a rose can never be a sunflower...
photo credit: Karen Jann for Dos Manos Studio
2017 started in a frenzy. Whether I acknowledged it or not, there was this aura about every single one of those first days where I wanted to be better, faster, smarter and stronger because that had to be how I improved on my 2016 self, right?! I wanted all the good things and felt like if I pushed myself hard enough, the magic would happen. Well, I was wrong. And I was burning out.
For those of you who know me personally, I balance a full-time nine-to-six (and then some) on top of a weekend job teaching ballet and a creative side hustle. On top of that, I work on being the best daughter, sister, friend, girlfriend and human I can be every day. Honestly, it's a lot and somehow, also never feels like I'm doing enough. That was until I saw these shots by Karen Jann who has spent some time shooting with me and my friend Ali as we take over {insert incredibly photogenic metro-Boston locale here}. I realized, for the first time in a long time, that I, my effort, commitment and dreams, are enough. They are worth every second I have put into them.
I think we, as a society, spend a lot of time and get a lot of misplaced gratification from comparing the lives and coffee cups we see all over social media. It's only natural for us to use one of the most accessible art forms (because yes, adding a strategic filter to your Instagrams is an art form) to observe others but what is often forgotten is that we are only seeing the best sides of the best days of the best moments of those we compare ourselves to while completely forgetting that they have struggles and ugly cries and wardrobe malfunctions just like the rest of us.
In closing, I hope that this post and these shots are a reminder that we are all very complicated and imperfect. We have our good days (see above and below) and our not-so-good days but whether the good outnumber the bad or vice versa, we are all just figuring it out. There is no need to compare successes or failures to another person because we all take different paths to arrive at the same place. Success is not a linear journey and neither is happiness. Our hair will be messy, our shirts will become untucked, we'll try to look cool in a leather jacket and sometimes we will fail and sometimes we will succeed.
And I hope that friends like Karen Jann are there to capture it, touch me up and remind me of everyone's unique magic always.
