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Hey, I'm Destinee, and this is Ares, my puppy.
Well, I call him a "puppy," but he's going to be two years
coming up soon.
Anyway,
the time of year's coming
where
December 28th,
I can celebrate my two years of being on YouTube.
And it has ended up
growing into this hobby that takes up so much of my time that I'm passionate
about and I enjoy.
and
I wanted to thank you guys for sticking around with me and checking out my videos. I know some of
you have been
following the FateofDestinee channel
almost that whole two years, which is crazy.
And to those of you who are newer, welcome to my channel, and I hope that
you guys get half of
the enjoyment and fulfillment
that I get out of making YouTube videos. And one of those opportunities that the YouTube channel
has afforded me is being able to go - I went to SHOT Show last year, and it's that time of year
again where I'm getting ready to go
to SHOT Show 2013. So, I am very
excited to go again. When i went out to SHOT Show last year
I had a lot of people ask me, "Well,
what is the FateofDestinee channel all about?" "What's [my] mission?"
And,
I really didn't start with a "mission." It was just sharing my videos and having fun
going to the range, trying to pick out a new firearm, just enjoying learning to shoot.
Those of you who have
stuck around with my channel for a while, you'll know that sometimes I put out videos that
have nothing to do
with shooting
...at all.
Like, I might even be singing.
It's just, that's what's fun for me. It's that the FateofDestinee channel is... it's me.
It's my creative pursuits. And the
more videos that I publish or content that I release, the channel's
kind of evolved. I would definitely say that most of the videos I do are gun-
centric, firearms related
reviews or shooting videos, but it's also a creative endeavor for me.
I just... I enjoy...
I compose music for the videos, and
I do research, and everything that goes into it,
is fun for me. One of the neat things that I never anticipated about this
hobby
is the increasing volume of people, like women and newer shooters
who
have sent me PMs and messages voicing that one of things that they appreciate about
my channel is that I'm not ex-military, or former military or law
enforcement
and don't come from, like a spec ops,
super tactical,
I've been thousands of hours training kind of background. I'm more of your "girl next
door," so I can give my opinions and my reviews from that perspective. And,
part of my channel is sharing my journey as a shooter with you guys.
So those of you who have hung around
since the first shooting videos that I put up have seen my
progress
and my personal growth.
And, you've gotten to see Ares grow. Actually,
the very first night I brought him home,
he was in a video.
So, that's...
Basically, I wanted to say I'm thankful and appreciative to all you guys who take the
time to watch my videos,
even when you don't enjoy
a particular vid.
I read every comment and every PM
and I have
thoroughly enjoyed the interaction with you and that is
a huge of what keeps
me putting out a video every week.
On the
different social media forums
that people follow me, like Twitter or Facebook, or
YouTube,
and also in person, I end up getting a lot of the same question, like,
"Who is FateofDestinee?" and what's...
what's basically... "What's the deal with your channel?" My gosh, Ares.
Really. He's gonna whack me.
I know. You're so happy. Oh my gosh.
Sorry, he's just ridiculously playful...
all the time!
But, anyway, I actually went - I had someone -
Britney Star
interviewed me
for Women's Outdoor News. And,
she asked some of these same questions that I get asked often.
And, so, I thought I would borrow a little bit of what we talked about in her interview
and
answer them for you guys. One of those questions is, "How did I get started with shooting?" Oh my gosh, Ares, really.
This is some of the
issues of doing a video
with my dog. That's why he's not in a whole lot of them.
Because, he's very unpredictable.
Good boy.
Good boy.
He's already getting the ear off of that little squirrel. Sorry Christmas Squirrel, you're going down!
Some people ask how I got my start shooting and, like a lot of you, I started
with my family. My parents are former military, and guns have always been
around, been, you know, in the household. And I learned gun safety as a child and
I had kind of done a little bit of shooting growing up, but,
the big thing that got me into shooting was that it was a family thing. My dad would go to the range every weekend and
so, to spend time with him, I'd go to the range with him. I'd watch him
shoot, and I'd have my
big ol' ear protection on, and my safely goggles,
and I'm sitting in a chair, my feet are dangling off the side because I'm just, ya know, watching Dad have fun, and,
it just seemed like
such an awesome time that he had on the range, and I loved the time
that I got to spend,
you know, having some daddy-daughter time. It was just something fun that the
two of us could do.
And now, my whole family shoots...
My brother...
My sister...
Often we go together to the range. I rarely go to the range because usually I
have at least like my brother or my dad in tow.
And, when my sister can, she comes with us.
But, sometimes, she still outshoots me, on the . 22, at least.
She's a sharpshooter.
And, so my dad,
I guess I can give credit with getting me interested in the sport.
And,
anytime he would go to get a new gun, I would like to go with him, and
as I got older, I wanted to shoot with him more.
