Lessons from my teachers
Part 1 - YouTube
I didn’t post anything last week. I was busy (but not that busy let’s be honest) and wasn’t feeling particularly inspired, and then I got a cold (which feels very unfair in April). It’s the first time I’ve missed a week, but I’m trying not to be hard on myself; it’s only me implementing this one-post-per-week rule, after all.
Anyway, I’m back this week with something a little different.
Ever since I can remember, I’ve felt like a bit of an outsider. On the surface, I look and act much like anyone else. There was never anything particularly different about me, but rather a feeling inside that this is a learnt skill, how to be “normal”, more than who I actually am.
As I’ve got older I’ve come to realise that this quality of “otherness” is not something felt just by me; in fact, it seems like one of the common traits that unites a lot of artists, writers, and creative types is this feeling of not quite fitting in. Having always struggled to find people I truly connect with, I’ve often turned to these artists and creators for comfort and guidance, and today I want to talk a little bit about some of them. I realised as I was writing this over the last few days that there are so many people who inspire me that I can’t realistically fit them all in one post. So this first post focuses on creators I discovered on YouTube.
So without further ado, let me introduce you to some of my favourite teachers. I don’t know them personally, but each of them has taught me a little bit about how to be human in this strange world.
Jonna Jinton (artist, filmmaker, entrepreneur)
Jonna Jinton is a Swedish filmmaker/artist/jewellery designer/musician etc and one of my absolute favourite people on YouTube. Tired of city life, Jonna moved up to the north of Sweden from Gothenburg when she was 21 years old, and shares videos about her creative pursuits and her life in rural northern Sweden.
One of my favourite moments from the above video comes when she is spending the day hiking up a mountain with her friend, Daniel Erik, another filmmaker who moved to the north from Stockholm.
“To have this place just forty minutes away from my home”, Daniel exclaims as he looks around at the snowy wonderland.
“That’s being rich, for real”, Jonna replies.
When I’m feeling lost or burnt out, watching one of Jonna’s videos reminds me of what really matters in life. She is also probably one of the hardest-working creatives out there, and one of the most positive people on the planet. I can be quite negative in general, and Jonna reminds me to be grateful for what I have and to see the beauty and positivity in the ordinary.
She is also a bit of a jack of all trades when it comes to creativity, but rather than this being a negative (as it is sometimes viewed) with Jonna it seems like creativity is just a part of her lifestyle, whatever form it takes. I am at a bit of a crossroads right now in terms of my own creative pursuits, trying to work out what I want to focus on going forward when it comes to music, writing, performing, etc. I recently read Emma Gannon’s The Multi-Hyphen Method, which discusses the positives of having more than one string to your bow when it comes to your career, and this is definitely true with Jonna. Her videos never cease to inspire me.
Beau Miles (filmmaker, adventurer, author)
Beau Miles is truly one-of-a-kind. His YouTube channel features videos of him embarking on various self-imposed adventures in his native Australia. There are some similarities between him and Jonna Jinton - they’re both excellent filmmakers, for one thing. They both appreciate nature and are very independent and focused in whatever they are doing. One of the things that makes Miles so impressive is his love of found objects, reusing and repurposing whenever he can, and his hatred of wastefulness. His adventures are sometimes extreme - most of us would never attempt to live solely off of baked beans for a month, for example - but his videos teach us to think outside the box, slow down and find joy in the ordinary.
One of my favourite of his videos (linked above) features podcaster Hamish Blake and Miles embarking on a wacky journey with their respective kids to meet at the halfway point between where the two of them live to record a podcast about being dads. The fact that Blake is new to these kinds of adventures, and reacts similarly to how most of us would to Miles’ antics, is both sweet and comforting. We may never be as bold and adventurous as Beau Miles, but we can adopt a little of his passion and adventurous spirit in our own lives.
The video below was posted yesterday and is slightly different to his usual videos, but I really related to what he was talking about when it comes to being an artist, sharing your work, and getting bogged down in more more more. It can be exhausting and draining to feel that you have to keep constantly creating and sharing your work - there’s got to be some time for just living! It’s comforting to hear this from someone like Beau and made me feel a little less alone.
TheCottageFairy - Paola Merrill (artist, filmmaker)
I have a theory that there are two types of people in this world when it comes to what we enjoy consuming (be prepared for a massive generalisation but just hear me out). There are people like my boyfriend who mostly enjoy content that makes them laugh or has some action and adventure, high-energy stuff essentially. These people are, I think, generally quite calm and peaceful types by nature. They may get stressed, anxious and angry occasionally, but they are generally pretty happy-go-lucky. And there are people like me, who enjoy consuming relatively calm art/music/literature. These people have a lot going on in their inner worlds, and a lot of loud noise or drama can feel too intense, so they enjoy things like listening to gentler music, or podcasts featuring deep conversations. Don’t get me wrong, there are times when I just want to watch a funny film, and Off Menu is one of my favourite podcasts. But super high-energy stuff can be overwhelming for me. Maybe it’s a classic introvert/extrovert thing.
TheCottageFairy is a channel by artist Paola Merrill, where she shares videos focussing on slow and simple living from her rural home in America. I think it’s starting to become obvious from my favourite YouTubers that there’s a big part of me that dreams of living in the countryside. My life in London couldn’t be further from Paola’s country cottage existence, and it’s lovely to step inside her dreamy world for a short while. At only 26 years old, she is wise beyond her years. She has a beautiful speaking voice - her voiceovers are particularly calm and soothing - and the footage of her home and surrounding nature is gorgeous. She often films herself baking or doing something crafty whilst discussing bigger topics - in the below video, for example, she discusses her reasons for living alone, separately from her fiancé (now husband), and the importance of following your own instincts and desires when it comes to lifestyle choices and decisions, rather than focussing on what everyone else is doing. I’m not particularly crafty at all, but it’s lovely to watch!
Special Books by Special Kids
This one is slightly different. SBSK is a channel by disability-rights advocate Christopher Ulmer, where he interviews disabled people of all ages and diagnoses, seeking “to normalize the diversity of the human condition”. Chris is an ex-teacher and is an expert at connecting with people whatever their style of communication (something I have learned more about in my music therapy work).
If you would like to learn about various conditions then SBSK is a great place to start. The video below features Cecilia who is diagnosed with schizophrenia. I don’t think I had ever seen a video like this before, and it’s a great education on living with the condition (check out this video and this one to see how Cecilia is doing now).
One of my jobs is a “music therapist” (in quotation marks as I don’t have a degree in it so can’t call myself a music therapist technically, although that is essentially what I do) working with people with both physical and learning disabilities in care homes and day centres across London. It’s a really fun, sometimes exhausting, and really rewarding job. I always say when talking about this work that it is a privilege to get to know people that I may never otherwise have met, and I’m so grateful for this job because of that. I think we often end up spending a lot of our time with people relatively similar to us, whether that’s friends, family or partners, and I’ve discovered that I really enjoy connecting with people from different backgrounds and circumstances - there is more that unites and connects us than we might otherwise assume.
That’s it for now. There are so many incredible people doing amazing things in this world, but I hope you’ve enjoyed this little dive into some of the creators I am inspired by. There’s a lot more to come so look out for part 2!
Sending lots of love!
Emily x