 Yesterday I posted a video where I decided to share a few things that were on my mind and things that were frightening me about my future. In the video tears may or may not have fallen from my eyes while I expressed these feelings. To be honest, I was very hesitant about posting the video, because I didn't know how people would react.
Well, the reaction ended up being a phone full of worrisome texts and phone calls. I heard from people that I hadn't spoken to in months or even years. I appreciated everyone who reached out to me, but I found it a little strange. And I also felt that it reinforced everything that I said in yesterday's post. Yesterday I talked about how social media has taught us to only share the good in our lives and to ignore the bad. That is all that we are used to seeing on the internet. The good. So when we see somebody speaking about a bad moment we see it as a red flag. We see it as a cry for help. But why is that? The way that I see it, the video showed me having what I would say are normal human emotions. I felt fear, I felt sadness, I felt the weight of the world on my shoulders and I decided to have a good cry about it. This is a normal part of the human experience. We are meant to have these moments. We are meant to feel sadness and fear. We are meant to cry every now and then. Now, posting it onto the internet isn't necessarily a normal thing, but why not? The internet is an amazing tool where we are given the opportunity to share the human experience with the entire world. We are allowed to share our lives and our experiences and our growth as humans. We are given the opportunity to show somebody in Gaborone, Botswana what life looks like in Visalia, California. We are able to show somebody in Arica, Chile what life looks like in Garmisch, Germany. But, for some reason, we decide to only share part of the experience. We only share the smiling moments, but we ignore the rest of what makes us human. After all, the average adult smiles only seven times a day, so what are we doing the rest of the day? We're experiencing the other aspects of life. Yet, we don't find them worthy of sharing. I am making it my mission to change how we use the internet. I want everybody to see that it is okay to be human. These emotions that we have are a blessing. We need to learn to embrace them and to love them, to love all of them. Love the smiles and love the tears. Love the joy and love the fear. Love the anxiety that freezes you in the moment, and love the confidence that allows you to push on. It is all a part of the human experience. |