After snapping and posting for five days straight, I learned a few things about my followers and myself. It was difficult to take a few moments out of my hectic lifestyle to post something remotely creative or interesting. Unfortunately, I didn’t become Instagram famous overnight. I’ll have to put in some more work into designing my feed for that goal to happen. Now my five-day challenge is forever part of my Instagram feed, live for everyone to see.

My Instagram is rather personal, my account is on private and I mostly post mirror selfies (what can I say, I love my outfits). Almost all of my followers are people I have gone to school with or genuinely know. It’s safe to say, that those who follow me only get to see what I look like and what are some cool things happening in my life. This challenge pushed me out of my social media comfort zone and forced me to share content that was appealing to me.

Like always, I spend a good amount of time making the proper edits to my photo. Everything has to be good, the lighting, the size, the shadows, and the filter have to be perfect for my feed. But this time I learned that by editing my photo even in the slightest way, it was no longer my photo. Yes, the edits may have added to my picturesque shot of the beach and hid my breakouts in selfies but those photos were no longer real. This whole time I realized that I had been sharing content that had been retouched and almost made to look better than the original photo.

Most of the time I think about my followers before I post a pic and I worry if they would even bother to like or comment on my photo. I’ve learned that this is a very unrealistic “worry.” If I claim to have a personal Instagram, it should be just that. I’ve learned to post pictures that are true to my life and they make me genuinely happy to share with everyone. It’s a bummer to get fewer likes on a photo and even lose followers, but social media can be fun and you should enjoy sharing.

Let’s be real, we all dream of becoming Insta-famous but the amount of work that must go into it is scary. I only posted for five days straight and I immediately needed a break. I’m not saying this because I’m lazy and can’t take a simple photo and hit the post button. The hardest part is experiencing something special enough to photograph it. On days in which I stayed home and watched Netflix all day it was difficult to create content and I wound up posting boring pictures that I personally didn’t even like. I now have a newfound respect for those who have created careers by posting daily on Instagram.

A weekly challenge is always healthy. You’ll come out with new lessons and a greater appreciation for life. My biggest takeaways after posting for five days straight were to worry less about my followers, always be secure about myself, and find creativity everywhere. I can truly say that this experience has helped me boost my Instagram confidence and has helped me enjoy photographing my experiences and breathtaking views as opposed to my typical mirror selfies.