Follow your own road

It is so easy to get caught up in trying to fit in, trying so hard to be one of the ‘cool people’. You need the latest shoes, the cutest clutch, and make sure you are following the hottest people on social media.

The other day I was asked this question:

“when was the last time you felt scared you wouldn’t fit in”?

The answer popped straight into my mind. It was the start of this year, when my son started prep. Prep is what us Aussies call the first year of our child’s schooling education. I wasn’t ashamed to admit that I was almost (but not quite) as nervous as my little boy was. I was nervous for a lot of reasons. I was scared in case he didn’t make friends, I worried he might feel abandoned, I fretted that he may cry and no one would comfort him, and I panicked that he may get lost in the playground. I was also nervous that I would miss him terribly and that I would cry so hard that my mascara would run and I would look like I’d just come fresh off the set of the Walking Dead. I had planned on adorning my huge sunglasses, but we ended up having a very cloudy day.  I also wondered what I was going to do with my life once may baby boy was ripped from my arms.

Anyway, I will stop rambling now (clearly my little boy starting school was an ordeal). But one of the other things that made me nervous was meeting all the new mummies. Yes I may be a mature woman in her 30’s, and yes I have 2 daughters already at this school, but meeting the new mums worried me. What if I didn’t fit in? What if my sunglasses weren’t trendy enough, what if I didn’t have a cool enough car?

It is utterly stupid I know to worry about these things, and I am a little embarrassed to admit I worried about these silly things. But in the spirit of being raw and honest I admit I did.

It didn’t last long, thank goodness, that insecure 10 year old inside of me soon disappeared and  I morphed back into a mature woman (I hope). I found that as I had with my daughters friends parents I made friends easily with the new parents. I clicked instantly with a few lovely mums and we were soon enjoying Friday morning coffees and chats. Once I shook off the nerves and decided to be ME it was actually quite easy.

My point here is that if I had tried to be something I am not, I would have been setting myself up for a big fat failure. I am not the person who can pretend to be something I am not. I just don’t do fake. Besides if I was to hire a Ferrari to drive to school in everyday I wouldn’t be able to afford to put food on the table!

In a world full of glamorous people and beautiful images, it is easy to feel not good enough in our own skin. Then there is Facebook where everyone posts the ‘perfect’ images of their ‘perfect’ lives, and we begin to feel that our authentic selves are no longer ‘good enough’ to present to the world.

The truth is we are all fabulous in our own way, and we all have qualities that are unique to us, and we should all feel free to be our true selves.

 Click to Tweet: Follow your own road to happiness and authenticity. Be You! #WellbeingWednesday

When I started blogging I made a concious decision to be honest, not just with my lovely readers, but also with myself. I wanted this to be a journey of self discovery, along with an inspiration to my readers. The thing is I need to be just as honest and authentic in my real life too, the life where I am not hidden behind my laptop. There is just no point in being fake, it holds people back from finding happiness and true inner peace.

We have been given this gift of life, along the way we have ups and downs that make us who we are, we shouldn’t hide that, or be afraid to show the world who we are. The higher you hold you head, the more you embrace the true you, the more others will respect you. We need to learn to judge people on who they are, and how they treat others, and not on their cars, their perfect hair, or their amazing shoes.

If you take one thing away from this post, then I hope it is that it is always OK to be you, in fact it’s better than OK, it is damm fabulous and so are you!

Thanks for joining me, love Mackenzie xx

Today’s post was written as part of  Wellbeing Wednesday, want to know more? Click here.