Childhood dreams and measuring happiness

In today's society we are surrounded with so much technology and vast consumerism,  it's hard to escape the pressures from social media and corporate advertising. We are bombarded with so much media content day and night,  and whether it's a need to buy the latest and best television for your home or to prove ourselves to others on social media it can be hard to just live life in the moment and allow the little things to make us happy. It's too easy to put a glowy filter on every photo,  tag every friend, anything as long as everyone can see that you are having a great time and living the life.

Obviously for thr kids of today the world is a different place, even for people of my generation (I'm almost 21) the world we grew up in was a rapidly changing environment from those before us. Kids grow up too quickly, childhood innocence doesn't last anymore. But it's nice to think back about the way I saw the world as a child, my hopes,  dreams and aspirations.  The sky was the limit then, anything was possible.

One of the only childhood photos I have of myself. Haha!

I do think that if my young self could see the woman I have become, she would like what she saw. I grew into my teens having a bit of a thing about making myself more feminine and never quite feeling girlish enough. I never much liked my birth name (Alex) because people would assume from just paper that I was a boy, and on the discovery that I was in fact female they would then say things like "well obviously your full name must be Alexandra. Its not JUST Alex?" I hated that. Plus the fact that Alex is a very common name and when I would hear someone call my name I would then hear "not YOU, the other Alex." So when some members of my family started calling me Lexi I stuck to it and it's now the name I go by. I suppose thats one good thing about becoming an adult;  if you don't like something about your life, you have to power to change it.

When I was really little I wanted to be a princess or a mermaid, like most girls that age. I can say after having had red, blue, purple and now green hair that mermaid status has been achieved!

My own little family. 

And as you can see above, I now have my own family unit. That was another "all I want when I grow up" thing. Maybe my aspirations were never huge, but as an only child coming from a single parent family I just wanted to have babies of my own with a father who would always be there for them.

I think what I am trying to say with this post, is that sometimes in life it helps to look at the smaller picture. Things may not be going completely swimmingly for me just now, but if I look at my life from the point of view of my inner child, its alright.