What what?

So I was talking on the phone yesterday with one of my best friends who recently moved to Chicago, and he told me that he bumped into the most random person while walking downtown: Sam Norman, or better known as "Samwell," for those who have watched his widely popular YouTube video, "What What, In the Butt?" If you have absolutely no idea about the existence of this video, watch it below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbGkxcY7YFU

If you do know about the existence of this video, then you're probably aware of its popularity, its presence on the TV show South Park, and would undoubtedly understand how running into this man in person would be something half-worth bringing up in conversation.

Nonetheless, it's painful to admit it, but a small piece of my aspirations in life lie within gaining such prominence, where people I don't even know are aware of my existence and remember me for something. That something doesn't even need to be big. I mean, maybe YouTube isn't the most worthy medium for me to be making such references, but it's the most legitimate medium I've taken note of where people are purely acknowledged for whatever they wish to represent. With TV, you've got a horrendous line of "insert fancy titles here" and x-amount of critics to wade through before your material can be broadcasted, and if you are an actor in said material, you aren't even living up to your own aspirations (unless acting/drama is your niche. In that case, bravo!). You have so much crap on TV that doesn't even come close to representing a person's true message. However, with YouTube, people are in charge of their own work, and they can choose to make the most emotionally jarring videos, or they can choose to put out the most campy, nonchalant material ever. Regardless, if people like it, they will watch it and remember it. For instance, take this video made by some kid named Lasse Gjertsen, who pieced together sequences of videos where he plays singular notes or beats on drums and a piano:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzqumbhfxRo

He literally states at the end of the video that he has no musical talent at all. Hmmm...that kind of sounds like an all-too-familiar side of myself I like to hide in the shadows. Nonetheless, he currently has an excess of twelve million views on that video. Twelve million times, people have watched that video, acknowledged his existence, and whether or not they enjoyed the video, his existence is inevitably known. And again, sadly but surely, anything I could possibly do that garners enough attention for twelve million views on YouTube is enough to keep me interested. I'm sure there are actually plenty of things I could do, and I'm not sitting here, loathing to myself about how I can't do anything good enough or how nobody likes me. That's not it at all. In fact, I am very secure with who I am and how I have constructed my identity according to my choices, but all of the work and effort it takes for each and every one of us to thrive in life (I'm speaking on behalf of a general "people" here, completely disregarding rich or poor), all of the effort it feels like every one of us puts into being human and adapting ourselves to the seemingly inevitable, it just seems like it all warrants an inch more attention. I will speak for myself in saying that I don't want to be forgotten when I die. Lots of people don't, and I follow right along with that fear. So...is this all a bunch of complaining? Some people might see it as so, especially because I have the POWER to make myself remembered. I have the ability to curb my homework, my responsibilities, anything I so choose in order to pursuit something that would make me well-known. But in the end, I just don't (unless this whole "becoming a writer by going to college" thing pays off). Perhaps it's the fact that, ironically, I've found the most astounding harmony and solace in my life by being alone. I think being alone is one of the most awe-inspiring feelings. My personal beliefs, at this stage of my life, coincide with the fact that in the end, we all have to face death alone. It's not the "alone" part I'm worried about.

It's the death. The Death of Me (the title of a very good City and Colour CD, which people should listen to if they like acoustic music).