Life of a Dream

       Life of a dream. I have often imagined the perfect life, adventures, joy, health, beauty, love. And to a great degree these dreams are shaped by what is seen around me, especially social media. Every image so calculated as to only depict the most positive aspects. Great effort exerted to insure that only the best response will be received in each post. Though we fail to illustrate the trial, and as a consequence we can fall into traps of self deprivation or comparison, stemming from a fear that our attempts to portray this dream life are far from our real lives.

    First here are images taken over the past few weeks, those which are #postable, and ones that depict the dream. These are moments from my life that have brought me joy, and fit into this image we all portray.

 While on the other hand this fails to portray how hard it is every day as I struggle through trials and difficulties. It doesn't show the disappointment of failing a chem test with visions of medical school fading in the horizon. It doesn't paint the picture of how hard it was to put both your sick parents in the car, drive them 2 block for a pumpkin parade, and spend the whole night stressed about keeping them from getting lost, while still trying to let your 9 year old sister enjoy the evening, not to mention her childhood. It doesn't depict how hard it was hugging your brother goodbye as you send him off into what seems like a den of wolves, praying he will be wise in his decisions. And it lacks the imagery of  my nights spent wondering why I remain single and have always been, while every face that appears on my screen has a love at their side. 

 Those are the pictures we don't take, they are those we don't publish, and they are those who I think for good reason we keep to ourselves. To share this is to become vulnerable. To express our other half of the less than dreamy life we live is frightening.

     
     
While I have no intention of degrading the joy felt in each of these moments, or to disregard it. Nor is it a good idea to publicly broadcast every ailment.  But my intention here is to be entirely genuine in my life. It is my purpose to illustrate that behind every smile there is also challenge, and trial.It is important that we recognize this before we get to caught away in our dreams of an impossible life. It is important to remember this is how the rest of that world viewed on a screen is as well. And as we recognize this in both ourselves and other, we in turn become more genuine. We become more whole, and our dreams become our actual lives. This is my new dream, to be a rememberer and respecter of both sides of the picture, and to be grateful for both.
-til the next page