I think the pandemic has made us way more appreciative of the simple things. Now, more than ever, folk are waking up to the false images created by the media. Yet, for so long, we accepted glamourised media. Hell, we even paid for it! In more ways than one. We still do buy into false media to an extent, but folks are becoming way more streetwise. Folk are starting to see behind the falsities of the perfected Instagram shoot. This is such a good thing. Real-life is exactly that. Real. life.
At The (real-life) Aye Life, we have built up a following of over 64,000 people, and I love that cause we are painfully real. Folks often tell us that they like us cause we say it as it is. I pride myself in having built something genuine. I don’t have to pose for social media, I hardly ever wear makeup and I’m usually soaking wet (due to my love of wild swims, mind out of the gutter). But getting here was a bumpy road.
What is Being Yourself?
I didn’t know what I was for so long. Aye, I knew I was a human. But that was about it. I was permanently chasing an identity. This was impossible because I never knew what identity I was chasing. Should I be this? Should I be that? Am I supposed to look like them? Am I supposed to dress like her? Endless questioning.
It might have taken me over 28 years, but I finally made my own identity; a weird and wild, slightly-funny, out-of-the-box aye-dentity. But I fought with myself for far too long before that. And we are all guilty of doing that. Media says I should be one way, Instagram says I should be another. Imagine what it would be like if you could switch off every intruding opinion and just get to know yourself.
Why Now is the TimeÂ
It’s getting Wintery out there. Life has changed. Things that were just normal have become terribly important and way more appreciated. As a human race, we are getting grateful. We’ve learned that we miss hugging our family, that we miss seeing our friends, and that we miss doing exactly what we want when we want. So what do we do with all this extra time? The time where we used to socialise and do “normal” things.
Perhaps this is the time to look within? To find who we are and what we want. We could want the world, and we could want absolutely nothing. Each is fine. But for once, we are being handed an opportunity by the world to get to know ourselves. Do the things we’ve wanted to do. Learn to knit, read a book, do more cooking, sit on our backsides are RELAX baby. I think that the things that keep us out of the darkness this Winter will be the things that make us.
We did this 5 years ago in a particularly dark time for us, it resulted in The Aye Life and The Aye Agency. It resulted in us never going back out to work. It gave us a whole new riveting lifestyle. And all because we were open to something new. All because we had time, in the darkness, to explore ourselves. Another mind out of the gutter moment.
If You can’t Love Yourself
Like RuPaul says; “if you can’t love yourself, how the hell are you gonna love somebody else?” And this is far too true. Especially now. We have a good few pals on our social media (they’ve gone past the point of being just followers, they’re like long lost friends), who are checking out dating sites at the moment to meet real-life Jamie Frasers’, but to use a Scottish word, are “scunnered” with everything going on at the moment. So if you are one of our wee pals, take this time to do some self-care or something you’ve always said you’ll do when you have time. How you’re feeling will definitely help attract what you want.
As for me
As for me and Aye 2.0, we are spending all of our time building Aye, getting our house sorted out for our big plans next year, and having endless date nights with Halloween films and cocktails of our own creation. Speaking of which (or witch), I’m away to watch Hocus Pocus for the first time ever! I know right, where have I been?!
Take this time to look after you, V x
