Hey, what’s up?  I’m Jaemin (hint: the J isn’t silent).

Now this is the part where I usually say, “I’m a freelance filmmaker” but that’s not completely true anymore.

I’m still doing the filmmaking thing but now I’m running my own production company.

And if I had to put one label on myself, “filmmaker” wouldn’t be it.  That’s one thing I do but it doesn’t define me.  I think the truth is closer to this:

I’m a dude who constantly strives to be better tomorrow than I am today.

Okay, that’s a long label.  Maybe “Pursuer of Awesomeness” works better.

But hell, who needs labels.  If you really want to know Jaemin (you did click on the About page, didn’t you?), here are 6 things that really matter to me:

1) Pursuit of Awesomeness. Like I mentioned up top, my one defining characteristic is that I’m always pushing myself to grow, learn, and be more awesome – every single day of my life.

I believe that if you’re not changing and growing, you’re not living.  My closest friends know how important that is to me and have seen firsthand how much I’ve changed over the years.  But you don’t have to ask them.  Trust me, I’ll be doing this thing for the rest of my life.

2) Location Independence (or living anywhere). In the past year, I spent only 5 months in my LA apartment.  The rest of the time I was living/traveling in the Bay Area, Thailand, Hawaii, Germany, and Colombia.  It was #%$*ing amazing.

Building a life in different cities, exploring new cultures – I simply can’t overstate how life-changing it’s been for me.  And now that I’m out of my apartment lease, I sure as hell won’t be stopping anytime soon.

3) Creativity. I need to do creative shit.  Or I’ll explode.  For most of my life I got to work this with film, but to be honest, I’m getting a little tired of it.  So right now I’m messing around with music (piano and producing) and writing (this blog).

4) Positivity. Man, that sounds so hippie ray-of-sunshine.  But what it means is that every day I try my best to 1) not entertain any negative thoughts, and 2) make my interactions with other people as positive as possible (in other words: not be a douchebag).

5) Connection. With friends.  Family.  The lady ringing up your groceries.  I love making a real, genuine connection with other people.  Something amazing happens when you break through that shield and get to know the real person inside.  It’s not always easy, but I’ll be damned if I don’t try.

6) Productivity. There’s a million and one things I want to do with my life.  But there’s only 24 hours in a day and who knows how many days we have left anyways?  So making the most out of my time is absolutely crucial.  Every hour of my life needs to enrich my life and push me closer towards awesomeness.  Not closer towards the season finale of LOST (yes, I’m still bitter).

Awesome.  I feel like we’re so much closer now.  And now that I’ve introduced myself, let me introduce this site real quick.

Meet JaeminYi.com. Here’s what I hope to do with this site:

Share Things I’ve Learned: I’m pretty proud of the self-changes I’ve made over my 25 years. From the small stuff (developing a fashion sense) to the real game changers (bye dependent wimp, hello independent Jaemin), I’m constantly redefining who I am and what I’m capable of.

But I didn’t do it alone.  I’ve taken tons of inspiration and advice from blogs, books, and random Google searches…and now I want to give back.  I’m no guru but if some of the things I’ve learned can help someone else, then I need to at least try.

Share Cool Stuff: Not links to funny cat videos, but stuff that’s actually made an impact on me.  Life-changing books, dope music, essential travel gear, etc.

Express Myself: Yup, like all those girls taking pole dance workout classes, “I’m doing this for me!”  I need an outlet for my thoughts.  I need to get over my fear of putting my creative work out there.  And I need to get better at writing (it took me 4 hours to write this page!) so I’m using this site as an opportunity to work on that.

Connect with Like-Minded People: My friends are awesome, don’t get me wrong, but I’d love to meet more people out there who have similar lifestyles and interests.  All my location-independent, creative-fueled, productive people – holla if you’re out there!

Thanks for checking out the site.  If you dig it, leave me a comment or subscribe by e-mail or RSS.   You can also hit me up on Twitter or Facebook, or if you’re the creative type, Youtube or Soundcloud.

I’m always down to talk, answer questions, or listen to you divulge lifelong secrets.  Shoot me an e-mail anytime and let’s connect.