And,
eventually, I turned 21, and got my first handgun, which,
most of you guys already know is the Kimber SIS Pro 1911, which is
currently my carry piece.
That was the last switch to flip. Now, it's just, I love it. I love shooting. I love being at the range.
I love the
precision of it. I love
challenging myself.
And,
oh, I get the side benefit of the better I get at shooting and handling my
carry firearm, the better chances I have at
improve my self defense and being able to survive some kind of self defense
encounter. So,
talk about an awesome bonus.
And it's still a family activity. So, instead of going and watching tv together, we go out to the
range and shoot.
And for me, I think that's wicked cool.
Another one of those questions that I talked about with Britney
that relates to going to the range is, she asked me, what do I use for my range bag?
And, I've tried a couple of different things, but what it is right now is,
it actually
started off its life as a
carry-on bag
for, um,
for travel.
But, it ends up being super convenient because it's
huge. It's got all these different pockets - it's got, like,
fifteen, twenty something pockets.
And,
it has wheels so when I'm out at the range - I generally like to spend, like,
two or so hours at the range at
any given visit.
So, I bring more than one firearm,
and I bring ammo for multiple firearms. I probably have at least a couple of boxes of
.45, and a
couple boxes of 9mm.
Lately, I've been bringing the
.357 out
because that's just -
that's just fun.
So, I probably have a box of that in there.
And some miscellaneous targets,
...chamber flags,
and I keep
a little bottle of oil - gun oil - just in case my guns
start to run dry.
And because it's the family range bag, and
each different... We got...
Each family member has their own pocket for their own eye pro and ear pro.
So, I've got my Radian...
little custom Radians in there,
and, my Beretta goggles.
And,
because I like to bring other friends shooting and stuff,
I'll have, like,
extra
eye pro and ear pro, just on the off chance that somebody else wants to come out shooting and they
don't have something with them.
Another question that I get frequently about my efforts YouTube
from other YouTubers who are looking to get started or are
just newer to the gun/gear/kinfe reviewing
kind of community,
or fom people who are newer to this whole social media advent of producing
gun and gear reviews through YouTube.
Is,
"how much time do I spend on my channel?" and "what does it take to run it?"
And,
for me, I said this was a hobby. And, it definitely is because it's something I enjoy, but
it's not my full-time job.
But, YouTube,
my channel has
gotten to the point where it almost could be considered a second job. I probably
spend, overall, like forty hours a week working on stuff like,
I do my research because I like to know
what I'm talking about on a subject,
and not just, like, read off of a card or a website
or something.
I mean, I don't consider myself to be an expert but that's why it's so important for me to do
research on a subject before I talk about it.
So I can, you know, with confidence,
pass along information.
I enjoy every aspect that goes into producing my videos,
and that's why I am willing to spend so much time on it. No, you can't have that.
I don't want you to choke on little pieces that you pull off.
You know, the channel ends up being a lot of work. Between all of the hours I spend
researching,
and, time at the range, and
talking to other people,
and making my preparations for the video,
as well as the recording.
Believe it or not, I still get camera-shy sometimes, where I just sit there like,
"Uhhh..."
for like the first couple of seconds.
That has got a lot better.
Actually, the whole YouTube thing, putting videos of myself out there on the internet for people to criticize, or
not criticize, or celebrate, has done a couple of things for me. And, a
big thing that it has done for me is it has helped for me to deal with and
and improve myself with my social anxiety.
I have grown leaps and bounds with being able to be less shy and just be more relaxed and be myself.
And I have my involvement with YouTube, in large, part to thank for that,
and my family for being really supportive of
that with me and with my YouTube endeavor. I
totally appreciate that.
And, a lot of you other YouTubers,
people watching videos and commenting, has helped support me in that
personal growth as well as channel growth.
That was something that came into play with the videos I did last year for SHOT Show. I had a lot
of people ask, "Wow, you look so nervous. What is your problem?" Well,
I get nervous - especially around a lot of people,
and sometimes in front of the camera. But,
that's something that I'm
a lot better about. And now, it's...
I feel it allows me to
talk to you guys better, and interact with you more.
So, for me,
it makes me love what I do here
and I guess that's part of why I don't see
making YouTube videos like a job. Because I just plain enjoy it.
So, thank you for
spending the time you have watching my videos and commenting, and
following me on Facebook and Twitter.
And, for those of you are going to be at SHOT this year,
I look forward to meeting you. So,
I will be
posting updates on Twitter.
So, if you're there and you happen to catch where I am on a tweet,
totally come over, say hello. I would really love to meet you.
And, for those of you who can't make it, I hope you enjoy the videos.
Happy holidays.
[music plays]
All right, come here.
Oh my gosh.
[laughs] He's being impossible.
SIt. Good boy. Down. Stay. There's a good boy. Okay.
[laughs] Okay.
Let me try moving him
in frame.
Can you... restart this?
Yeah.
'Cause we just wasted a minute of footage.