Your Life Story Matters
While driving back home from a long day of work and sitting for hours in traffic, did it ever happen to you when your life flashed back before your eyes? Suddenly you remember some of the most vivid memories in your life. You got visions of peoples’ faces that you once met. You got visions of the places where you used to go. Then, you take a trip down memory lane like when you passed your board exam or how you surprised your mom with her brand new house. And then you began imagining what it felt like to be at that moment again and then you started feeling the same emotions like it was just yesterday. Like how hard you cried to the Lord thanking Him for His faithfulness in your life. Or how happy you were on that day that you gave your mom her biggest dream. You were so deep in the moment and fully present within your memories, until you realized that you made it home safely.
I don’t know about you, but this definitely happens to me almost everyday. And not just while driving. Sometimes I would take a break, look straight at a wall, and let memories take over me. I would get lost in the moment, be in that auto-pilot mode, and just savor both the best and the worst memories that I put on the back burner of my mind. More and more each day, I grew more cognizant and aware of the fact that I had these awesome memories. And then one day, it finally occurred to me that, “Wow, grabe, I actually have a great life!” Especially now that I am here in America, I look back on my life with more intentionality, and I saw the many great things that God has done in my life. One time nga, sinulat ko pa sa journal ko lahat ng events na nangyari in the last 8 years. And these were the moments napapa-Wow! nalang talaga ako Kay Lord because He turned my life around in ways I never could’ve imagined. Then I asked myself, why does God keep reminding me of my life and the stories that I thought were irrelevant today? What is the purpose? What does God want me to do?
Finally, God gave me a word — a Word that convicted my heart to start this vlog.
Your life is an epic story. And your life story matters.
My name is Kim. I am a Filipina immigrant who braved her way into the Land of the Free, currently residing in California, and gratefully living my American Dream. With everything stripped away, I am simply a daughter, a sister, a friend, a neighbor, and a child of God. I’m not a celebrity (feeling lang, charot) nor did I come from a well-known affluent family. But just like you, I have a story to tell. A God-written story that matters and that I believe deep in my heart is worth-sharing.
WHY DID I START VLOGGING?
So I created this vlog for these 5 main purposes:
1) To be a source of inspiration: (Disclaimer Alert) By no chance do I claim to be a perfect person nor to have a perfect life. But if you hear me out, I created this vlog to share my life stories, in the hopes that they will encourage you and inspire you to look back in your own life and say that, “Wow! Grabe kahit ang daming kung mahirap na pinagdaanan, God is still good to bless me with life with everything and everyone in it!” And I promise you, you won’t have to look at other peoples’ lives and compare what they have to what you have. Because you would be able to say that “Yes, my life is an epic story and my life story matters!” And this will definitely shift the way you would look in your life as a whole.
2) To set an example: Again, I’m not saying that I have it all figured out. But I want to set as an example to the people close to me, like my sisters and my friends, to live out the God-given purposes for our lives. I also want to set as an example to immigrants and young millennials like me to seize the moment and grab every good opportunity presented to us. Especially for immigrants here in America and anywhere across the world, we are given a more feasible and possible chance at achieving our dreams — a very rare opportunity that we might never have, had we not left the Philippines. The biggest opportunity that I’m talking about here is education. So in my future vlogs, I will share to you how I graduated in college for free (with no student loans) and among many other blessings that paved a way for me to reach my personal dream of becoming a CPA. I promise you, keep dreaming high because our God has no limits — everything is possible with Him if we believe!
3) To build a safe place for community: Community is often underrated, but it’s one of the most important parts of our lives. Community can be found within our own family, our close circle of friends, our school or place of work, our church, or our neighborhood. In this day and age, our community also extends out to our social media connections, like our friends on FaceBook, followers on Twitter or Instagram, and even the YouTubers that we subscribe to. Yet in these platforms, we often find ourselves lost and alone. Suddenly, our identity and worth can be weighed against the number of followers we have, the nice things we own, the places we travel to, or the lifestyle that we project to have. You see, we try so hard to fit in to this kind of community, only to feel inadequate, outcasted, and miserable at the end. So my hope for this vlog is to be a safe place especially for young girls to express their own authentic self, to see themselves not in the basis of media’s standards but of the One who created them, and to truly love themselves for who they really are and not as who they pretend to be.
4) To bring a new message: In relation to #4, it’s no secret that we are now living in a digital world. The whole world is accessible everywhere and literally at our fingertips. We have this huge platform that we can easily utilize however we want (social media, entertainment, work, etc). It’s no surprise that there’s a significant rise of internet sensations and vloggers all around the globe to leverage this massive opportunity to be known, to take up space, and to be heard. And I’m deeply inspired by their courage to step out of their comfort zone and be out there. However, I do feel like there is a shortage of content creators who choose to be more vulnerable and relatable in real life situations. The past year had been really tough for most of us, and it really helped a lot see very funny, entertainment-focused vlogs to help us get through the day. But admit it or not, life gets getting harder each day. I think that we need more contents that cannot only help us get through the day, but would most importantly help us get through this life a little better, a little stronger, and a little wiser. And this is what moved me the most to start this vlog. My hope is that my channel will bring a new message of hope and positivity by looking through the lens of God’s love and planned future for our lives.
5) To give God the glory that He rightly deserves: In John 10:10 MSG version, Jesus said that “I came so they (meaning you and I) can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.” I believe with my whole heart that this is what God has done for my life and what He will do for your life. Every fibers of our being, every seconds of our life, every good and bad events — everything is within God’s ultimate plan. Everything ties together back to His will for our lives so that we can live it to the fullest! So remember each characters, plots, and settings and understand how each of these elements were used by God to orchestrate a beautiful, epic story that is your life. Therefore, it is only right and just to give God the glory and honor forever and ever.
So there you have it folks! I’m very excited to journey alongside with you though this vlog. I really hope that you will find this channel encouraging, inspiring, and life-changing. Thank you so much and have a great life!