Highlights VS Gag Reel

Ah social media, the place where everything’s fine all the time. Pictures are beautiful, smiles are big, and life is great. Except, maybe not? First things first, this is not a post analyzing how miserable everyone is in real life and how fake-happy we pretend to be online. This is true for some people and false for others, like everything in life. This is, however, my reflexion on how we look at things sometimes. (Being a twentysomething means trying to find the meaning of life, you know? A lot of reflexion going on here.)

A year and a half ago, a person I follow on twitter, tweeted this quote: The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel. –Steve Furtick. I liked it so much, I took a screenshot and shared it on Instagram, because that’s what we do, right?

Mari designed this for me. So pretty.

It resonated with me because it’s. so. good. Remember the post about quarter-life crisis, where I talked about not comparing yourself to others? This quote is pretty much the best way to describe why we shouldn’t do it, especially when we rely on social media to do a side-by-side comparison. When we upload a picture to Instagram, holding the trophy that symbolizes a goal reached, we do it because we want to remember this moment and share it with other people.

However, that picture probably doesn’t show the amount of work it took us to get to that moment, the tears behind the smile, the sacrifices made, etcetera, etcetera. Those are the behind-the-scenes, and unless those scenes include Captain America and Bucky Barnes being adorable on set, no one wants to see that part, right?

When we come across a person that’s gotten to the place in their life where we wish we could be in, we feel inadequate, frustrated, and maybe even sad. But the truth is, if you’re working towards your goal, you’ll get there eventually. You’ll get your highlight reel and when you do, you’ll look back at the crappy times and be all the more thankful for your achievement. Maybe, the feeling of accomplishing what you wanted will be so great, that the past won’t even matter or you’ll realize you might have been exaggerating about how hard the journey actually was.

I love social media as much as the next girl, maybe even more. (Seriously, I have a problem.) It’s a great way to connect with people and find cool things. The trick is remembering that it is a display of the best parts of our lives and that just because someone else’s picture may look like their life is better than ours, that’s not necessarily the case.

The quote said it best and I’m trying to remind myself of it. I hope if you’re struggling with something similar, you can do it too.

PS: Since we’re talking about social media, Follow me! I ramble in both english and spanish. Tw|IG: @LisbethTejada. 

P.P.S.: My friend Mari also edited this for me. And she has a blog. Follow her here .