As teachers, mothers, humans we can be filled with self-doubt. The constant bombardment of images, tweets, and posts doesn't help. We spend so much time comparing ourselves to the other baseball moms, the teacher down the hall, or the lady at the gym. The proverbial keeping up with the Joneses. An age-old adage that has stood the test of time and is even more pertinent today.
Kids today have it worse than when I was a kid... in terms of self-doubt and comparisons. When I was younger, there was no social media to constantly show me what I should wear, look like, act like, eat, and a million other things. These kids start seeing their mom's Facebook at an early age, or her have their own TikTok by fourth grade! They are presented with an ideal that is not attainable. When I was younger - ok I sound about 100 years old here! - we just had Cosmo or the teen magazines to look at. Those came out once a month and you could throw them in the trash. Social Media is a constant presence and is continually upping the comparison game.
Now, kids aren't the only ones who fall prey to this social media or even television/movie comparison. Adults fall victim to it too. How many times have you looked at a tweet celebrating something in the classroom and felt that your lessons aren't enough? Or looked at an Instagram post or a TikTok video and thought, "Wow, that teacher is so cool... I need to step up my game." This just leads to educators feeling less than in an already turbulent year.
Some self-doubt is ok... it makes us try harder, be better and pushes us out of our comfort zones. Too much self-doubt is not ok... especially in a time when people have been isolated because of the pandemic. What can we do about it? Celebrate who we are as people, accept yourself.... be YOU. There is only one of you in the entire world and I imagine that you are AWESOME. We also need to learn to celebrate others and their accomplishments. It is ok to not have Instagram worth anchor charts. Not everyone has perfect penmanship and can create all those awesome pictures and that's ok. But kudos to those that can.
So I challenge you today to find something that great about yourself. Embrace it... Be YOU... learn to love who you are!
If only everyone could share this perspective. How different the world would truly be. After a self-doubt filled day, your post was just the reminder I needed that 1.) I am lucky I didn't have to contend with Social Media growing up and 2.) I'm awesome. We need so much more of posts and people like you.
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