VALENTÍ SANJUAN
Last Monday I was lucky enough to hear Valenti Sanjuan speak about his life and the different journeys he’s been through to get where he is today. Who is Valenti Sanjuan you may ask? He is a man who when faced with losing his mom, getting fired, and getting dumped by his girlfriend, decided not to feel sorry for himself and craft a new pathway for his career. While doing this it inspired him to create a list of all the things he wanted to do before he died, including completing an Ironman. This was the beginning of a new life for Valenti.
While listening to him speak during class I was a little confused on what his profession was exactly. This is because before when I was reading up on him it seemed he had a very prevalent role on youtube, but during his lecture the way he talked about himself made it seem like he was a journalist. That’s when he asked the class the question of “ do you think someone on youtube can be a journalist?” Initially, I agreed with some members of my class and thought a journalist was only someone you found on news channels or websites that shares important news with other. I have never seen someone with this type of job sharing news on a platform such as youtube before. However, after watching a few of his videos and understanding his content more, it opened my eyes to a greater definition of what the word “Journalist” means.
One video that really stood out to me that made this concept of mobile journalism more clear to me, was this video he posted while competing in an Ultraman in Hawaii. It began as though he was just doing a regular interview with another competitor in the race, until the camera switched from showing only his upper body in the frame to switching to his legs. It was in that moment the viewer could see that this competitor wasn’t your typical racer, but someone who had two prosthetic legs. Throughout the video it was so inspiring to listen to him speak about his life and how despite his injury he is still living his life to the fullest. After the video was finished, Valenti spoke about how if he was a journalist working for some type of news company a video like this would’ve never been shown, but because he has been able to build his own brand and channel he is able to pick and choose the content he gets to put out into the world. This is when I understood what he meant by being a journalist and all the benefits that come with it.
At the end of the day it may seem that Valenti Sanjuan is a crazy guy who does the impossible (Ironman’s and Ultraman’s) everyday, however when he came to speak to our class I got to see that despite having a large following he is just a regular guy that has a large passion for life. From listening to him I learned that the more heart you put into something, the greater the outcome.
I’m so lucky to have been able to hear him speak in person. To find more information on Valenti Sanjuan please check out these links!
Website – http://valentisanjuan.com/
Youtube – https://www.youtube.com/user/valentisanjuan
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/valentisanjuan/?hl=en
Bouncing Through Abroad 