Sunday, July 1st, 2012

Embracing life – Why I got in to social media!

I have always been a person that’s taking that which I do to it´s very end.
Starting a Facebook- and Twitter page in the last few days have been a big step for me. I felt the same thing when I started my blog about one and a half years ago.
For years I used to look down at people doing social media because the examples through which I saw the world, in my eyes, where doing things more for being able to talk about their feats and experiences afterwards – than for the simple, and “pure” act of living this experience we call life.
It might be true that many, nowadays, are doing things to be able to blog it, Facebook it or Twitter it, but before I wanted to be sure for my self that I was not doing the same. During my learning years in the school bench of the Chamonix mountains I made a point of not telling, not writing, not taking photos and not even really reflect on the things experienced in the mountains – simply because I wanted to prove to myself that the reason behind my own doing was “pure”.
I guess I wanted to be sure that I didn’t risk my life to be able to grow in the eyes of my surroundings. So from the most part of my life in the mountains I have no other documentation than my own memory. The romantic side of me likes that.
Then came a point when I started to feel like I wanted to share this fantastic reality with others and my point had already been made towards my self of the reason why I do what I do.
I guess I started my blog mainly for my mum and dad to read.
I never studied and got an education and I have never done much normal things and I understand that it must have been hard for them in their social life to explain what their run-away kid was up to.
While other parents could brag about their kids being doctors, diplomats, politicians or postmen I was still “playing” somewhere in France.
When I were gone it must have been like a black hole in the life of their son with occasional breaks where we had the possibility to spend time together. Those times where almost exclusively on hospitals or me at home with a broken leg, a rebuilt shoulder, a broken foot, ass, back, another leg, knee or neck.
The love of a parent must be stronger than anything, because seriously, I can’t logically understand how they could take it.
This picture is of course from the point of view I Imagined that they must have had, right?
Anyone empirically knowing the magic of the mountains knows that for every really dark moment, we have one hundred or maybe one thousand sublime ones. They might be painful, beautiful, filled with joy or simple exhaustion – but they still add up to a happiness beyond words, moments worth living for.
My plan with my blog was to show mum and dad all the magic and light in between the occasional darkness. Every time I write on my blog I remind myself that I’m writing for them.
Of course, I’m not going to be a hypocrite, social media is part of my profession and it´s feeding my ego that people wants to read what I have to say but I have simply accepted all this as part of my life.
If I’m going to be able to realize dreams and projects I can´t stand by my self, I need help, and to get help from others I need to play the game.
Creating a Facebook page and a Twitter is both scary and exciting. Coming from the mountain world where almost everyone dream about attention but where you have to act like you don’t, I know that social media is against the tradition. I have myself been there and I feel like it´s naive fear at play.
At the crossroad I have two ways to take. One is turning my back towards attention, people, media, opportunities and future dreams. The other one is leading the opposite directions; it is turning my back towards that kind of fears and is embracing life and the collective consciousness social media is on its way to become. 

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