NOTE TO SELF; LIFE DOESN'T HAVE TO BE EXCITING ALL THE TIME.

Wednesday, 4 July 2018

Social media can be a great thing, it means I can see what my friends are up to half across the world on Instagram, interact with people on Twitter who are watching the same TV as me #LoveIsland and enter Facebook competitions to win free cinema tickets and food on Facebook. Although sometimes when I'm scrolling through Instagram at night and see that every other person is either travelling through Asia, wearing a GG belt and eating £100 sushi or partying at an exotic festival I can help thinking to myself - 'wow my life is so boring in comparison'. 

tea with gi


Instagram culture has led us to believe that we have to be doing something exciting every minute of every day. As a blogger, I rarely ever use Instagram stories because if I did it would just be pictures of me at work, the gym or in bed watching Shane Dawson conspiracy videos and to be honest, I cba. I'm sure most people who have a 9-5 job also wonder how all these Instagrammers are going to cafes every day, in cute outfits and have time to attend all these events. I sometimes avoid going on my Tea With Gi Instagram all together because lately it feels like more of a chore to post and the only time I really enjoy it is when I'm travelling and people (and myself) are actually interested in what I'm posting/saying. Maybe that's what's stopping me from growing on the platform, but I'd rather post content I enjoy than posting things just for the sake of it and to stay 'relevant'. 

On a personal note, I remember my last year of University I had so much time on my hands (strangely enough) and felt like I was doing nothing productive with it. My flatmate was working a lot, my friends were busy and I found that I spent most of my days in my flat listening to music on my record player googling 'fun things to do by yourself' - I think this is actually what drove me to write my post about enjoying your own company. I'd scroll through Instagram and feel like I had to get out of the house and do something even if it was by myself (thank god for Odeon limitless and 3pm movie showings) because if I wasn't posting for days on Snapchat or whatever people would 'think' I wasn't doing anything with my life and I had to keep up. It's also this assumption that we need to be busy all the time. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy my own company and think it's perfectly fine to spend your days at home reading a book or eating pizza and watching serial killer documentaries all afternoon. Is it that bad to admit that you're ok with that and don't fancy doing social things everyday

Now that I'm a working adult I'm definitely a lot busier because obviously 40 hours of my week are taken up in an office. When I look at my week I feel like everything has its routine - I'll finish work at 5pm, meet a friend for a drink, go to the gym, work on my blog, watch Love Island and then read until I go to sleep. Then I 'live for the weekends' and wake up looking like a zombie on Monday mornings. I'm pretty bad at saying no to plans and feel like I have to fit everything in and rarely ever have any down time, and when I do I feel guilty that I'm doing nothing 'productive'. Crazy how you can go from one extreme to another.

Is it an exciting life I'm currently living? Not really.
Am I happy with my life? Yeah it's pretty alright.
Would I grow to hate the world if this was my life until I was on my death bed? Probably, yes.

I also know that nothing is ever set in stone and now more than ever, we have options. I'm single, have no kids or a mortgage to pay off so I know that if I get sick of things or there comes a time where I feel like I need a change in my life then I can do it. I'm comfortable with my life at the moment, but maybe in two years I decide I want to go and live in South Africa for 6 months in a Zebra sanctuary, who knows. The beauty of life is that we choose what we do with it, and if we didn't have 'slower' periods then we wouldn't appreciate all the exciting stuff that comes along.

So next time you see somebody chilling with a coconut in Bali whilst you're on the verge of tears at work because of how stressed you are, know that your time will come and people will be scrolling through your feed wishing they were in your flip-flops (aha). Take everyday as it comes, learn to enjoy the simple pleasures of life and focus on doing the things you enjoy.

G







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