Thoughts on being real.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Just a random photo of the Hooters that Blake and I ate at right after getting engaged. #classy

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately. Lately as in last night.
I was catching up on blogs and I just kept thinking, "these people have incredibly perfect lives."
We all know that this is not true. No one has a perfect life. But when you put your life out on a public space and you only show the positive, it just sort of kind of makes us all feel like crap.

I am so far from perfect. I am stressed out all the time (Blake can tell you that this is very, very true). I have an anxiety problem (and maybe even acid reflux, exciting I know). I have this problem with not taking school seriously sometimes. I have struggled with depression the majority of my life. I never see my best friends, and speaking of my best friends, one of them has a 2 brain tumors and a kidney disease, which adds to the stress. I'm not embarrassed by the imperfections of my life, but I deal with it all enough in real life that I don't want to continue talking about here, you know?

But then again.
I look at a couple of different blogs and I think "How is she this pretty all the time?" 'Why can't I just up and move to Paris?" "Why is her family the cutest ever?" "How THE HECK does she look like that after giving birth?" "WTF, I just want to take weekend trips to NYC whenever I feel like it like she does." A reoccurring theme with all of these thoughts was most definitely "COME ON NOW. This can't be real life."
And when I see this stuff, I wish more bloggers would share the real aspects of their lives... not just the sugar coated happy butterflies and flower fields aspects of the lives.

This is me just thinking out loud, because it's something that's been sitting on me heavily in the past, oh, 12 hours. I don't want to be one of those bloggers who just blogs about the good stuff. I want to be able to write about the bad stuff, too. I don't know. Like, I said... I'm just thinking out loud.

xo Haley

10 comments:

  1. that was really refreshing. thanks!

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  2. I totally agree with you, and I wish more bloggers would share the imperfect parts of their lives sometimes too. Occasionally, I dread reading certain blogs that I love, because all it does is make me feel jealousy or envy at their picture perfect lives, and I hate feeling that way. I hate admitting to it too, actually. While it's refreshing to be able to relate to someone, I can't blame them for only wanting to share the good parts of their life. Who wants to dwell on the bad?

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  3. A lot of the bloggers that are portray these perfect lives, perfect pictures, perfect weekends, perfect families are full time bloggers and they are making a LOT of money off of blogging, which is why I assume that they are only portraying happy things. No one would want to sponsor them if they were constantly negative, ya know?

    I totally understand what you mean though and I felt that way for a really long time but then I just stopped following those blogs (lord knows they don't need me following them as they have a million others who do) as it's not worth feeling inadequate over. You shouldn't let other people (especially via online) make you feel like your life isn't good enough. All those bloggers have problems too, they just choose to not publicly share. Don't let it affect your view of your life though.

    Love you.

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  4. so so true, sweetheart!

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  5. I just got done catching up with my Bloglovin feed, and I was thinking that exact same thing. I think that if a lot more bloggers did "real" posts and talked about how their lives really are sometimes that would be really cool! Not because I want others to have not perfect lives, but because when we all share our struggles it is so much easier to feel a sense of unity and togetherness.

    Also, I have anxiety issues and acid reflux as well. Probably tmi, but I really do understand how you feel!

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  6. I love when bloggers discuss this issue. The bloggers of the blogs I follow with more conservative follower numbers are the ones I find to be more endearing because they're much more relatable. The reality is that the majority don't look like that, don't have lives like that, don't have significant others like that. I get really annoyed when they only portray a one-dimensional image of their lives. It's really not kind and not fair to the rest of the world who reads their blogs and gets duped into thinking that that kind of life is possible. As I've gone through life (i.e., college lol), I've realized that life isn't really as happy and cheery as I thought was possible. The rough spots are inevitable and make the beautiful aspects that much more pleasant.

    Anyway, that's my two cents. And I agree with all the comments above.

    Thanks, girl!

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  7. I completely agree. I always like reading "real" blogs more and respect those bloggers more because it takes real strength to go and show the world who you really are and what you really deal with. I struggle with not wanting to "air my dirty laundry" online though, ya know?

    Amanda Rose
    http://sewmuchtosay.blogspot.com

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  8. I like the fact that you can share those things with us. Also, I feel special..sort of like you are confiding in me (I'm Jess btw). I hope things work out for you.

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  9. Thanks for sharing! I feel the same way about bloggers. In my blog I have a lot more downs than ups... it's an outlet for me to vent/get peoples advice/opinions for my situations. I throw in some good, sweet stuff as well, but mostly it's real life things for me, which is not always pretty. I have an anxiety problem as well, and having a blog helps me with this. I love what you have to say and that your blog is so genuine, keep doing what you're doing :)
    --->http://jessicaperkins.blogspot.com/

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  10. I just came across this post and I really liked the title. And it was really nice to read...because it's soo true! I've thought so many of those things before while reading other blogger's posts and looking at their stuff etc. Thanks for keeping it "real" :)

    Heather Lynn
    http://heatherfeltkamp.blogspot.com/

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