Why Editing?
“I didn’t feel comfortable staying at a level of comfort, of ease, in my editing; I wanted to step higher, to open a new door, each time. I craved the asymptotic chase to mastery. “
Why editing? When the line between hobby and distraction is blurred, the demand for an explanation, for a reason, becomes more and more pressing. Five years ago, I downloaded the Adobe After Effects program to my computer and began an undertaking that would grow and eventually come to save me in ways I never thought possible: video editing. During this time of my life, the majority of my days were dominated by After Effects, hour after hour. I made countless motion-graphic videos of my favorite characters from different shows and movies, and posted them to social media as I had seen others doing online. No one raised the question Why editing? to me during the beginning stages of my editing journey, and even if I had been asked it, I would believe the answer to be straightforward and obvious; I enjoyed it and I wanted to try something new that intrigued me. But as I invested more of my time in this hobby, to the point where it became my main activity and my only focus whenever I had free time, those around me began to be more inquisitive. The answer to this question as I would give it now is more complex and best given using metaphors inspired by the stories of two extraordinary people.
The first is a man named Harrison Okene. He was a passenger on a ship sailing just off the Nigerian coast. One morning at sea, he felt a large wave hit the tugboat while he was in a bathroom and, just a few minutes later, the floor had become the ceiling, water had rushed into the room, and darkness surrounded him. The ship had sunk 100 feet underwater, but, oddly enough, Okene was able to breathe through an air pocket that he found after opening a door and entering the engineer’s cabin. He survived in that air pocket for three fearful, painful days before being found by a rescue team.
It was immediately after everyone’s world turned upside down that I started editing. The pandemic very suddenly and very abruptly introduced a strong force of isolation to my life, as it had done for many others. Not being able to physically attend school inhibited my motivation and my ability to complete basic tasks, such as school work. As I fell deeper and deeper into a hole that I didn’t even know could be dug underneath my ground, observing the shipwreck caused by the massive wave of Covid, editing became my pocket of air through which I found survival. I spent hours each day exploring my love for the hobby. People asked why I did it: Why editing? Isn’t it a distraction more so than it is a hobby if you are struggling to get other things done? It was only because I edited during this time that I was able to avoid drowning at sea amidst the wreck; it helped me become part of a new community when I wasn’t able to do so in-person and brought me true respite from the chaos of the world around me. Despite the fissure forming in my life from the pandemic, editing gave way to a sweeping light that guided me to a path of resilience.
The second person is a man named Marco Siffredi, a man who was in love with the mountains. A year after he learned how to snowboard, he decided that he’d begin taking on descents from the highest of peaks. For five years, he snowboarded down mountain after mountain, each one a level up from the next. In 2001, he was able to successfully snowboard down Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world measured from sea level. Even after this feat, however, there was still another record to break in his eyes — one that was worth going back to Everest to try. Beaming with confidence after his first triumph with this peak, Siffredi wanted to become the first to snowboard down a harder path on Everest. His last moments were captured with a photo of him at the top of his descent, just before he went missing on the mountain.
With each edit that I made, I wanted to challenge myself, to descend from a higher peak. I had never felt so compelled to constantly improve my abilities with anything as strongly as I felt compelled to do so with editing. Though I had taught myself how to use After Effects, I had a drive to continuously learn — to get better and better with each new video. I wanted to make my edits more complex, to use a new feature of the program each time. Why editing? they asked; it wasn’t something related to my intended field of study of engineering, had no monetary benefit, and wasn’t directly benefiting my physical health. Why editing? My passion for it allowed me to creatively express myself and work my mind over and over again. Imagine a set of doors that come one after the other; entrance through one door immediately leads you to another, and so on. For Siffredi, through each door, there awaited a higher mountain or harder path. For me, there awaited a new editing skill, a new challenge on the other side of each door. I didn’t feel comfortable staying at a level of comfort, of ease, in my editing; I wanted to step higher, to open a new door, each time. I craved the asymptotic chase to mastery.
Editing has brought color to the lens with which I view the world. The person I am now is far more creative, open-minded, and passionate than the person I was, and I owe that to my passion for editing. I owe my love for creating and trouble-shooting to it, a love that has solidified my decision to pursue a career in engineering and consequently enter a whole world of creation and problem-solving. For me to call editing a mere hobby, in fact, would undermine the impact it has had on me; it is, indeed, my passion. People asked Why editing? as they began to notice how much of my time was consumed by it. My answer? To survive the wreck, to find air. Why editing? To climb mountains, to aim high.