Before I get started with this post I’m letting you know I will continue to write Hey, It’s Okay… posts. I’m not aiming to get one up every month but if there’s a topic I want to discuss or something influences me, I will write about it. I hope you enjoy this as much as the others!
It may surprise you that although I have a blog I am a very private person. Sometimes I don’t like talking about myself and there are things that I feel don’t need to be shared. On the flipside, when I do open up and share I am very honest and I don’t apologise for that. I think everything through and nothing comes out of my mouth (or appears on a screen) that hasn’t been carefully considered.
Recently I had a conversation with someone who reminded me that you don’t have to share everything that goes on in your life. For example, if you put something on social media the majority of the world can see it and even if you think you’ve removed it it may be able to be found and traced back to you. That is a slightly scary thought but I know I try to be kind and considerate at all times and I’m not unhappy with what I share and post on social media. I try to remain happy and uplifting on the platforms I use and I have never bullied someone or bad mouthed them. I would never use social media to bring someone down.
I personally don’t find Facebook a useful sharing tool and I don’t share a lot of my life on it. People get competitive and treat Facebook like a popularity contest. I mainly use it to catch up with friends and most of the time I prefer texting over Facebook messaging.
Going back to me being a private person, my boyfriend and I are ‘In a Relationship’ and Facebook official but before announcing it we didn’t really tell anybody. The only person I told was my mum and my boyfriend told his parents and a couple of friends. I didn’t feel the need to tell anybody else because I was enjoying spending time with him and wasn’t concerned about posting updates about what we were doing to my news feed. Even though I was really excited and it was a big deal for me, I didn’t want to announce anything right away. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to tell my friends or thought they shouldn’t know but I was taking time to figure things out and enjoying being in the moment.
I don’t speak about my boyfriend much on the blog purely because I don’t know if he’d be comfortable with that. Most of the time I talk about makeup which isn’t relevant to him anyway. I’ve had numerous comments saying how cute we are and I’ve been asked to share how me met. I’m not nervous or ashamed but again I don’t know if he’d want me to do that so I kind of leave it there. Maybe one day I will, who knows!
It’s not only personal details I get a bit apprehensive to share, it’s hard times too. In my Gratitude Journal: January post I mentioned that January had been a strange month and there were a few personal struggles going on. I didn’t talk about these apart from with those involved and it made me realise what is truly important. I love being able to connect and talk about one of my biggest passions through this blog but I don’t have to share every ounce of my life here either. I don’t mean that negatively but there are times when you don’t always feel like talking and you’ve just got to cry, stress out and get through the next week. There have been times over the past few weeks where life has felt hard and I haven’t felt like sharing my struggles with the world. I don’t try to sugarcoat life and make out that everything is great and running smoothly all the time. I am thankful for those who offer words of kindness and support and help when I need it. I remind myself that I am strong and still look for something good in every day.
Do you like to be open and honest or play your cards close to your chest? Perhaps, like me, you’re a bit of both? I’d love to hear from you in the comments!
Chanelle Hayley 