We live in a world where we are judged, and we are judging other people. There are so many outlets, so many different ways to be liked. And astonishingly... we like them! I'll admit it. I love Instagram. I love Twitter. I love Blogging! (I don't love Facebook as much. It's full of random nothingness usually.)
But all of these outlets give us all these ideas of the type of person we should be. Skinnier, shorter, funnier, happier, on vacation constantly, more artistic, more inspirational (inspirational! am I the only one who feels like we have even started judging inspirational quotes and the people who post them?? just me...? oops.) the list goes on and on!
We're constantly getting the message that we're not good enough. And you know what? I hate that. I hate that we're like, required to find something wrong with ourselves. In fact, even in blogging, people are saying things like, "this doesn't feel real! your life looks too perfect!" or even, "you aren't seeing the whole picture, I promise my life is a mess when it's not in front of the camera". Like we can't be real people if we seem too happy with ourselves? Like something is wrong with us if there's not some big darkness to be revealed?? I hate that. I hate hate hate it. Because you know what?
My life is beautiful. Do I have daily frustrations and worries? Of course. I'm human. But that doesn't define me. That doesn't make me more real. I'm real because I'm me, I'm here, I'm living my life. And so are you.
I think I've mentioned before that I wish we could live in a world where we were focused on celebrating each other. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Any time someone does something good, we praise them. No feelings of jealousy or comparison. We could purely be happy for people. And we could be happy for ourselves! Because we are worth being celebrated!
And you know what else? I think instead of complaining about all of our flaws so people know without a doubt that we're not perfect, we should celebrate what we like about ourselves, and everyone should be cool with it. Because I've never met anyone who is perfect, and I don't need a laundry list of flaws to know it.
You know what? I like the color of my eyes. I like that my body hair grows so thin and light that I rarely need to shave my legs. I like that I can connect with children and help them learn. I like that I love reading. I like that I make people feel comfortable around me easily. I like my sense of style. I like my choice in husband. I like that I write a silly blog.
I like myself. I'm happy. I'm excited about life. Let's celebrate it!
p.s. what should I celebrate about you? what are things you like about yourself? come on, don't be shy! tell me! i want to be thrilled for you!
But all of these outlets give us all these ideas of the type of person we should be. Skinnier, shorter, funnier, happier, on vacation constantly, more artistic, more inspirational (inspirational! am I the only one who feels like we have even started judging inspirational quotes and the people who post them?? just me...? oops.) the list goes on and on!
We're constantly getting the message that we're not good enough. And you know what? I hate that. I hate that we're like, required to find something wrong with ourselves. In fact, even in blogging, people are saying things like, "this doesn't feel real! your life looks too perfect!" or even, "you aren't seeing the whole picture, I promise my life is a mess when it's not in front of the camera". Like we can't be real people if we seem too happy with ourselves? Like something is wrong with us if there's not some big darkness to be revealed?? I hate that. I hate hate hate it. Because you know what?
My life is beautiful. Do I have daily frustrations and worries? Of course. I'm human. But that doesn't define me. That doesn't make me more real. I'm real because I'm me, I'm here, I'm living my life. And so are you.
I think I've mentioned before that I wish we could live in a world where we were focused on celebrating each other. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Any time someone does something good, we praise them. No feelings of jealousy or comparison. We could purely be happy for people. And we could be happy for ourselves! Because we are worth being celebrated!
And you know what else? I think instead of complaining about all of our flaws so people know without a doubt that we're not perfect, we should celebrate what we like about ourselves, and everyone should be cool with it. Because I've never met anyone who is perfect, and I don't need a laundry list of flaws to know it.
You know what? I like the color of my eyes. I like that my body hair grows so thin and light that I rarely need to shave my legs. I like that I can connect with children and help them learn. I like that I love reading. I like that I make people feel comfortable around me easily. I like my sense of style. I like my choice in husband. I like that I write a silly blog.
I like myself. I'm happy. I'm excited about life. Let's celebrate it!
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| and this is one of my favorite pictures of myself! yep, i went there. i actually like a picture of myself. |
p.s. what should I celebrate about you? what are things you like about yourself? come on, don't be shy! tell me! i want to be thrilled for you!
I love this! People are always talking about "real blogging" or "honest blogging" and it just comes down to telling everyone what is wrong with your life. Am I not honest because I don't have 100000 dollars in debt, or I don't have a sob story about abuse or a lost parent or. . . you get it. I have troubles, but not acknowledging the good things I have seems ungrateful.
ReplyDeleteI love this, because I too feel the same way. I did a post about this on 15 reasons why I'm a bad blogger and the response was crazy! People were telling me all sorts of advice, but I really wanted to say how I felt about the real world outside of blogging because like you said, sometimes we view bloggers and their life as perfect, when they're just like us, ya know!? Love this!
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post. It's gotten to the point where I feel weird posting about a new job or something exciting in my life because I don't want people to think "oh, all she does is brag about her life". I totally agree and think we should be proud of our successes and happy for everyone else's!
ReplyDeletei like you a whole lot. i'm going to start to like myself more. and i'm going to find a picture of myself i actually like! you've inspired me! (but i won't tweet about it, because that would be inspirational? ;) haha, no but seriously, i'm constantly comparing my life to those of people on the internet and it's SO WRONG because i know it's just a slice. i like my life. and that's all that matters, yes?
ReplyDeleteI remember one time I was in a bad place and someone said to me: "There are girls who would KILL to have your life." It really puts things into perspective. Everyone's situations are different. It could be better sometimes, sure... but it could ALWAYS be worse so we should be happy and thankful for what we DO have! :)
ReplyDeleteI love my " obnoxious" loud laugh! I love that my2 1/2 year old knows her opinion is important & will start all over if you interupt her!And you, Madeline, have always been wonderful! Except that time you came to Megan's wedding and had the world's best corn dog without me!lol
ReplyDeleteI'm in.
ReplyDelete