Truth Bomb

Okay. So. Let’s talk real here for a moment.

Not real in the Instagram sense having a beautiful worded and perfected post caption featuring the right amount of emojis and Hashtags when needed. Nah. I mean real real, stripping back all of those damn filters. Because you know what ? ! I’m tired of it. I am exhausted from the constant presentation that life is perfect or at least we try to only present the good times. You know what’s the worst part? I know that I am a massive culprit of this myself. But I want to change that.

I get it. The world can be a mean scary place and social media is a space for us all to connect with each other so naturally as humans we want to show all of our best parts. The highlight reel. The cherry picked perfect moments and highs in our everyday life. Unless we are working out, then we can share when we struggle ;-)

Then at the end of the day if we’ve had a bad day we sit at home and scroll our feed and see how great everyone else’s life is going and it makes us feel like crap. The only time we can share our struggles with the world is when we have overcome and we’ve figured out all the answers, broken up with that person, lost the weight, changed professions and suddenly we know how to do life good . . . .

The craziest part of all of it is that human beings, all of us connect deeper in the hard times that bring us together. The morning after a terror attack when the whole city comes together in unison to help clean up and adorn the streets with bouquets to morn the lost, the groups that circle around admitting their addictions and sharing their daily struggles, the funerals where we come together to share the memories and life of the one who has gone. These moments of pain and empathetic membership in struggle are what bring us together to fulfill one of the greatest human needs – connection.

Now, I hope you realize by now that I am fully calling myself out now as a hypocrite. I like to show the beautiful beaches of Perth in the summer, the endless travel and training that I had being a full time athlete, the exciting adventures I gallivant on with friends, the amazing experiences I get the humbling opportunity of taking part of for being an Olympian but you know what I haven’t shared – the painful loss of friendship through going after a dream, the nights I would come home and cry to Lexi because I was so tired from training and working and struggling and the goal was so far from sight, the countless and continuing moments where I feel so lonely in this little city so far from everything I knew, the moments when I struggle to even look in the mirror at the body reflecting back at me, the times where I feel so lost in comparing my life to others and feeling as if I am not where I should be. Those moments … scary, vulnerable and raw are the downs on the other side of that highlight reel rollercoaster I share. But I am going to change that.

Now I am not here to sook and cry about all the moments that have kind of sucked and will knowingly continue to happen throughout life. I just am ready to have a safe space to be authentic – to share what I go through – and not sit here on the other side pretending that I know that I have all the answers on how to improve. But just being honest, and maybe just maybe me opening up my own pages of my book will help someone with theirs.

Look I’m not going to lie, I want to be inspiring there is no doubt about that. I want to live an extraordinary life where I leap for my goals while trying to make my little impact in this big world. And maybe by not knowing it all but just sharing what is me, now, will help start that ripple.

Welcome to my new series – truth bomb.