Hey guys! As you know from my previous blog post about AniMinneapolis 2017 that I got the amazing chance to meet the wonderful Heather Walker and Tyler Walker. Now I could go all day about talking Tyler and Fairy Tail (which I will later for my upgraded Fairy Tail review), but today I am actually going to be talking about Heather and the cool things I got to learn about her both from meeting her at her autograph signing and from listening to her talk at her panel. Now I am warning you that this is going to be a very sensitive blog post because I am going to be expressing emotions that I've held in and am finally ready to talk about after listen to Heather's panel. So please hang in there. I really love this blog and everyone who reads it, I just wanted to give you an insight into my crazy for a second.
Heather Walker's Q&A was on Saturday May 27th at 4:30 and it was my third event of the day. If you read my previous post about AniMinneapolis then you know that I had a severe panic attack around 1:30 that afternoon when I was about to attend a different panel. I had spent the last several hours resting and recovering. So by the point of Heather's panel I was worn out and kind of crabby. However, something Heather said struck a cord in me and caught my attention for the entirety of her panel. (Plus you can't stay in a bad mood after watching Tyler and Heather interact with one another...too damn cute)
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| Kat and Heather |
"You can't get the popular jobs without doing things for free!"
I cannot begin to express how very annoyed I get when people ask me why I do this without getting paid. If I could make everyone of those people sit in front of Heather and listen to her talk on this subject then they would never ask me that again. I don't put all this work and effort into my blog for money, if I wanted to make money I'd do a job where I could easily make money...oh wait. I do. People tend to forget that I do have a money paying job in a field that I love that I have a college degree for. Would I love to make money writing my blog? Of course! Do I expect that I will get money right away? Not in the slightest. Have I earned anything from this? Yes. I have. One thing that is preached in school is networking. One of the reasons that I went to AniMinneapolis this year was to do just that. Putting myself out there and making a name for myself while I am doing this for free will lead to bigger and better opportunities which can turn into paid opportunities.
Hell, do you know how many asked me if I got paid to review Terri Doty's book? Like seriously? Why are people so very rude when it comes to things like this? First off, Terri is my friend and I would never ask her to pay me to do her a favor like this especially all that she has done for me and Kat's Anime Corner over the last three years. Second, even if she had paid me to do it, I sure as hell wouldn't go around saying she did nor how much she paid! That's just rude. And for the record she did not pay me, she kindly asked if I would be willing to review her book despite the fact that it had nothing to do with anime and I gladly said yes because I love to read and I love Terri. Simple as that. I was legitimately offended and appalled by the number of people who asked me if she paid me to do it. Plus, she gave me something better than I gave her with a book review. She let me interview her! I'm mean...it's really fucking ridiculous the way people treat me when it comes to my blog.
I love every damn aspect of this blog. I've been doing this for 3 1/2 years and I'm still busting my ass to one day finally achieve all my dreams. If you don't remember what that is let me enlighten you and give you an idea of why what Heather said stuck with me so much.
One day I would like to finally publish a novel. I'm not sure what it will be about or anything, but I would like to finally get a book out on the market. I have been working towards this dream for YEARS. I've been writing "books" since I was in the 7th grade (I was only 12 years old at the time!) and I'm still writing "books". I use the term book loosely as they are more short stories than anything. Fantasy Romance is my favorite genre and it is one I have always written in. You can even see some of my works on
Wattpad. I must warn you though...they are all works in progress and they are ever changing. Even my completed story which took me 5 years to originally write because I changed it SOOO many times. The original story is extremely different from the story that is up on Wattpad.
As far as my goals for this blog, one day I would like to be able to go back to doing weekly blog posts and be able to push out better content than what I'm already doing. I want to review more anime, delve deeper into the Korean world, and be able to take you guys onto journeys with me whether it is touring an anime convention, an anime facility, or even a different country...one day I want to get there. Like I said previously I am making connections with voice actors and people of note in the anime community. I am networking and putting myself out there. The problem is though, this is just me doing it and even though it is a full-time job it takes me months at a time to finish a blog post. I am usually writing these MONTHS in advance.
I tried to do the whole YouTube thing but I can't seem to find time or the motivation to keep up with YouTube and this blog. Again, I'm doing this all by myself. And that is something that people don't understand. Do you know how hard it is? Doing all this by myself? It may seem like I am just re-watching a show you've seen me watching before for the millionth time, but I'm actually researching. I'm trying to see if I can catch something I've never seen before. And ninety percent of the time I do find a small something that can easily be looked over. Especially if it is a series where I have watched the entire anime and then I went and read the manga which is still on-going or extends past the anime series. You can usually look at the show differently with the knowledge the manga gives you. Take Fairy Tail for example, if you follow me on Twitter then you know that I have been working on a Fairy Tail review so I have been re-watching the show. There are so many small nuances that you don't catch when you watch the show originally that you catch after you have gotten to almost the end of the manga. Example: Zeref, he plays a HUGE role later on in the series but when I first watched the show I didn't know much about him until the Tenrou arc yet after re-watching the series and being where I'm at in the manga I can catch whispers and nods to Zeref within the first season alone. But that is just an example.
Now getting back to my original point, I want to reach these goals in the future but I know that even going on almost 4 years I will still have to work my ass off to get to that point. I don't think it will be anytime soon because I don't think I am where I need to be to achieve my dreams but there are people who are cheering me on from the sidelines. Just like there are people who are tearing me down. You can't have one without the other. I don't mind criticism about my writing because I always want to grow as a writer but I do not appreciate people trying to knock me down for doing something I am so passionate about. Do I go up to you and say "I hate what you do and think you should stop because it's stupid"? No I don't. It may seem childish to some but I have made some really amazing friends from this. It goes back to what I was saying when Taylor and Kenzie at AniMinneapolis realized how close I had become with some voice actors. (Just a note...I'm not trying to brag...it is a lot of work to put yourself out there with people like voice actors because we treasure them so dearly...at least I do)
I just hope one day that people will finally understand that I am 100% serious about this. This is something I can see myself doing for the rest of my life. It is just hard to be proud to talk about when people are tearing you down for it at the same time. Do you want an insight into some of the comments I've gotten? (I sincerely apologize if these offend anyone...they offend me so much that I can't believe they've come out of the mouths of people I care deeply for) "How can you even understand what they are saying?" "I bet you only like Asian boys since you're weird." "Why are you so childish watching cartoons all the time?" "If you like their country so much why don't you just go live there?" "Would you just grow up?" "You'll never have a boyfriend and get married if you only watch anime all the time." "You're too old for this childish stuff." "What is that stupid shit you're always posting on Facebook?" "It's a waste of your money to spend it on stupid shit you'll just throw away in a few years." "They aren't even real, so why do you even like them?"
That is just a hand-full of the things that were said to me. Can you relate? Probably. To all my friends who have supported me over the years, I thank you. You've never let me down once and helped me pick myself up when others keep taking me down. And though I don't say it much (or at all really) I do love you guys. You've supported me this long and have kept me going.
So please, think before you say something. What may be stupid to you is like gold to someone else. Also, work hard towards your dreams because even if you are doing what you love for free one day you may be doing what you love and getting rewarded for it. Be kind. Be strong. Follow your dreams.
I love you all.
Until next time. Ja ne.
xx Kat
=^.^=
Update
07/08/2017
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