On both the 3rd and 4th of July I was able to capture some magical moments of my family's time at the lake. In the past I would have posted these photos and videos with some fun music and cute captions in true "my life is better than yours fashion". Don't act like you don't do it too. There is a piece in all of us that feels the need to prove to the world just how great our lives are, ESPECIALLY when things aren't going so great.
I've come to believe that people who are struggling in their identity, relationships, career or whatever, tend to paint the rosiest pictures for all to see. I think this is because there's a subconscious belief that everything will be ok as long as it continues to appear to be ok.
Personally, I'm tired. Like real, real tired of the social media game where we post only the picture-perfect moments of our messy lives. It's boring and it's fake. We're all a work in progress and life ebbs and flows.
Now this is not to say that I will never share lovely moments from my life and my family's time together. I certainly will. And I won't always tell you that I just screamed at my kids to "just give me one good photo and then I'll leave you alone". Think of this blog as a disclaimer: warning, photos may be faker than they appear. Cause let's be honest, you would probably stop following me (or anyone) for posting nothing but crap photos.
I think the goal should be to really understand your own motives for posting what you post.
Why do you post what you post when you post it?! No one is innocently posting on social media. NO ONE!
On the 4th I did end up posting a video. This video that I've now turned into a "real-reel", is a video of my son and daughter happily tubing behind the boat. What you can't tell from the photo is that it was an overall stressful scenario.
Let's start with that there isn't an attachment on the boat to tow a tube. So, in order not to rip the bar off the boat, Craig ended up having to hold the rope with his hands. His elbow and forearm are still sore today.
Also, my kid's were overtired. My oldest and my youngest had been fighting like cats and dogs all morning. My middle son has a cold and my husband was frustrated by the rope situation but couldn't seem to articulate that. We all thought he was grumpy, he thought he wasn't. Fun times.
My reaction to all of this was to be "cool as a cucumber" which really equates to "holier than though" and me switching into a maniacal control freak. Because my childhood was unstable, I'm super triggered by chaos... when I'm in this state I get busy trying to control everyone and everything. Let's just say no one likes to be told how they're feeling and what they need to do about it.
Yeah, I'm a real piece of work.
Life isn't perfect and neither am I or my family. However, we spent the holiday weekend cruising around on a boat, on a beautiful, crystal clear lake, under blue skies. The photos and videos were feeble attempts at capturing the amazingness and those are the moments we will remember. But don't let me or anyone else fool you into thinking that everything was awesome. We're all a little messy it's just some hide it better than others or are just plain in denial.
P.S. I don't own a boat or a home on the lake...my Mom does 😎
MOVE.CONNECT.LEARN.™
Thank you for reading,
Kellie
There's a song for that: "I Don't Want To Be", Gavin Degraw
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