How to Get People to Respect Your Privacy [Bloggin’ on the ETC]

The other week while I was in St. Louis, my sister blurted out something while out to dinner with family, regarding some career news that I did not want other people to know yet, for various reasons. I was shocked.

Most of you don’t get why I was shocked. Most of you have stories upon stories of people (let’s keep it real here — usually family members) telling other people stuff that you didn’t want them to know.

But you have to understand, this hasn’t happened to me in years — literally years. I seriously can’t remember an instance where this has happened to me since I started keeping a blog.

This, I thought, as I shushed her and quickly tried to change the subject, is how most people must feel. Like they have private lives that should be respected.

I mean, many of you know about my struggles with IVF, my two miscarriages, my bi-monthly therapy sessions, my feelings about interracial relationships, religion, and a bunch of other happy and not so happy stuff, because I blog about it. My IRL friends are privy to even more personal details. I’m pretty comfortable with sharing, often to the point of oversharing. But after my sister blabbed this secret to my family, I realized the reason I was so comfortable having no privacy is because I actually have a lot of it.

Strangely enough, the nicest thing about being an over sharer is that no one ever asks you to share. They mostly assume that I already have, which makes it ridiculously easy to keep secrets. The only reason it’s stopped being easy is because I’m not blogging as much or as personally as I used to.

So consider this. If you really want people to respect your privacy and not ask you nosy or offensive questions, tell them just about everything constantly.