You’re active on social media and you’re doing your latest unboxing or showing your subscribers and followers your latest skin care or beauty hack. The video gets many likes. Where do these likes come from? Your subscribers who just follow and don’t even know you personally. Your YouTube channel or Instagram page may have over a million subs and you have a nice car or house or designer bags (I’m talking Gucci or Louis). But are you really happy? All the likes you’re getting or all the fans who started following you may not be worth the misery you’re truly feeling on the inside. The perfect life you live may not be so perfect after all.
Over the last few years, I’ve embarked on an interesting journey of breaking status quo and coming out as non-binary. My inspirations have included Harry Styles and Jonathan Van Ness. Am I happy? I’m trying to be but, I feel like I need approval because I’m taking on something different. Have I felt like giving up? Absolutely, because I’m not getting encouraging words directly handed to me and because of negativity that I’ve read in social media comments and on video. See last year‘s Bud Light fiasco for the answer to that latter question. Or, as I’m reading in the news, that one of my favorite non-binary celebs has been labeled as unbearable and having rage issues.
I broke into depression early in 2022 because I was away from my support system, as well as other issues I was dealing with. As I mentioned, I wasn’t getting approval and thought to myself what the point was? Things began to turn around that summer but early in 2023, new problems surfaced in my life. One was that I took the attacks on Dylan Mulvaney personally even though my journey was different than hers. The other was dealing with a family member being in the hospital for a prolonged stay. While I still struggle at times, I’m slowly starting to realize that my approval is all that matters.
It may be your taste in music (my tastes vary), your journey (whatever it may be), or something you enjoy taking part in that others may fear (i.e. public speaking).
If you like it, that’s all that matters.
I want to inspire people, but I don’t expect everyone to follow what I do. It may not be the thing that interests them. But I don’t want them to discourage me because they don’t like it or out of fear of what MAY happen. I realize that I need to take my own advice here, but don’t let someone’s rejection or negative opinion steer you away from doing something you love. This also applies to wearing an outfit that you know you’ll slay, even if no one else is watching or agrees.
In a recent post, I talked about some of the “pillars” that make up this blog as well as my life. Fashion, fitness, and food are three of them. There’s also faith and finance. One pillar that is also present though I don’t want it to be is fear. For many years, that’s one I haven’t been able to shake.
Fear and anxiety has been a constant in my life for years, and has held me back from achieving what it is I want to do.
As I close off the blog, I have some words of wisdom for me and for those of you reading this. When you feel like giving up, as I wanted to do when I wasn’t getting the return on my investment that I wanted, remember why you started in the first place. Whether your post gets a thousand likes or one like, remember that while they may like you, it’s important for YOU to love you. Appreciate all the nice words when they come around and, look for joy in everyday situations.
Stylish 🍒 