Be a More Natural You

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Before leaving Arkansas to come home for the summer, I made a giant list of things I wanted to accomplish over the summer. Some things were small like getting an oil change, but other things were big like finding a place to live and picking my classes for the fall semester. Most of all, I had a lot of things I thought I absolutely “needed” to do for my blog to be a good blogger.

I kind of got it in my head that this would be my last summer to fully devote to blogging. I’m planning on applying to internship programs throughout this next school year in the hopes of having one next summer and then the summer after that I’ll be *gulp* graduating and will hopefully be off to work a job.

Like I’ve said before, I never intend to stop blogging, but as someone who works a flexible internship from the comfort of my own home, I put a lot of pressure on myself to really “push myself” this summer.

And you know what? I think I crossed about two things off that list. Eventually, my computer started quitting on me in terms of space and memory, so I had to wipe it clean, spend 70 bucks on an external hard-drive, and the sticky note on my desktop screen that held my long list of to-dos was deleted.

A lot of the things I had put on the list really weren’t “me”. In fact, the more I thought about it, they would just take away from the personality my blog has. I love that this blog is growing into a business and it makes me so happy that where I am now is where I had hoped I would be when I started. However, that doesn’t mean I (or you – if you have a blog) ever need to compromise who I am and what the “natural” me is to achieve any of my goals.

If you don’t want to ever switch to Wordpress, don’t. If you don’t really care about growing you email list to 3,000 subscribers then don’t lose sleep over it. If it doesn’t feel very “you” to start a Youtube channel or a podcast, don’t worry about putting it on your list of things you want to accomplish.

I think the turning point for me was when I had a brand new, clean hard drive. I moved the pictures I really cared about over to external storage and I just had a few important documents living on my computer. There was no “here’s how to be a great blogger” to-do list haunting me each time I logged on to my desktop, and I felt ready to focus on being a more natural me.

I’ve really enjoyed talking to you guys on Instagram more – I like sharing my thoughts and feelings even when it comes out a bit sappy or whiney. It’s me and I like feeling like there are real people out there listening to real issues and real thoughts and real emotions.

I would challenge you to be a more natural you. Just think of one way in your life that you’re trying to live by how other’s say you should. Maybe you’ve been trying to wing you eyeliner for the past 2 years because that’s what all the cool Instagram people out there do, but you secretly hate the extra 7 minutes it adds to your makeup routine. Maybe you’ve been stressing out over being the person who can “do it all” at work and it would be better for you to just focus on doing what you’re assigned and doing it well. Maybe you prefer to stay in on a Friday night and watch a movie you’ve seen 37 times with your dog. Just do that!

Just for giggles, I wrote a list of things that make me feel like I’m the most “natural” version of myself when I do them:

-Going to bed at 9:30pm even when my house is full of people staying up and having fun

-Wearing the same outfit two days in a row because the only people who will know are my friends on Snapchat and the guy at the drive thru at Chickfila

-Posting a picture on Instagram with a loooong caption about something I’m passionate about, knowing most people might scroll past and that’s ok

-Not wearing makeup for 4 days straight and then finally only putting makeup on to take an Instagram picture

-Going over to my boyfriend’s 3 days in a row just to watch HGTV and talk about my day with him

-Reading for fun in public where people walk by and probably assume I’m studying for a very important class, but really I’m just reading a book I’ve read 6 times and memorizing my favorite paragraphs

-Putting on a hair mask and a face mask at the same time and then walking around the house in a giant t-shirt

-Being weirdly obsessed with dogs. As you can tell.

I got the inspiration to write this post when my friends at Hask told me about their new additions to their essential oils collection and sent them over. I’ve written about Hask a couple times before since they are my favorite hair care brand and my favorite people to partner with on Cristina Was Here. I’ve shared about natural beauty products and natural beach waves, but I wanted to talk about being a more natural you.

By the way – the chia seed oil and superfruit shampoo & conditioner….HOLY. MOLY. My hair is so soft and so voluminous! And they both smell quite amazing 🙂 You can find them at Ulta!

So back to being a natural you….

It’s something that I think we lose touch of today. I’m guilty of sitting on social media for several hours a day and saying “I want my hair like hers”, “I want her closet”, “I wish my blog had that layout”, and “Man, maybe I should really try to go out sometime and not watch Netflix again on Saturday night”, but then I remember that I just wouldn’t be me if I let all that get to me.