insta-journey

 I've been on instagram for about 10 years. WOW. I didn't even realize it had been a platform that long.

Anyway, so I just spent some time scrolling through my own instagram account, and it's been something of a journey for me. It is SO fascinating to see the transformation that has occurred and I'm curious if twitter will end up being similar too when I come back and look at it one day. 

My journey began on instagram with zero purpose. My very first picture was of a milkshake that I was drinking and the cup says "find happiness within", my second picture is of a dvd of Doctor Who Season 6 pt. 1 that I downloaded off of my brothers laptop and decorated in the theme. Any Doctor Who fans out there? This was one of my favorite seasons, Matt Smith, bowties, Amy and Rory <3 

Looking a little bit further you can just see the randomness in which I posted - people, food, environment, etc. I just posted whatever struck my fancy that day.. and there isn't anything wrong with posting like this, but it's clearly just a personal log of life that is happening. Sometimes I would remember to make a post, sometimes I wouldn't, instagram wasn't the end all be all place for sharing important things. Pictures of lattes didn't ever go away, I can always appreciate a well done latte! But now, you would probably see it in my stories instead of on my feed. As with most of these kinds of posts..the day to day lives in the stories on instagram. 

 A little bit later in my feed, I used instagram to blog my travels through Europe. It was a wonderful way to share with my family that I was safe, show them what I was getting to see everyday, and keep a record of my favorite moments. Even now looking back, I am just reminded of how wonderful an opportunity it was to spend 8 weeks abroad, first at the Irish Aerial Dance Festival in Letterkenny, Ireland, then through Paris, a stop in Germany, a few stops in Austria, and ending with three weeks at Dance Italia in Lucca, Italy. 

Then I can see that I graduated college, got married, got a dog, went skydiving, had so many great times with friends, and moved forward in my career as a professional dancer/aerialist. In this stage of my insta-journey my posts were a tiny bit more curated to be a showcase of the best moments or the celebration of someone for their birthday. This really shows me the beginning of only seeing the good stuff online and the rise of social media comparison.  

The next bit is me trying/not really trying to become something instafamous by posting videos of me doing aerial. Trying to figure out what my place is on this platform and if there is any monetary value that I can build by being active in this community... more on this later in another blog post. But then, we decided it was time to have a baby and EVERYTHING changed.  I became that mom that only posts pictures of their baby. Of course, only the beautiful moments, because no one is supposed to share the hard moments. (more on THIS in another post too!) 

Now, I do aerial regularly, have two kids, and I'm kind of back to posting what I want when I want, but it's mostly my beautiful kids and the things around me that inspire me. I spend a lot more time in instagram stories, and I actually look at stories much more than the actual instagram feed these days. This is me and my little one, Everest, today at the end of a group zoom call for my other ISLT class. 

I'm not sure why I decided to post about this today, but I've got a lot of experience with instagram and I am intrigued in what other people have experienced on their insta-journey. Are you surprised by what you used to post? Have you been consistent the entire time? Do you want to know anything else about the platform? I'd love to help!