some reflection ..... 

Could we have done this? 

YouTube was not a thing almost 50 years ago when we were starting out. It (and the internet) might've been found in some futuristic novel, and certainly not in the imaginations of anyone I knew. Who would've ever thought that with some basic camera equipment, an interesting hobby, and a minimally pleasing personality, you could develop a lucrative career? And that millions of strangers would eagerly tune in each week to watch you pound nails, or visit Baja, or powerwash a sidewalk? Who knew?? 

Because we've done a lot of stuff over the bast 50 years, that many other people have not done.  For example: 

We designed and built two homes, both on acerage that we cleared, which involved well-digging, septic trenching, paving, finishing, gads-the-list-goes-on-and-on. Plus out-buildings. 

We have backpacked across and around mountains. 

We've traveled thousands of miles on a motorcycle, often utilizing our backpacking gear to camp along the way. 

We ran in multiple 200 mile relays. 

Husband rode in a dozen 200 mile (in one day) bicycling events and I ran a marathon. 

He and I organized many running and biking events for groups, small and large. Most were successful, others we won't talk about. 

We flew across the country to buy and drive home, a sight-unseen car (twice!).  And did the same (twice again!) to buy camping trailers, because (apparently) we cannot seem to shop locally. 

We sold our home, bought a motorhome, and lived in it for two years while traveling throughout the western US. 

We drove our van to Alaska and then to Florida.  

Husband started a business which he ran for over 25 years before handing it off to one of our sons. 

All while raising four spectacular kids and holding down a gazillion church responsibilities, including our current prison ministry. Could we have monetized any of this in a YouTube channel? (Probably not the prison thing since we can't even take our phones in there.) But, other than lacking personalities with any hint of pizzazz .... who knows?