One in Six Million. (Hiatus!)

Prologue.

California. I’d always wanted to visit that place. I’d seen pictures, heard the many stories, and watched movies about it. It’s professed to be this beautiful place where dreams come true, and I never imagined MY dreams coming true… until now. Every aspect and facet… all of it was coming true faster than I could comprehend.

But… I’m getting ahead of myself. In fact, I should slow down and rewind a bit. My name is Evyn Jackson. I’m a crazy, 21-year-old makeup artist, journalist, and illustrator. You could say my life was a tad dull, but I stay busy. I lived on my own with no time for friends or family, pointless activities, pets, or even boyfriends. None of those things crossed my mind. I was simply focused on finding a job other than the one I currently worked at, which was a local pet store. Those puppies and kitties sure weren’t going to pay the bills forever. However, now that I’ve graduated with a major in journalism, I’ve landed several intern jobs spread across the USA. Of course, the one I immediately jumped on was the reporting intern in Santa Monica, California. I wasn’t exactly familiar with that area, and it really wasn’t where I wanted to be, but I wasn’t going to complain. I had this entire paid-off apartment complex to myself for the entire three months of summer. I was another step closer to living the California dream.

Although, this wasn’t any ordinary job. This reporting internship had one main interest: YouTube gamers. During our phone interview, I couldn’t help but laugh when they initially explained this to me, and I didn’t quite understand. Apparently, there are some people on YouTube who have literally become “famous” for doing certain things that have appealed to specific audiences around the entire world, whether it be games, makeup, fashion, or whatever! I was a tad shocked to hear that these people were literally becoming rich and famous off these silly videos where they'd act stupid in front of a camera. But then again, currently anything was possible, and people were getting famous for anything and everything, left and right. I had to familiarize myself with these specific YouTubers, play the games they play, and interview them personally. The company had already contacted the people I needed to interview, so it was just a matter of setting up appointments to meet with them.

I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into, especially because I really didn’t know any of the people I was required to meet with. I mean, I had heard of some of them, and some of the games they played were actually games I played myself, but the majority of the people and games were utterly foreign to me. Terraria? What kind of game was that? And Trails: Evolution? Never heard of it. But I was ready for anything, and I was excited to get my foot in the door with this internship. If interviewing these YouTubers was a way for me to land a job and finally live out my California dream, then that’s exactly what I was going to do.

And nothing was going to stop me from succeeding.

Nothing.