Foresty Forest - sanity overrides

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A2022
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Joined: Sat Mar 05, 2022 8:52 am
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Foresty Forest - sanity overrides

Post by A2022 »

Foresty Forest walks away from money on Patreon - a genuine guy with priorities. I'll miss him on Patreon. you have to know when to back it down, he knows and acts. respect! do what makes you feel free. he shut it down and walked away.

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ForestyForest

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Closing Patreon... A Difficult Decision
Hey everyone. I think I need to move forward on a decision that's been on my mind for a while, which is to close down my Patreon account. I brought it up last year around this time but was encouraged to keep it going. Basically, I've been struggling with mental burnout .. every .. single .. day .. for the last 1.5 years, which is leading to some concerning issues with my mental health. You guys have been great and very understanding overall, but Patreon still puts a weight on my shoulders to perform regularly on YouTube, post here and respond to messages.

I'm not sure why screen time is burning me out so badly, I binged some internet a couple weeks ago and it damaged my health in a hard way. I've taken a lot of steps to avoid social media, stop drinking alcohol, eat healthy, take supplements, exercise every day (Rocko demands at least 10km daily), get social interaction time, wear blue tinted glasses... but to no success. A hospital checkup last fall also didn't reveal anything.

So my upload schedule to YouTube might become even more irregular in the coming future. I'm not sure if YouTube is a part of the problem, but it does seem unnatural to always divide my life into episodes that look good in front of an audience. I've always been a shy and private person. But the reason I started YouTube in the first place was to feel more productive while being outdoors and exploring, and its been a fun ride to share.

Anyway, things have reached a tipping point where I need to put my health first. Once again, everyone here has been very great to me. Your support took the channel to new levels, being able to afford the 4x4 van and build it out. Also the multitude of repairs its needed (but since splicing in that wire it has been running great). Also being able to afford new camera gear, hiking gear, and the skyrocketing gas prices...!

So, to conclude, I'm not quitting van life or YouTube. I just need to simplify things a bit, try to loosen constraints of regular uploading to see if my health improves. Maybe a serious lifestyle change is needed, wondering what it would feel like to revisit a factory floor after all this time. But if things get really dire financially, I suppose it's always possible to try to reopen Patreon later on.

Thanks again, your support here has meant a lot to me, and we've covered a lot of ground because of it.

I'll leave this message up for a couple days so that everyone can see it.
Steve Melton
N531EM, RV9A, Superior O-320, WW 200RV prop, Slick mags, CHT 330F, EGT 1300F, B&C, 1200+ hours
Freedom and Democracy are all that really matter.
Ride a bike, unlock the world.
https://www.rvplasticparts.com/
https://www.gpsdock1.com/

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