Recently Lauren of Wearing History wrote a very powerful post about Social Media and the Myth of Perfection highlighting the curated reality of social media and the internet.
She said a lot of things that really resonated with me, and also followed up with a second post, but this line was the key in my mind:
“We all put our best foot forward most of the time. We don’t know what’s going on in their lives. We can’t see what’s just off to the side of the viewfinder.”
And it’s true.
We put ourselves out there, we share our lives, our successes, and even our failures with people we may know, and many more that we don’t.
So naturally, no matter how honest you are, you are still going to be a curating an image of who you are online. And so does everyone else. When we see what they are showing us we may think things are amazing, their happiness ‘rate’ is through the sky ~ in short, we start to believe their lives are perfect.
Just think though, is your life perfect? Nope.
Is it because they have something you don’t? Not really.
It is the powerful lens of curated social media changing the way we see others. No longer are we just keeping up with our neighbours, the Joneses, we are suddenly compelled to keep up with a lot of Joneses every where.
But the Joneses aren’t picture perfect all the time; and neither am I…
{P.S. ~ Click on the photos to go to the full post!}
These photos never made it to the blog, but basically it’s two hungry munchkins ~ Isabelle is wanting some food, and so is Theodore, but Mama’s juuust trying to finish this photo shoot guys, can you just hold on a few minutes??
I went to a tiny local park with my son, and then some people showed up to play with their children half way through the shoot. I was standing there with my camera and tripod… Er, awkward much?
But the light was fading sooo fast, and I had photos to take. What's a blogger to do? Keep shooting and don’t make eye contact of course!
The sun was so bright in these photos I could hardly keep my eyes open! So many pictures, so many squinty faces…. Oh yeah, and I totally got sunburnt taking these snaps. (⌒_⌒;)
“I always feel like/ somebody's watching meeee/ can’t get no privacy/ whoa-ah!”
It took me an hour to get the photos for this post, and the entire time I was doing it, some random creeper was sitting on his front porch {off to the side and across the road} drinking beer and watching me run back and forth with my camera + tripod.
I could literally feel his eyes on me every single second. And he didn’t go inside until I started packing up….
Yeah. Those shots were hard to get, I didn’t really like what I ended up with, and no wonder!
I spent ages photoshopping out a random ‘extra’ from this photo. In hindsight, the event was too crowded, and I didn’t try hard enough to get photos in better locations that didn’t have people everywhere. But I just wanted to enjoy a day out with my family, but then I also wanted to get outfit photos and… Conflict! Drama! And lots of “Urgh. Why do I do this to myself?” afterwards. (╯°□°）╯彡 ┻━┻
This. Happens. A. Lot.
Hi babies! °(• ᴥ • )°
Pregnant with my third child, the all-day sickness I was having still hadn’t subsided by 20 weeks, and continued on until 28 weeks whereupon I got six week reprieve only have the nausea come back with a vengeance at 34 weeks!
On the days I had to go out, I would get up and throw on a frock regardless of how icky I felt. Putting on some nice clothes helped me feel a little more like myself again, and less like a sick whale.
I’m 39 weeks pregnant. My feet are swollen, my ankles have vanished, my face is puffed up like a marshmallow, my children kept on running into the shots, and I am just D.O.N.E.
Trying to take photos without my brain exploding and smiling at the same time? Near impossible, but hey! Some how it comes off, though I was seriously doubting that it would at the time…
I’m almost four weeks postpartum here, and in my post I tried to keep a positive outlook about my body and how it looks, but let’s face it - what I really wanted to do was rant and rave and cry about how nothing fits, I have nothing to wear and I think I look like a big blob because no muscles, no waist and giant nursing boobs taking over my chest and when am I ever going to feel normal again and fit into my dang clothes!!!
And I’m not gonna lie. At least once a day I still feel like doing that. It’s a long road back from carrying a baby, and every time you do it, there’s something else that changes in your body. Something else that won’t go back quite the way it was before. It’s an adjustment ~ to the new baby and to the new you. Sometimes you don’t like the new you at all, and sometime you wonder if it’s ever going to be okay again.
But you know it’s worth it, even if it is hard. It’s like plucking a rose from amongst the thorns. You might get damaged in the process, but that beautiful flower is a treasure worth the pain.
So you suck it up, {and in! Thank goodness for corsets!} and keep on doing what you do, because in the end it makes you happy. ❀(◕ ‿ ◕❀)
༺ ♡ ༻
Now for the caveat. As Lauren says in her follow up post:
“Sometimes the image was taken at a time of some of the hardest stories we’ve ever been a part of. It helps others to understand that the image doesn’t capture how our real life was at the time. But when we gather them together and are mindful of our own experiences and journey, it can remind us of how far we’ve come. And if we did it then, we can do it again. We can never expect smooth sailing through life. Hard things come, and we get through them and grow stronger and wiser.”
Some of the things behind the smile I’ve chosen not to share, because this simply isn’t the place to do that. Or because I haven’t shared it with anyone in my life except those nearest and dearest.
Really, in the end I’m not posting this because I think my life is so hard ~ I’m so grateful for my family and all the blessings we have. I am aware that they are many and overflowing, and I’m thankful. Rather it’s because I want to document the stuff that really goes on behind the scenes, including the pimples I’ve photoshopped off my face.
I think it’s nice to inject a little bit of ‘reality’ into my online story, not just so that I can remember that it’s not all sunshine and lollipops, but also so that others can see that we are all people behind the pretty pictures.
xox,
bonita
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