Welcome to Let's Share Our Real Lives. I'm Dani Graham and this is my tiny corner of the internet where honest storytelling, unabashed truth seeking, and real life lives - a little bit of everything from a 30-something mom with a lot to say.
First things first....you might be wondering why "Let's Share Our Real Lives"? What does it really mean and why is it the name of this newsletter?
To answer that, we need to explore the current state of our lives. It is no secret we live in a time where real life is often masked by social media filters. People show us what they choose to show, and in turn, we often just see the happy times and big life events. This is not limited to social media - this happens in real life too. Small talk masks grief, white lies say "everything's fine", when actually, everything is not fine. What we don't often see or read or hear about are the hard times, the sad times, and the ugly-cry-in-the-shower times.
So, in early 2019 I found myself struggling with this. Why don’t we always share what’s really going on with even our closest friends and family and what’s stopping us? I don’t know the answer yet, but after a lot of self-exploration and come-to-Jesus moments, I boiled down my truths to two key tenets:
1. I find joy in writing about real life experiences.
2. I love sharing those experiences with others who resonate with them.
"Let's Share Our Real Lives" is me opening myself up to vulnerability, fear, judgment and trust. I hope by sharing my real life experiences with the world, you will feel validated to share yours as well. I want to build a community of people who are unafraid to share their lives - the good, bad, and ugly, - as openly and as fearlessly as I will be sharing here.
Here's a small sampling of what you can expect to receive from me every Friday:
Experiences with mental health issues and depression
Notes about love and marriage (coming up on five years!)
Silly stories about toddler antics
Heart wrenching tales of motherhood
Thoughts about grief and how it impacts our lives
What it's like to be a millennial woman in 2019
Musings about our culture's obsession with social media (guilty)
etc. etc. etc.!
You might think this list is a bit all over the place, but hey, that's what real life is, right? I'm not trying to stick myself into a box of writing about just one topic because our lives are not just one faceted.
And finally, in case you randomly subscribed to a perfect internet stranger's newsletter, here's a little about me:
I'm a 31-year-old mother, married and living in the northern suburbs of Philadelphia. I work a full-time day job as a real estate project manager, but I'm also pursuing a little side hustle as a freelance writer which I've done on and off for the last four years. I've recently written about depression in a piece called "The Space" (read it here) and I encourage you to please read that more than once - that's how strongly I feel about the message. I've also written extensively about mental health issues around motherhood for Scary Mommy (read those here) and about outdoor activities around Philadelphia for RootsRated.
Thank you for subscribing to Let's Share Our Real Lives. I can't wait to share my life with you!
xoxo,
Dani