Comparisons

Kyra Menzel
Mar 1, 2018
3 min read

For the last few months, I have had more time on my hands than ever before in my life. Even after starting school, sorting out my visa, and all the other little things that we have had to do there always seemed to be an overflowing fountain of time! And honestly, it has been one of the hardest parts of moving thus far. Now, for some people this might be a dream! And for the others who have or have had children, you are probably yelling at me from afar to enjoy this time while it lasts! Of course, I recognize that this will never again happen to me EVER. Yet I have struggled with it. And I'll tell you why.

I have always been quick to compare myself to others; more like compare my weaknesses to others' strengths. Which is completely counterproductive, I know. Unfortunately, this is how my brain naturally works and I have to try really hard to change it. (Something I am currently working on). Now, all this extra time that has been given to me has turned into me having all the time in the world to scroll through all sorts of social media and see what everyone else is doing with their lives.

Before I go on to my point...social media is not bad and it is not the enemy. That is not my point at all. I love having a way to easily connect with friends and family all over the world! My point is, comparing our unique, wonderful, imperfect, beautiful selves to someone else who is just as unique and wonderful (just in different ways) is not the way we are supposed to judge our succeses and the happiness we have in life. And sometimes, when we see the beautiful pictures on someone's profile, our natural instinct is to say "Oh, I wish...". I wish I had her hair. I wish I could travel like that. I wish I was that dedicated to something. I could go on and on.

I will be the first to admit that I am not good at this. But I wanted to say it to as many people as possible so that everyone knows my life is far from perfect. I don't galavant the beautiful streets of Vienna everyday with a basket of flowers singing "The Hills are Alive." My hair is not always done and sometimes we just have cold cereal for dinner. And yet, knowing everyone else has those mundane and sometimes awful days, I find myself looking at the good parts of people's lives and saying "I wish."

However, I want to make a change. The only thing I can really change is myself so here is my change: I promise to accept you for who you are. I won't care if your Instagram doesn't have the perfect aesthetic, or you think you don't have anything to give, or you have any sort of weird quirk. We can be friends! We can all support one another regardless of background, age, or whatever else.

This is not what I would normally post, but it has been on my mind. I hope we can all remind ourselves of our great worth and many gifts we have to offer. If you don't know what yours are, ask the people closest to you. They love you and could probably go one for days about your wonderful uniqueness. In fact, that is what Oliver does for me all the time. And I for him. It's good to have reminders of how awesome we all are.

And just to prove my point further, here is a classic example of instagram vs. reality in my personal life