Social media seems to be the place where everyone is perfect and has this perfect life. Everything is polished, nothing weird or wrong to find there. At least that’s the perception I often get. For me, social media and especially Instagram hast always been a place to share my journey rather than just a polished final product.
I’ve been sharing the progress of getting fit and losing weight on an Instagram account for years (probably a story for another time) and that’s how I wanted to approach my Ukulele Instagram. In the beginning it was mainly meant for me – to force myself to practice more and to be able to look back and see how far I’ve come.
To be able to do this, it’s necessary to post things that are raw, not finished yet and everything else but polished. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to post polished and perfect stuff all the time – but you know what, that’s just not how life goes and it’s just not happening. So I’d rather have all of you be part of my journey and track my progress with me. So yes, not every picture is a money shot, not every video has perfect sound, not every song is played without mistakes. I sometimes post original songs in a very early stage when I haven’t even figured out yet, what direction I want it to go, and that’s ok.
Many of you seem to honestly enjoy that I try to keep it as real as possible. It makes me really happy when someone tells me, that it inspires them to keep on trying and that we all start somewhere. But sometimes there’s also nasty and mixed comments about it. Dealing with the obvious nasty comments is one thing, dealing with the mixed comments can be hurtful. Those usually come in nice words, with a hidden agenda like “Wow, I’d never be brave enough to post sth like that”.
I’ve been overweight my whole life and sometimes a little extra in my choice of hair color – I’ve heard enough similar comments like that for a very long time (“I’d never be brave enough to wear a shirt like that”, “I’d never be brave enough to this or that with my hair”,…). What those people actually want to say is: “You suck/You look ridiculous/This is not for you/…”. So once you start posting something raw and unfinished – or something that you might not be completely satisfied with yourself this will be a reaction you’ll get. And this can be tough to deal with.
But at the end of the day, this is my journey and I need to be the one that defines what perfection is for myself and what level of perfection I want to show. As for myself, I’d rather follow people who sometimes mess up and share their journey, instead of just the seldom perfect moments of their lives.
xoxo Nikky