As I write these posts, I’m thinking about all of the times I have failed, some small, some big, and why I should be talking about anything at all.
While I would rather listen to someone who has been in the trenches just like me, I hold those who haven’t gone up in flames at least once to a higher esteem; unfair, I know. While I have come to what I feel like is a pretty good place compared to where I have been before, I have failed in similar ways that I have seen others get “canceled” for.
While I don’t care what others think, I do care about what my family thinks and what they have to endure because I decide to open my mouth about something online.
With that said, I feel very insecure sharing anything that could be seen as advice. We live in a time where we deeply want to connect with others, but will hang them in the social media courtyards at the moment they show weakness.
I also fear that my life story is too unique and not easy to relate to. I have always had an entrepreneurial streak and have chased that almost my entire life. I don’t know much about the 8-5 lifestyle and being beholden to a schedule someone else sets for me.
I feel a deep responsibility to what I put out there on the internet and whether or not I can hold up to it myself. I want people to know that intentions count for something and that if we don’t hold ourselves up to some kind of standard, then we don’t have anything to measure up to.
Despite how self-conscious hitting submit on these posts makes me feel, especially when it’s immediately being sent out to thousands of people, I know that more people need to be sharing about their experiences.
We don’t sit in our front yards and chat with our neighbors anymore; we stare at a one-sided conversation with people on social media. We don’t surround ourselves with people we could potentially disagree with because that’s too uncomfortable.
Well, I want these kinds of relationships. I want to talk to people I have a difference of opinion with so I can learn from their experience and broaden my own, not to be changed, but to grow in compassion.
None of us are 100% right, and we will die alone trying to find that while at the same time burning at the stake anyone who we think is trying to be that person. It’s scary, so most of us don’t say anything at all and wonder why we are so lonely.
I don’t ever want to arrive. This life is a journey, and every turn, bump, or long boring road is a lesson.
I don’t know how 99.5% of you are taking what I am writing, but I hope that it makes you feel a little bit more seen because at the end of the day, all of us just want to be known.
I encourage you to get out there and know someone, because that is the only way you will ever be known yourself.