The Snare of Compare.

photo credit: unknown

I wanted to address something I was discussing with a friend of mine the other day. We were talking about blogs, and she confessed that she had made a resolution not to read any more personal blogspots because she had noticed that more often than not, they made her feel a bit down on herself. It seems, to me, that this is a common thing with the online networking community. Upon hearing my friend's resolution, I recited a quote at her:

The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind the scenes with everyone else's highlight reel.

-Steven Furtick.

How true that we constantly feel inadequate compared to other people. And here are these people, meaning well because... well... who wants to hear someone drone on about their problems? But because we are only hearing the good stuff, we forget that this is only a portion of this person's life. There are sad days, happy days, and everything in between.

I try to be as realistic as possible on here, and I want to emphasize that I am nowhere close to perfecting most of the stuff I discuss on here. This blog is as much an outlet for me as it is a reminder to myself to be the person that I write about on here. I have days when I embarrass myself, delve too much into other people's business (see: gossip), lose my temper at the expense of someone else, and spend more money than I have. I talk a lot about self-discovery on here because I am trying to get there myself, just as much as the next person. But I'm not there yet. 

And as for Facebook, blogspots, and Twitter (which I still have zero desire to get involved with)... it's important to realize that the majority of the pictures people post on there are not real real. I touch up most of my photos, or else take pictures with Instagram (which somehow makes me look better... soft lighting??). I have another friend who went on a tropical vacation and posted her photos on Facebook. I immediately commented on how totally amazing she looked, to which she replied honestly, "I completely edited that!" How refreshing!

We don't post the pictures of us on our fat days, or when our hair refuses to behave, or where we have bags under our eyes from too many late nights. Online is not real. Not, you know, real real, anyways.

This is stuff everybody knows, but I think we forget it sometimes. So stop being so hard on yourself. And don't compare your life to anyone else's too much. Everyone has their battles and imperfections. Remember that and just be grateful for what you've got!