Shut your mouth and open your ears

Jesse Lyons, 25

Jesse’s personality would best be described by his enormous energy level. Expressing his ideas and opinions at a mile a minute, I found that Jesse’s absolutely genuine responses kept his mind grounded. Jesse first reached out to me because he believed he was a perfect candidate for this project. Jesse is a musician, comedian, videographer, and photographer who keeps an updated youtube channel. Below are Jesse’s initial, raw responses to the questions asked

What is your most recent endeavor?

“For the last five hours I’ve been writing a song and I haven’t really written music in a while so, I’m kind of throwing myself into it. It’s good.”

Seconds later, Jesse requested a do-over of his first response.

“I guess I kind of wanted to say something positive at first, but I immediately feel like I have to be honest. My most recent endeavor’s been weighing heavily on me. I just broke up with my girlfriend and I hate my job as a waiter…it’s terrible. So its been kind of a back and forth thing between feeling good and feeling like shit lately.”

If you could live with no limitations, what would you be doing?

“I guess, I hate to sound cliche, but I just kind of want to be happy and content with whatever I choose to do. It sounds really textbooky, but ultimately, I guess that’s what I want. To just be okay with everything in general. It sounds like a very vague cop-out answer…but I guess it’s true.”

What are you doing with your life currently, and in what ways are you working to fill the void you’ve been experiencing?

“I’ve been going to therapy. Not as much as I probably should, but it’s weird…I’m in this place that I feel like, like I was telling you before, it’s like I’m in a shitty time and I know I have a lot of work to do, but there’s always been this feeling, at least right now it’s very strong, that I have the capability and the mindset and I’m on the right track to knowing what I have to do. 2014’s been a really crazy year.”

What are your dreams for yourself? For the person you already are and the person you want to become?

“Shit. It sounds like you hear that every day but then you think about it and you’re like…oh fuck. I want to learn a lot. I want to learn more. I’ve been resting too much on what I’ve known and what I’ve been taught and kind of stopped at high school. I’ve just kind of been riding it out. I never really appreciated getting an education. It’s like I really want to learn, I want to go back to school, I want to learn more about my camera that I love so much. I want to delve more deeply into different situations and just learn and really understanding things instead of just skimming over the top of everything. And trying to focus more. I’m terrible at focusing.”

What’s keeping you from achieving your dreams?

“Nothing really. It’s so obvious that you’re the only thing standing in your way, but that’s the hardest thing. For me to move out of the way. I’m my own worst enemy most of the time.”

What advice do you have for everyone seeking to answer the same questions as you?

“I don’t really like giving advice because I could probably use some right now. But I guess if I had to give some advice, it would just be - shut your mouth and open your ears, I guess.” Jesse’s personality would best be described by his enormous energy level. Expressing his ideas and opinions at a mile a minute, I found that Jesse’s absolutely genuine responses kept his mind grounded. Jesse first reached out to me because he believed he was a perfect candidate for this project. Jesse is a musician, comedian, videographer, and photographer who keeps an updated youtube channel. Below are Jesse’s initial, raw responses to the questions asked