In my case, there has always come a day that I just don’t like it anymore. For example, last day of May, I’m looking forward to summer, my head coach announces the schedule for summer trainings. Three times a week has always been a kind of deal breaker for me. I have always hated when someone has told me what to and when. I want to plan my week just the way I want it to be.  I feel as if I was chained in something, and I want to get free. It’s just my mental feature, that no one can change. I think it’s obvious that this is the reason why I have never really fallen in love with any kind of hobby. I also feel that I’m more of an academic person.

I think it’s also quite good at my age to not have any hobby. I have many days when I feel that I don’t have enough time to do all the things I want to. I must do my schoolwork, take care of my pets and hang with my friends. So I don’t really need a hobby. I’m also not one those who don’t know what they want to do with their lives. I have many interests, and there are many things that I’m passionate about. Some of this I already do, but many are things that I can’t yet take part because I’m only sixteen. For example traveling and doing certain jobs. I think teenage is my own time when I can do whatever I want. I have the time to get busy later.

My father does speak some, but not fluent German and so didn’t surprisingly the Swiss boy either. So we lost some time in to this verbal jumble, but at least they finally did understand each other somehow. The costs for the scooter weren’t enormous, and my father paid them right the way. All of this tongue-twisting could have been avoided right in the beginning, because when my father signed his name in to the bill, the Swiss boy did something unexpected. When he saw my father’s name, he asked with perfect Finnish: “Are you from Finland? So am I” . It turned out that his father was only Swiss, and he had lived in Finland for a long time and had just came to Basel to visit his family there. Oh what a small world this is.

Still Approaching...

Everybody knows that YouTube is a place, where people can put on their fun and interesting videos, and then other users can comment and evaluate them. Those who are registered users know about different channels and subscribing them. But I think that there is even more, that there is something deeper inside. Like a small YouTube nation in the multicultural world of internet. All of this secret content doesn’t really open to you, if you aren’t young and don’t belong to the digital generation. And that is why, even though it doesn’t touch every young, I think that YouTube is a very important part of today’s digital youth culture.

YouTube has a lot of videos that are all unique and individual. With posting just one single video, too many people doesn’t probably see the video. There are so many other videos that your video will probably get lost in to the cyberspace of the internet. However, if your video gets people’s attention, it can possibly become a viral video. Becoming viral means that your video is getting passed around in social media, magazines mention your video on their web sites, and it’s getting thousands of views in a short period of time. Your video is like a virus, even if people would try, they just couldn’t avoid it. Other users will probably take copies of your video and reload it to YouTube. And of course as an example of a viral video I must link this video with almost 400 million views.

As an opposite of these individual videos there are these what are called as web-only production channels. They are relatively big companies, which are supported by even bigger companies, and they can focus on making these videos. These channels generally are about either gaming or sketches. I like to watch these sketches when I’m spending time on the computer. Two of my many favourite channels are BarelyPolitical and CollegeHumor.

I also have to mention different internet memes, which are showing their existence on YouTube comments or then purely created by YouTube videos. For clarification, this is how Wikipedia describes internet meme: “The term Internet meme is used to describe a concept that spreads via the Internet. The idea may take the form of a hyperlink, video, picture, website, hashtag, or just a word or phrase.” – The reason why I wanted to bring this up is that it is very common that you will find some kind of memes in the comment section below the video referring to other videos. Even that previous sentence had a Youtube meme hidden inside it referring to one YouTube comedian with a huge amount of subscribers. For example if you find phrase “an arrow in the knee” from the comments, it refers to a line from one popular video game. A great thing about these is also that you really have to be a hardcore YouTuber if you want to spot every meme in the comments.

You have probably noticed that most of these videos and channels are from the U.S. and that is true. But YouTube is a global service and there are videos from all over this planet. It is a great channel that unites young people everywhere and easily. Every nation has some kind YouTube culture of their own, like I bet that there aren’t many Finnish teens that haven’t ever heard of Justimusfilms. I asked my Singaporean friend about YouTube and he linked me this Singaporean channel. This just proves that it is an international meeting place online.

I haven’t myself posted any videos to their server, but I am an active user and I always get a laugh from YouTube when I’m bored. So I think that I can consider myself as a YouTuber. And I’m sure that there are millions of other young people like me, and that makes it a significant part of youth culture in this century. So log in and enjoy!

By the way, YouTube just uploaded this short rewind of the favourite videos of 2011.

View from the west-window of our cottage

This is the view towards the sea and the sauna from our family cottage window. This property was bought by my grandfather and grandmother in ’60s, and they built that cottage where they spent a lot of time in the summers with my father and his brothers. The cottage has been rebuilt since then and the buildings and the environment has changed; trees have been cut, trees have grown, buildings have been reconstructed and etc. But the main thing still remains, which is a peaceful place in Finnish nature with fun stories to tell and a place that you always love to visit.

It is the best place of all the places that I spend time in my summer holiday. I probably spend more time there than in home in summer and there has been not even one summer, without me hanging around at cottage. Cottage is also the place where I meet my cousins and we always come up with something fun to do, so there is never a dull moment. In my childhood we have made a number of tree houses, rafts that have eventually sunk, tiny ships that have raced, short movies that we still sometimes watch and we have played a lot of different sports and even invented a few ourselves. I think that having good friends always there is also one reason why I enjoy this place so much.

Our local swan couple on our shore

The top event of whole summer is Midsummer. In Midsummer my whole father-side family gathers around to our cottage and we have always fun. These kinds of happy memories in the cottage will last in my mind for a lifespan. At this age already, sometimes when I smell some pines I instantly get the picture of cottage to my mind. I’m also pretty sure that I will never forget the lovely scents of seawater and dried branches of birch in Midsummer sauna.

English started in third grade. It was quite exciting to get introduced to a whole new language. I don’t remember a lot from my schoolbooks from that time, but I remember my English book. The first chapter was about a boy called Ben, who came to this amazing town by train, and the chapter was located in the train station. Ben’s aunt was waiting for him at the station and the first sentence of that whole book was “Hi Ben”.

What I also remember is the name tags we had back then. At first I was called Walt, because it was some kind of translation of my name so it was easy to pick. Later my name was Tyler and the reason for that name was an American tv-program called Extreme Makeover House Edition. I did not particularly like that program, but there was this host called Ty. That short name was so cool, so I wanted it, unfortunately though my teacher wanted to change it to Tyler. I also think that maybe at some point I was Luke. I don’t have any idea where that name came from, only Luke I know is from Star Wars, but I’m really not sure about that.

At this point English has already been very useful to me. I have been able to communicate abroad and through language barriers. Last time I remember I used English was in summer when I helped out one tourist, probably from Italy or Spain, to read the bus schedule. Also in the future if I want to live abroad in an English speaking country that is possible for me.