Right now across social media, it seems like everyone is participating in the the 10 year photo challenge. Basically, you take a photo of yourself from 10 years ago and compare it to yourself now. Normally I would have hopped on the bandwagon on something like this, but truth be told, I don’t want to remember much about what I looked like 10 years ago.
As I said in a previous post, 2019 for me is about looking forward at the good things ahead and not dwelling on problems from the past. And 10 years ago, is not a period of time I like thinking about. It was 10 years ago, I was 6 months postpartum, my husband had just left me for another woman and I was a total disaster.
I did a search through my photos from that time period and in all honesty, I couldn’t even find one of myself. There were lots of photos of my newborn son but none of me. And I am somewhat thankful of that. I don’t think anyone would have wanted to see photos of me with my puffy eyes from crying on almost a daily basis, the bags from the lack of sleep and the sheer looks of fear of not knowing how I was ever going to do this on my own.
When I look at photos of myself now 10 years later, sure I may not be at my ideal weight and my hair is still way to out of control but I see happiness. I may not have the house with the white picket fence life that we all dream of having but I have so much more. That once baby boy is growing up (although way too fast) into a great kid, I’ve got an amazing family and a wickedly supportive group of friends.
Each day, I seem to learn more about myself and what I can accomplish. I am stronger and wiser than I ever thought I would be and sometimes even shock myself about the things I have been able to do on my own. I can tell you that 10 years ago, I definitely did not feel that way about myself or my life.
So don’t get me wrong, I love seeing how much 10 years can make a difference for people, I just don’t choose to participate.
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