I have no idea what I’m doing…
Not what I thought I’d open with - but appropriately titled I suppose for a blog named ‘The Chrysalis’ and with a tagline of ‘It’s all goo.’
Not how I thought I’d start my blog, based on the 83 Pinterest pins I’ve collected but not even read on my secret and basic board ‘Blogging’. Here’s just a sampling of pins weighing me down:
7 things your blog needs to be legal
How to start a blog with zero experience to a full-time income in 2023
What I wish I would’ve known when I started blogging
Sixteen apps that will make blogging so much easier and stress-free
How to start a blog intentionally and how to make a living right from the beginning
10 things which exploded my blog
Perhaps this one drove fear into my heart the most:
A list of 52 things you need to check off before launching your blog
Yikes. How will I ever find time to do those 52 things before I can just do what I want to do - write. The creative process sometimes requires just moving forward. Even when it’s not figured out. I need to expand on this thought someday.
It’s not like I even want to be a ‘blogger’ I’m 28 years old and frankly have no idea what I want or what I’m doing anymore.
And ‘How to not not look look like a newbie blogger’ which is actually titled ‘How to look like a pro blogger from the beginning’. If only. Wouldn’t that be nice? If we had no growing pains? No Chrysalis? If we could just jump from our private lives of a caterpillar to a public butterfly? Then maybe when we have it all figured out in retrospect we can blog about ‘how I got through xyz hard times to become a multimillionaire’? Doesn’t hiding the gooey parts of ourself and only showing the polished version sound nice?
How to look like a pro and not a newb speaks to the pain point of being a growing human and others watching. I’m ready to click that link and save myself the embarrassment.
I could go so much further in-depth on how we as a society only show the polished versions of ourselves. For now I’ll say this: I don’t condemn it. I understand it. If we want a nice job we should probably present a polished and professional social image. If we don’t want people to think we’re crumbling (because they always seem to at the slightest sharing of grief/trial/etc.) we should probably present a polished and fun social image.
We can’t let people in because they’d think less of us.
Or would they?
To be fair there’s some nasty people hiding in the anonymity of the internet. Also some not so anonymous flying monkeys and haters who will certainly think less and less of me. However, I think that not letting people ‘in’ to some of the broken and growing parts of our lives robs us and them of some beautiful parts of human existence.
I’m not advocating that we bare all without discretion and wisdom. Some things are private forever or private for a season because you need to get through them or to many opinions would clutter you action and you need to move in silence. That doesn’t make you a fake. Sometimes I can only bear to post on good days and I bet I’m not the only one.
Only able to post the beams of sunshine through the dark clouds of my life.
Okay that sounds dramatic ;)
But I think it’s real.
If we knew how much others were going through I think we’d be a little less quick to compare ourselves to their beautiful highlight reel. We’d appreciate the beauty of the day and be glad they were having a good day instead of sinking into the trap of thinking their life is so much better than ours. We’d spread positivity in likes or uplifting comments. We should remind ourselves that we’re not in their day to day life and social media/ the internet/ or even a catch up over coffee is not reality but a tiny glimpse into someone’s current life experience that they want us to see. Unless we are regularly a part of someone’s current season we can’t begin to know - and even then sometimes loved ones hide deep struggles from their loved ones for a time.
So we need to be gentle with each other in the midst of our goo. We’re all going through something.
And maybe, with discernment, we can begin to reach out and allow other safe people to be with us in these raw moments.
~ Priscilla
