When Sam and I were visiting Uluru (Ayers Rock) I joked to him that I had forgotten my white dress. He had no idea what I meant by that, then as he was scrolling through instagram later it clicked; majority of influencers posing at Uluru were wearing a white dress. WHERE IS THE ORIGINALITY. Okay before I keep going I want to say this does not come from a negative place, the girls wearing the white dresses and their photos are beautiful. Heck if I had a white dress I would have worn it, I am not saying I’m original or better, I just feel like it is hard to find authenticity in Instagram and it is even harder to not compare ourselves and our lives to the ones we see on social media. This has been playing on my mind a lot lately because while I think I’m posting beautiful pictures, I also compare myself sometimes to the million other couples doing van life visiting the same places as Sam and I. Actually, if you search the locations we have been too, you’d see that so many pictures all look the same. This is kinda funny but I posted an instagram video of Mataranka – the super clear blue hot springs with the palm trees in the background. Few people messaged saying how perfect it was… well I didn’t take a video of the 80 people swimming next to me making us leave pretty quickly. Another good example is the photo of Sam and I kissing in front of Uluru. Not pictured is the five hundred flies swarming over us while enjoying the sunset (that didn’t stop us from loving our time). I love social media, but I hate it too. My best friend once said to me ‘I hate how the pictures I love the most, usually of scenery or my photography don’t get as many likes, but if I post a picture of myself its different.’ It was a long time ago and it had nothing to do with wanting likes but Nicole is into photography and we were agreeing that half of the time photos you’re pretty passionate about don’t get the same attention as bikini shots. Nicole, this is a test to see if you read my blog by the way…. just kidding, It’s just a conversation I often think about. I took a picture during a sunrise hike at Ormiston Gorge that after doing a few edits on it, I absolutely loved the shot. I’m a beginner at photography and editing, but it is a photo that reminds me of a beautiful morning and that I just like in general. I didn’t post it to social media because embarrassingly enough I just figured it wouldn’t get much attention. Wow I hated sharing that but its true. I want to work on sharing pictures I am proud of more.

A lot of my friends lately have messaged me to tell me how jealous they are of my travels or how they are living vicariously through them. THAT IS AWESOME. THANK YOU FRIENDS. But what I post on social media is not everything that actually goes on day to day. Obviously I want to document the best parts, its nearly like curating a perfect adventure travel life with my perfect boyfriend and our perfect relationship. But, hellooooo we are human. I love my boyfriend to pieces, he’s an incredible human being, but our relationship is not perfect (who’s relationship is though right?). It is just so easy to compare ourselves to other people and their relationships because of what they post and think, yep they must have it perfect. Just a friendly reminder that the best way to be authentic, is to be completely and truly yourself. Hard, I know.

So if you managed to read through all that, thank you. I realise I am probably ranting rather than saying anything helpful but if anyone’s ever feeling the same, finding themselves comparing to others I’d love to have a chat about it. Self love is cool. I’m working on it, are you?