There's something
I don't understand. And, as I've begun frequenting more social sites
over the past year, I've seen more of it. It confuses me greatly. Why
are we told that we owe the world our happiness?
Happiness is the
default, it seems. It's what's expected of us. We're told to smile on
the bus, to make friendly conversation with the barista at the coffee
shop, to laugh politely at jokes being told. And when someone isn't
completely happy, outwardly, it makes us uncomfortable. Like we have
to fix whatever's wrong.
It just seems a
little odd to me. Don't humans have a full range of emotions? I was
under the impression that more of a pendulum that swung completely
between up and down. Not half a pendulum that only allowed for happy.
And yet for some reason it's completely taboo to show that other half
of the pendulum. We have to keep it hidden.
Some people are
better at hiding than others. I have a friend who appears so
completely ecstatic about everything all the time that I sometimes
wonder if she's human because really, how do you even achieve that?
I myself have a
bit more trouble keeping up the facade of good cheer. Not that I'm
never happy, of course, but I'm a bit more of a pessimist and I find
it hard to spend every waking minute with my lips stretched into a
smile. In many of my circles I've been labeled “moody” and
“depressed”.
Like, I'm sorry I
can't be happy and bubbly and bouncy all the time? That doesn't mean
that my little happy/sad pendulum is broken or that there's something
wrong with me. I just don't find the world hilariously fantastic
every second.
I guess what I'm
just trying to say is, it's okay to have emotions other than positive
ones. Not all negative emotions are Bad and have to be explained away
with “oh she's on her period”; “oh, he's just having one of
those days.” I mean yes, be pleasant. Don't be moody and grouchy
and rude. But you do not owe the world your happiness. You have an
entire pendulum of emotions and you are free to experience them. You
have the right to be sad sometimes.
