Last week I shared the afterglow of my guest speaking engagement of International Women’s Day about my writer’s life and Detective Rhiannon McVee, and it started off with me speaking about the woman of many hats, or it could also be said, the woman of many contrasts!
I left Merimbula after the event, did a super quick change and pack, and drove for three hours to spend the weekend in Canberra on the sidelines in a basketball stadium while also managing to fit in some incredible dining out and a stint of shopping, before getting in the car again to drive another nine hours that landed me in the outback.
For those of you from overseas, Australia is having an autumn heatwave and so I’ve spent the past week in a very hot, dry, dusty outback – a stark contrast to last week when I stood on stage in front of 130 people.
The reason I share this is because one thing I really wanted to get across in my speech is that yes, I have had an incredible life and done many amazing things, but it’s not all glamour and glitz.
Lately it’s getting more obvious that social media ‘influencers’ or ‘want to be influencers’, are trying to make everything look amazing, glamorous and beautiful. In the right light, with multiple takes, and the increasing number of filters and camera tricks – you can look glamorous in the garden, in the hot sweaty kitchen with your dirty apron after cooking for five hours, in the outback when it’s forty degrees Celsius or even going for a run (I don’t run but if I did, I know I would definitely not look glamorous!)
That is not how real life is, and so this week I celebrate the many contrasts of my life – from glam to not so glam!
Melissa x