Two years on, more people visit my channel
Photo by author
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the whole world. According to WHO, over 6.5 million people died. Everybody’s lives have been disrupted. The news in every media is full of tragedy.
Here I dare focus on the silver lining. How many can I find in my life?
In my previous post, I mentioned how the pandemic has pushed me to teach Ikebana online. And I mentioned that my students are now spread all over the world.
Today’s story explains how that happened, and how the pandemic has pushed me one step further.
It started with one message
July 2020. I had held my online ikebana class for two months. Now I was getting used to talking to students on the screen. My eyes were adapting to imagine how their flower arrangements look like in three dimensions while looking at the two-dimensional photos.
So far my online classes were limited only to my existing students.
One day I received an inquiry from a person who says, “I’m new to Ikebana, but can I register for your class?”
I apologized to that person that my online classes were only for my existing students, not for new students. In my response to that person, I casually asked, “where are you emailing me from?”
“Minnesota” was the answer!
I started contemplating the idea of teaching Ikebana online to somebody who is totally new to Ikebana and lives miles and miles away. How can I satisfy their needs?
If I create a video of the very first lesson of Sogetsu Ikebana and post it on the net, then whoever watched it might get the idea of what Ikebana is and what to expect at my online Ikebana class…
I started shooting a video with my iphone.
My first YouTube video
It was not easy.
The first one I tried looked so messy that I scratched all. I couldn’t even finish a short sentence without stuttering. I felt humiliated but had to realize that I suck at improvisation. I wrote a script, with every single sentence written down precisely. I memorized them all, then I started filming.
Editing was just as hard. It took much longer than I first expected to learn how to use iMovie.
But I made it anyway. My first Ikebana tutorial video.
After posting my first video, I created several more Ikebana tutorial videos, focusing on the very basic elements of Ikebana techniques.
When I added online classes for beginners, I made it prerequisite to watch my tutorial videos for registering for the class. When teaching in person, I used to demonstrate each time a new student joined my class. Now that I created this tutorial video, I can skip that process. The struggle of making the first video paid off handsomely!
My YouTube channel keeps growing
Since my primary objective of creating tutorial videos was to help beginners jump start with their learning Ikebana, I stopped adding any more video after several of them. If you want to keep on learning Ikebana, please sign up for my online class – is my current position.
After over two years since I stopped uploading any more videos, my YouTube channel still keeps growing. As of today, there are 6,747 subscribers.
That’s all thanks to the pandemic.
What’s your silver lining?