When we get our next round of family photos taken, I’m asking the photographer to do something different: take a picture of me.
Yes, it sounds so simple, but it hasn’t been done. And it’s been bothering me.
I recently started a new job. (Side not: That seems to be a running trend with me; have a baby, wait 9 months, then start a new job because there aren’t enough life changes going on already – picture me rolling my eyes right about now…)
Anyway, in the course of updating my LinkedIn page, and setting up my new company email, I realized something had to give.
My LinkedIn photo is over 10 years old – from back when we teachers used to get yearbook photos taken each August.
I had to dig back a year and a half to find an acceptable picture of just me to use for my company email.
Every single other picture on my phone is either:
A) disheveled bed-head mom
B) mom with one or both kids
C) rare date-night photo with husband
I love my family. I do – more than anything. Yet if a picture tells a story, the sum total of my pictures from the last few years sends a powerful message that my identity is primarily that of mother and wife.
While I’m mostly ok with this, I think I need to make some effort to also say, “Hey look at me, being my awesome self!”
Maybe that starts with a couple pictures. Ones where I look halfway put together, sans kids, sans husband.
And then we can take the two-dozen photos of me loving on all of them!
