When I was in college I lived in a house of nine girls for my junior and senior year. It was the best. Nearly all of us remain extremely close to this day and ten years later I still feel incredibly blessed to have them in my life.
One night we were sitting around and decided to assign words that would describe each of our personalities best. (Later they would be put onto colorful little canvases that would adorn our dining room area.) Some of the words included “Shine,” “Believe,” and “Celebrate.” My friends picked the word “Cherish” for me and I still think it is pretty spot on.
One of the biggest things I struggle with in regards to being a blogger is always being “on.” We’re expected to share everything we’re doing (and usually I love doing so!) but some days and weeks I just can’t. Those of you that follow me on social know I don’t really tend to narrate my every waking moment or share constantly all day, every day. I just don’t have it in me. And yet when I look at other bloggers growing, this is what they are doing. I think about this and wrestle with the idea a lot.
But something I think I’ve realized is that more often than not I cherish having some privacy and I cherish the limited time I get with my family and friends. I never want my loved ones around me to feel like my social media presence is more important than the time we get together. And, maybe this comes with growing older, I truly cherish every minute I get to be with my girlfriends and family members because the time we have together is limited and it is precious. I live far away from nearly all of them so when we’re together I want to be focused on the present moment.
While in California for a few days this past week I had to do some work but the entire trip I realized I wasn’t sharing every little minute and while I beat myself up about this on some days, I’m trying to realize that doing my best is also ok.
Do you any of you relate to this struggle?
p.s. thoughts on the overuse of “sorry” and how I battle negative self talk.
Beautifully written and your sentiments well captured. Being present is an important message. People will forget the glamorous trip photos and outfit posts, but you’ll never bring back the moments. How often at restaurants you see couples engulfed in their phones not communicating with one another. What a missed opportunity to connect.
If this helps.. as a reader, I’m not interested in seeing you stroll with a dozen roses peeking out of a neverful tote or floating in a pool on a pink flamingo, but I do love your content especially your Friday editions. You do the perusing for me and always have the best finds. That’s why I come back. Also, can’t wait for your apartment tour for some interior decor inspiration!
Thank you for the kind words, Bets! I love how you put it so simply, “missed opportunities to connect”. So glad you love the weekly round ups (they are my favorite to put together!) and my apartment tour is coming Monday – yay! Have a wonderful weekend and thanks so much for being a reader xo
I do think there is a concept called oversharing. Some people video record and post every minute of their days and frankly, it is not only not interesting, but annoying.
I think what bloggers and social media personalities forgot is that they are supposed to be creating interesting content because that is their job. At my job, I have to read the daily news in my industry and then come up with ideas for projects or policy solutions on a daily basis. Bloggers and social media people should be doing the same thing – reading about their field on a daily basis and then going out and doing things to create interesting content, even if that is not something you would do in real life.
So to answer your question, I don’t think you have to worry about oversharing because you don’t need to share your personal life all the time if you are proactively going out and creating interesting content. You live in NYC so that shouldn’t be hard to do. It also isn’t hard to post at least once a day to social media, even if it is only to Instagram stories. It takes a few second to snap and post a photo, which should not interrupt your time with friends and family. You can even post the photo later when they are not around.
I hear you, Michelle but I also have two jobs so blogging isn’t my full-time gig so it’s all about finding the right balance for me!