When it comes to social media, everyone presents an ideal version of themselves. You only post your best, most carefully-edited selfies, not the other dozen bad takes.
This can lead to some anxiety—looking through Facebook and Instagram, you’re only seeing the best of your friends’ lives: their vacation pics, cute baby photos, etc.
But most of us leave out the less-glamorous parts of our lives: stresses with work and family, financial and health problems, etc. You end up comparing your real life with a scrubbed-clean version of someone else’s.
But now one mom is getting brutally honest on social media, responding to a popular Twitter trend in a way that has people applauding.
As 2019 ended and brought the decade to a close, the hashtag #DecadeInReview started trending. Users tweeted lists of things they accomplished in the past decade—positive life events like getting a degree, getting married and having children.
Christina Fattore, a professor and mother of two, made her own tweet on January 1. Reading it, it seems at first like a straightforward greatest hits list, like everyone else’s:
She listed milestones like getting married and engaged, having two children, and getting tenure at work.
But in a follow-up tweet, she pulls back the curtain, revealing that between those big accomplishments, there was a lot of strife and struggle:
Her “unedited” review goes into the less-pleasant parts of her life. That tenure only came after “crying for a whole semester” and “fighting tooth and nail” for it.
And while having two children is a great life event, Christina writes that they only came after extensive fertility treatments, two c-sections and postpartum depression. She also underwent a hysterectomy.
It’s a brutally honest “year in review.” Like Christina, we’ve all been through hardships over the past decade, even though we’re not inclined to share it on social media.
Christina’s goal isn’t to harp on the negative parts of her life, but to just offer a refreshing reminder that no one’s life is perfect, no matter what Twitter says.
“I’m sharing this because you never know what others are going through,” she wrote. “I get sad when I hear people comparing themselves to others. Some years/decades are better than others.”
“Be kind to yourself and empathetic to others. Happy 2020, folks.”
The Twitter thread has been shared thousands of times. Many people praised Christina, sharing their own similar experiences.
Christina’s viral post changed how people did their #DecadeInReview posts on Twitter.
Others have since done their own “unedited” posts, sharing the bad with the good:
The 2020s will have ups and downs for everyone, but one thing we can do in this next decade is remember that it’s all part of life, and to not compare ourselves to others—they’re likely going through the same hardships.
Thank you, Christina, for reminding us to keep things in perspective and remember that no one is perfect!
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