While we like to believe that all of the marvelous pictures we stumble upon on Instagram are natural, candid, and real, the truth is most of them take more time to put together than the amount of time it takes you to down your grande iced skinny vanilla latte. I’m looking at you, hashtag basic white girl.

Whether you utilize Instagram this way or not, it has become a work of art for many people. It truly is an amazing creative outlet. But, in the midst of all that, no work of art is completed in a second.

To further prove my point, today I’m coming clean. I want my social media accounts to be a true reflection of who I really am. My bio warns followers of my sarcastic captions, but in case that’s not enough, here’s the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth behind a few of my Instagram (@halee_s if you're intrigued).

Enjoy, laugh, cringe, whatever.

1. The Sunny Selfie

Wow check this out! The lighting is perfect and I look like I’m happy and loving summer. But, what actually happened here? I was sitting at my brother’s baseball game and I was ridiculously bored. So bored in fact, that I wasn’t even looking at my phone anymore, but rather literally staring at the ground. Here, I discovered little flowers. Actually, no, they weren’t even flowers, they were weeds. So I put them in my hair and then made my mom photograph me. I would not be jealous of me in this instance if I were you.

2. The Scrabble Shot

My boyfriend and I are so cute: we spend our summer days playing Scrabble! What’s better than that? Umm...a lot of things. OK, truthfully I was willingly playing Scrabble, but the only reason I took this picture was for KJP’s insta-competition (#showyourropes)! I purposefully made that cup of coffee to add to the aesthetics and the shot didn’t even get reposted. I also lost the game. Bummer.

3. The Candid BFFs

OK, yeah I’m super obsessed with this picture. How did we obtain such a perfect shot you may ask? The photobooth at Junior Mom’s Weekend. Yeah, this was set up for girls to take pictures with their moms and we jumped in for a group shot. Granted, it was at the end of the night, and also for the record, I did get in there with my mom, but this picture is cute too. Even if we are fake laughing.

4. The Yes, I Have A Boyfriend Pic

This was the last night Bryson and I got to spend together over Christmas break. Quickly, I realized that we had gone two weeks without taking a cute picture to Instagram and that was simply unacceptable. How would people know that we actually spent time together if I didn’t post anything?! So, self-timer became our best friend. My phone was literally set up against the TV and “The Office” provided some great lighting. I look like I’m falling off the couch because I barely made it there before the flash went off. I don’t even like this picture very much, but like I said, I had to post something.

So, these are all ridiculous stories behind various pictures and I didn’t even factor in the amount of time it took to pick an edit and add a caption. You may laugh at me and think it’s all absolutely ridiculous, but frankly, I think it’s a lot of fun. I’m the designated picture editor of my friend group and I love coming up with captions. If you ever need help with an Instagram, call me. But, just as a warning, I may give you a sarcastic response.