The woman on the left is me. I think putting goggles on my face like that is hilarious, and I have a special voice for it too. Duh! The woman on the right is also me, and agrees with that... but today she is going to be the basis of 'other me', one of the interesting topics posed by Galenkp this week for the #weekend-engagement!
Other Me
Alternative Grindan is smooth, the defining quality of the thing I am not. She doesn't have a 'borby' tattoo, or a collection of bones probably. She looks more like the photo above than me most days. That's the most makeup I've ever worn in my life, it was the day of my wedding. I have no idea how to achieve that. Contouring? Eeeek!
Other me though? She gives out advice like "It's all in blending, girl!" and she genuinely feels it is helpful to non-makeup lovers. She's not a frumpy punk girl, ew honey. No, she doesn't think much of people like real me, who wear leggings and put their hair in messy buns.
"It's not body shaming, it's about presentation!" Other Grindan would argue, who died and made her queen? She's fairly serious, and a lot of it is goal driven.
She's normal, you take her places and the worst thing you worry about is that she may drop her phone in the toilet while drunk. She has to instagram everything, you know.
Yeah, other Grindan isn't anxious. She likes social media, she feels seen there or something? Selfies and 'deep quotes'? That is her jam.
The first thing she does when the waiter leaves the table at a restaurant is photograph her food. There is a reason too! She's applied herself to social media marketing, she gets paid for these photos. Drinks with the girls? That's going on 6 apps and earning her BANK.
Other Grindan is a better networker. She is focused on achieving her goals in an almost ruthless way. She likes the idea of getting married and having kids someday in conversation, but secretly does not want a family at all. Appearing cold is bad marketing though...
She can't say that she just wants to travel and have fun, do some good along the way. That sounds girlish, and she avoids sounding that way at all times. She wants to go to the mountains and hike, much like real me, but she doesn't very often. It hurts her to slow down.
Whereas I have basically stopped taking myself seriously in day-to-day interactions, she maintains a professional sort of veneer at all times. Work hard play hard she says, but she doesn't really play. She wakes up and does yoga followed by palates every other day, and jogs on the rest.
She drinks celery juice because she heard it will make her stop aging, but it just makes her run to the bathroom. She thinks veganism is silly, but does keto. She has more opinions than me, and sticks to them the way I do to my small few. I've said a lot of things that may make you think she isn't cool.
She does care about people though, I cannot imagine a version of 'me' that doesn't. I have almost detrimental empathy, and I'm sure she isn't much different. She probably hopes that she can make the world a better place too. Maybe she does it by volunteering at an animal shelter instead of the soup kitchen, but it counts. She has her own sort of empathy, and I don't think it's any better or worse than mine. She is just from a different world, one where different things called to her.
So who is the better Grindan? The one that other people like the most, the one that folks find the most attractive? Objectively, neither.
I used to really wish I was other Grindan though, like deeply. I wanted to be more easily digestible, trendier, more socially apt. I have 2 cousins who are models, who have this type of personality. It feels like the world is made for them sometimes, and in these moments I imagine...
Then I remember 'those girls' have struggles too. The grass is always greener on the other side, and it's easy for me to disseminate their existence and say that it's easier or more enjoyable than mine. It's quick for me to think that what I have isn't the 'right' thing to have.
There's a lot of marketing put into making people feel that way, and it's effective. So, in full self-affirming rebellion against that, I am the best Grindan. This is who I am, and I accept me. I hope we all find our way to that, because the best 'you' is the one who is happy here and now. Finding that is possible, being 'other you' probably isn't. So cheers to being you!
