True or false: Several nights (or days) each week, you find yourself surfing one of the social media sites (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.) and get down on yourself because, well, you simply are not having as much fun as all your social media friends?
If you say, 'False', then I will be short and sweet and let you know I am jealous but I am striving to be like you, oh confidence ones!
If you say, 'True', first, it makes my sister and I look like less of boring old, young ladies and more human. Secondly, although my sister just (yes, I'm a late bloomer...in every sense) helped me realize that I compare myself to others, especially strangers, all too frequently, I am adamant on fixing this and hope you will do the same! While I've never watched the television show, "Portlandia", my sister was describing an episode where a guy comes back from what was apparently an amazingly fun-filled vacation with his new girlfriend (according to all the airport photographs they posted on Facebook) but in all actuality, she slept the whole time. (If you watch this show and my summary of this episode is incorrect, please let me know, or I will just go catch up on it myself. Thanks!) So, how did this conversation arise? You see, my sister lives in Chicago, where there is always something to be doing, but recently quit her longtime job to focus on finishing her degree-she's also still a 'newlywed' but my brother-in-law works ump-teen hour days. This means--->she is now finding herself at home alone many nights delving into Netflix and calling me to talk for hours. Hey, at first, I laughed with her and felt depressed because I am a military spouse, so I am ALL TOO aware of the beauty of having Netflix and peanut butter by my side while my husband is away; although I find this extremely unbeautiful after multiple deployments. (Mind you, we do live in the middle of nowhere basically, too...which makes me look on Instagram at all the bodybuilding competitors I follow and wish I was at least doing 2-a-days with them and getting glammed up to eat nothing but healthy food out of Tupperware. Okay, that was a bit facetious, given that I do look up to a lot of them as role models but idolatry is not something we should cherish-but I hope you get my gist here.) Okay, so to wrap it up, my initial thoughts on this changed after her and I dug more philosophically into this issue and recognized that we really ARE NOT the only ones doing this: comparing our seemingly boring lives to our friends on social media, who MUST have a million real life friends, always be sitting on the beach, working out with celebrities and NEVER sit down to watch Netflix. Now, I'm not by any means saying not to reach for the stars in our goals, dreams, aspirations, etc. because one day I will have all those things (to my own personal degree, I suppose) but for right now, how about we just enjoy the life we are living and stop trying to be someone else, who we think someone else is or how they live their day and cherish the here and now.
That.is.hard.because I love change and it can be difficult to sit still but, to relate this to our PCOS, we are already hard enough on ourselves given the condition of our body, hormones, and possibly TTC, so why pretend to be a fake version of ourselves when our true, confident personality (and sitting home in our snuggy every once in a while) is what makes us unique.
As always, I know I ramble, but I hope that my intent shines through....
So, if anyone is reading all the way through, here is a question for PCOS Awareness Month, so we can focus on positive goals:
What is a dream of yours that you've been told is impossible or have felt is too far out of reach?
(I'd love to hear how you can change that impossible into a possible, too! Reach for the stars!)
