Hello
My name is Niki. Some quick facts about me. I live in New Zealand. Have lived in Northern California for three years. In my thirties. Studied psychology. I enjoy procrastinating by wasting time on the internet and watching science fiction tv shows. Love the beach and sweet food. I like wearing red dresses, apparently. And I have finally made up my mind to start a blog in the big scary world of the web.
The Story of the Red Dress
If you were to put on a red dress and head out into the world, you would surely stand out. People would see you in the corner of their eye and be drawn to your direction. You would be different from those around you. It would be like making an entrance everywhere you go.
Not many women wear red dresses. Not many people wear bright bold colours in public. It’s as if we don’t want to make an entrance. We don’t want to stand out and be seen. We all would rather be visual wallflowers blending into the background. Heaven forbid we would be too much, too out there. So we choose the black dress, or the grey, or the beige.
How terrifying it is to be seen, to show up. We’d rather hide if we were honest. Hide behind our masks, our jobs, our relationships, our carefully manicured self that we present to the world. Would people really love us let alone tolerate us if they saw us for who we really are? That’s the big question we all ask ourselves isn’t it? Is who I am enough to be loved, accepted by others? I don’t have a definitive answer to that question. Because the truth is some people will love you and some people won’t. And the scary thing is we don’t always know who will fulfill each role when we start down the road. One thing we all know for sure though; there be trolls out there! Yes there are trolls. But there are also unicorns and other pretty things and places that you will never see if you keep hiding in the place where you are.
But what would it be like to allow ourselves to seen for who we are?
Wearing the red dress is a metaphor. (This is not a fashion blog) When you wear the red dress, you are choosing to be seen, to be heard. You are choosing to have a voice. You are choosing to be vulnerable and authentic. You are choosing to be you. You have no guarantees that everyone will respond the way you would like. That’s the risk of being real. This requires vulnerability. This requires courage.
Will you do it?
Will you put on the red dress and make your entrance into the world?
My name is Niki. And I am choosing to wear the red dress.