Friday 31 January 2014

365 days of 2013: the year in review and also something about FOMO

an ambitious photo journal project and posting it on Facebook for the whole world to see...

For those reading this who are not avid readers of my blog (I don't blame you, I post about as regularly as I visit the hairdresser - which is not a lot), I attempted and completed my goal in 2013 of posting a photo on social media of every day in the year. This is a post about it.


Admittedly, I was a bit of a failure when it came to sticking to my guns. I didn't do a post daily, but rather uploaded in dribs and drabs, batching my days up. Because of this, there were days when I let things slide a bit. Days that whizzed by unassumingly, days that sparked no comment, days that fade into obscurity as I found "filler pics" to accomplish my goal. Or make it seem as though I did.


I could have given up on after the first failed day. It's true that posting about my project so boldly on social media was a pretty big reason for me to carry on. I didn't want to be outed publicly as having little integrity or disappoint my adoring fans (haha).


There are some days that I went out of my way to ensure I had something awesome to post about. Dinners with friends, new adventures in the Cape, and thankfully my month spent in 'Murica provided me with stuff to post. But what do those "filler" days indicate? Sometimes life got hectic. Sometimes my days sucked. Sometimes I was so lethargic and demotivated and down about life that I didn't even want to roll out of bed let alone post about it to all my friends.


And that's just it... when we see our friends' lives on social media, we see what people selectively choose others to see. We see the nights out with friends, we see the fantastic overseas holidays, the weddings and engagements and accomplishments. Yes, there are some tragic events that some choose to share with the world, but for the most part I feel slight but noticeable triggers of envy when I check my social media updates. It could be that I just have pretty darn awesome friends doing amazing things in their lives. All I know is, it gives me a serious case of the FOMO.


Perhaps not everyone attempts to portray their lives as perfect. I certainly don't like to make posts that indicate my vulnerability online. So on the tough days, I didn't want to post anything. I didn't want to show how broken I felt, how overwhelmed by life, how exhausted, miserable or stressed.



But on you will go
though the weather be foul
On you will go
though your enemies prowl
On you will go
though the Hakken-Kraks howl
Onward up many
a frightening creek,
though your arms may get sore
and your sneakers may leak.
On and on you will hike
and I know you'll hike far
and face up to your problems
whatever they are.
- Oh the places you'll go by Dr Seuss 

Twenty thirteen to my mind was a pretty shoddy year. There were some pretty high highs and lowest of lows. I'm happy to leave it far behind. There are some things I've taken into the new year with me, and several have been due to the project. Far from doing fewer things now that my photo journal is done, I've done many more things, in fact. And I haven't necessarily posted about them. There's a joke about something not being official until it's Facebook official. I feel a certain freedom now when I embark on my adventures without pasting it on some site.


Resolutions for the new year? 2014 is a year of freedom, of doing, of making it happen, of not waiting. No waiting for the right moment, for the right person, for the right place. There is no right time... Today is The Day! We are naturally resistant to change, but change is inevitable. We might as well initiate it on our terms.

1 comment:

  1. You're right, the stuff you post online is not a complete picture of you -here you are saying you had a 'shoddy' year while I only see you making important decisions and going through many interesting changes. Maybe it's time you stopped looking at other people and really acknowledge what you have gone through and how well you've done!
    I feel one aspect of freedom is to make your most significant decisions without necessarily making them available to everyone you know or attempting to explain them.
    I hope you find what works for you in 2014 -and continue posting the odd article!

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