May 2023: My German YouTube Channel "Universaldenker" is Gone Forever.
May 21, 2023. I cleaned the kitchen in the new shared flat for the first time and, as Bodo Schäfer would say, gave it 110%. The cleaning session lasted a whole three hours, after which the kitchen shone as if it were new. I wanted to make a good impression on my new roommates, and apparently I succeeded - Vanessa was genuinely surprised at how sparkling the kitchen was. She said that in the six years she had been living here, the kitchen had never been so clean.
From yesterday, I remembered a YouTube video in which a woman talked about how she stopped plucking her eyebrows. That got me thinking. The young woman was from the Arab region and sported a unibrow, which she had made her trademark. She seemed very likable to me and somehow looked cool with the unibrow. I was fascinated by her courage to defy societal beauty standards. I always plucked my eyebrows, especially between them, because I always felt uncomfortable when they were growing together - even though you probably could only see it up close.
This brave woman motivated me to take the plunge and give away my tweezers. Besides, I should probably stop plucking my eyebrows to avoid ingrown hairs. I could shape them well with a nail scissors anyway.
My Multi-Year Work Annihilated
May 22, 2023. I wanted to delete my gaming YouTube channel. On this channel, I shared my best moments from "League of Legends" as Veigar. Since I hadn't played games for quite some time and had no intention of starting again, it was time to get rid of this channel. So I clicked on "Advanced Settings," then on "Remove YouTube Content," and entered my login details. A window popped up, showing the conspicuous text "I want to permanently delete my content." I checked the box and clicked on "Delete My Content." When I then switched to the YouTube main page and clicked on my profile in the upper right corner, I noticed that only my English physics channel was displayed. I refreshed the page briefly, but only one channel was still displayed. A feeling of unease swept over me, and my heart began to beat faster. I decided to log out and log back in. However, only one channel was still available. I typed "youtube.com/@universaldenker" into the address bar to access my German channel. Immediately, a red-highlighted message appeared: "This channel does not exist."
After some research, I realized that I had irrevocably deleted my German YouTube channel. I felt a bit sad, my head got hot, but I remained calm. It was the end of my painstaking work that I had put into the German YouTube channel with over twenty thousand subscribers since high school. A part of my monthly advertising revenue was gone.
I lay down in bed and stared blankly at the ceiling. "Great, now I've minimized away a source of income," I said, and had to laugh hysterically.
This channel was associated with so many memories for me. It had even competed with SimpleClub in the field of physics and had become a cult among physics high school students. From the early humorous videos with my accent to the professional, detailed explanations of Maxwell's equations, Schrödinger equation, and differential equations, into which I had put weeks of work. Everything was gone. I was once again at a crossroads in my life and had to decide whether to rebuild the channel or to invest the time completely in my English YouTube channel to grow it faster.
I got up and checked my PC to see if I still had the old German videos on my hard drive. Some were still there, but unfortunately not all of them. Perhaps some physics teacher or professor had downloaded the videos for educational use from YouTube, but by this time, many good videos were no longer available.
Still in shock, I lay back down in bed. I was so grateful in that moment that I had several passive income sources, as I definitely didn't want to work for money.
"Okay, then I'll focus entirely on my English channel. That's fine," I thought to myself.
Coccyx
May 23, 2023. I met Viola during breakfast in the kitchen, and we talked about our professional activities. We got along incredibly well. What I particularly liked about her was her obvious independence from other people's opinions about her. She didn't care what I thought of her. She just seemed to be herself. That encouraged me to be authentic and not try to be overly nice just because we didn't know each other that well yet.
After breakfast, I spent most of the day at Café Bobo, working on my laptop and improving the website. For lunch, I went to the cafeteria and ran into Luisa there. We talked about minimalism and my progress. Before I left, I suggested:
"Are you coming to the university cinema tonight?"
"A friend is visiting me tonight. But your suggestion sounds good. What movie is playing tonight?" "Don't worry darling. According to the description, it seems to be quite good. Reminds me a bit of Shutter Island," I explained.
"Oh, Shutter Island is my favorite movie."
"How cool, it's mine too," I was pleased with our similar taste in movies.
"I'll think about it," she replied.
I already had a feeling it might be a no. However, I didn't mind, as I wanted to go to the university cinema anyway.
"Alright. Let me know if you decide to come," I replied and went to the restroom briefly before heading home.
When I came out of the restroom, a dark-skinned student in hot leggings came towards me and fell right in front of me on the stairs, landing on her buttocks and sliding down a few steps.
"Ah, my coccyx," she sat there frozen and cried.
I helped her up. "Careful, take it slow," I told her as she leaned on my hand. Crying and groaning, she then went into the restroom, holding onto her coccyx.
I felt really sorry for her. I hoped she hadn't injured herself badly. This incident somehow occupied my mind for the rest of the day until I sat in the lecture hall, with my popcorn and elderberry Bionade next to me, waiting for the movie to start. Alone. Luisa hadn't shown up, nor had she texted me that she wouldn't come. Only after the movie, when I was already on my way home, did she write to me via WhatsApp, saying she had forgotten my suggestion. I didn't hold it against her. Nevertheless, I had a nice movie night.
Learning: For financial freedom, it's not only important to build savings but also to have multiple passive income sources. If one of these sources were to disappear for any reason, I would still remain financially free.
Life Upgrade: I no longer pluck my hair. This helps me avoid ingrown hairs and the resulting problems. Therefore, I no longer need tweezers.