For the longest time I remember not being happy. At all. I think it all started in sixth grade. My parents and I had gone through a really tough time in our lives. Labor day of 2006 my town had a massive thunder storm. This caused roads to flood and several houses to flood as well. My house. We weren't so lucky. We had gotten six to seven feet of water, rising all the way up to the ceiling. We lost 95% of what was in our basement. Then in 8th grade I went through a tough struggle with depression. I remember I had planned to kill myself on several occasions. Writing out suicide letters to my parents explaining what had happened. I think a big contribution to that was the fact that my dad and I were constantly fighting. But I remember going on YouTube. I mainly used it for music videos. Until I came across people like Smosh, Shane Dawson, WinterSpringPro, and Charlie Puth. I instantly became attached to the youtube community. Finding more youtubers and falling more in love with them. I dont know how many youtubers I currently watch but over this past summer of 2013 I found a collab group by the name of O2L or Our 2nd Life. I remember Connor and Jc from coolcollabbro. I was hooked. I watched all of their videos in less than four days. I felt like I had a connection with these boys. A bond that several people don't understand. A little later on came SDK or Settle Down Kids. Knowing Ryan Abe from his Draw My Life video, Josh Sobo from several videos he did with thecomputernerd01 and Jonah, whose youtube I found because he messaged me on youtube about it. I fell in love with them as well. But I didn't fall in love with them because they were attractive I fell in love with these boys because they made me happy. Most people find that incredibly stupid that 13 boys, who have absolutely no clue who I am, make me feel the happiest I have ever been. I still fall into my spirals of sadness. But I'm just a few clicks away from some of the best people in my life. So I would like to personally thank Connor Franta, Ricky Dillon, Sam Pottorff, Jc Caylen, Trevor Moran, Kian Lawley, Joey Gatto, Josh Sobo, Jonah Green, Adam Buongiovanni, Nick Buongiovanni, Ryan Abe, Joe Santagato, and so many others for making me happy even when I feel like the entire world is against me. ♡
-Emily Fritsch
