Why You Won’t Be Seeing my 2016 #FacebookYearinReview

Thank you Facebook for compiling all my photos into a groovy little video (with music)!

I truly appreciate the technological wizardry that went into the programming. And I am thankful to all my friends who shared their 2016 recaps with me. I’ll even admit that watching my “personalized” video brought back many sweet moments of the year (especially the birth of my first granddaughter).

I’m not being all Scrooge-y or Grinch-y this holiday season. In fact, I spent a few hours this morning counting my blessings and distilling each list down to 7 key things and 7 main resolutions. (Watch this space for the big reveal).

But I realized as I was watching my video that it’s a lot like the old Christmas letters people used to write by hand and send out to their families. “Johnny got straight A’s and Mary is going steady with the captain of the football team. I’ve been busy making homemade apple pies and volunteering at the church. Gramps is getting old, but he’s so sweet and funny.” In other words, none of the really heinous things that anyone said or did or thought during the year were part of that end-of-year recap.

My Facebook video was a mash-up of just those happy moments I chose to share with the public. The tears, the heartbreak, the mistakes, the miscalculations, the people I counted as “friends” who turned out not to be (or worse!),  the bad hair days and the moments when I had kale stuck in my teeth simply vanished.

Again, don’t get me wrong. I LOVE positivity. I just wrote a post about looking forward rather than looking backward. I wish Santa (or my tribe’s equivalent) would bring me a time machine and a big eraser this year so I could obliterate the mistakes I made and the people I inadvertently hurt.  I wish that blooper and outtake reel existed. I would just hit rewind — like wiping the memory of the extra laptop I just gifted to someone who needed it.

I’m scripting my 2017 (to the extent that I can control it). I learned from my mistakes and look forward. Every year is a great year because I get wiser, kinder, and more forgiving.

So, I chose not to post my #FacebookYearinReview. It was my sugar coated digital version of the year that was. Real life is more complex. The only soundtrack that plays the one we score in our heads and souls.

P.S. LinkedIn seems to be getting a little funky these days too…lots of friend requests from strangers…announcements of work anniversaries and birthdays…cold call e-mails. I might have to hang out IRL for a while. Not a bad thought, especially when you hear about my big news for 2017!