#NoFilter

It’s so easy to be someone else. With the right selfie and a push of a button you can be whatever you want… or what you think everyone else wants. What’s difficult is not losing who you were made to be.

I remember some nights after I’d get home from work I’d throw my blazer, or dress, on top of the clothes pile that flooded my closet floor often exhausted. I would wash off my makeup, shower and sit down to watch the rerun of my newscast from earlier that night. I would make mental notes of everything that I wanted to change before the next show and then I would exhale and turn on Netflix.

Sometimes that breath was the first one I had taken all day. I could finally sit as myself before falling to sleep on the couch.

When I woke up… I would have to be “Bre Clark” again. Brit Nicole best describes what some of my days felt like in her song No Filter,

“And we look so amazing,
Who wouldn’t wanna be us?
But the smile that we’re faking
Fades when the camera’s off…“

It took a talk with one of my mentors for me to realize that our viewers didn’t want to watch “Bre Clark,” the personality, they wanted to see a real person. I realized that I was trying to work my career through a filter.

But the more filters we use, the harder it gets to not lose track of the real pieces that make us who we really are.

Loosing these pieces can lead to depression and a lost of self worth. The truth is many of us reporters were exhausted, under paid, and dealing with daily trauma without proper training. But from our social media posts and public appearances we looked as if we were content. I’m sure many of our viewers didn’t realize that many of us suffered with some form of depression or anxiety. That would make us imperfect and we would lose all credibility–or at least that’s what most of us believed.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
~Romans 12:2

Many people ask me how I became so successful so early in my career and my colleagues wanted to know how I generated so many story leads. The moment I stopped pretending to be a newscaster and began to live in who God said I was, my career took off. I began to simply share people’s stories for what they were.

My life and natural talents had purpose beyond my occupation. I connected with the community around me and fought to change people’s lives for the better. I didn’t have to be perfect, I just had to show up.

Live beyond the filters and allow the world to see who God really made you to be.

Photo by Andrej Nihil on Unsplash